Texas Tent City Housing 2,500 Migrant Children Is Said to Close in January

Migrant children, most from Central America, have been housed in a tent city in Tornillo, Tex., near the Mexican border. The facility, which opened in June, is preparing to close next month. [Photo: Mike Blake / Reuters]

A tent city in the Texas desert that came to symbolize the mass detention of migrant children by the Trump administration will most likely be closed within weeks.

An official with BCFS, the shelter operator that has been running the encampment in Tornillo, Tex., said late Sunday that the expectation was that by Jan. 15, all 2,500 children would be on their way to a parent or sponsor in the United States.

“By mid-January, the children should be all released,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak with the news media and spoke on condition of anonymity. “We’re not extending our contract with the government.”

Miriam Jordan, reporting for The New York Times, reports that the migrant detention camp in Tornillo, Texas — currently housing thousands of migrant children who were forcibly separated from their parents — will close in the coming weeks.