NoVA Space No Longer Sought For Unaccompanied Immigrant Kids

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The federal government is no longer looking at Northern Virginia for space to house unaccompanied immigrant children.

Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson shared an email sent by the Department of Health and Human Services. The email states that the department's Office of Refugee Resettlement was no longer looking for vacant properties in Northern Virginia, as well as Atlanta, central Florida and Los Angeles. The department continues to seek space in Texas and Arizona for permanent shelters, aiming to reduce reliance on temporary facilities. The email says the change will "better suit the current needs of the [unaccompanied alien children] program."

The General Services Administration posted a notice seeking leased space for a shelter on behalf of the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement in August. The notice said the space would house about 440 unaccompanied children, defined as children "age 17 and under who are unaccompanied by parents or other legal guardians and who have no lawful immigration status in the United States (unaccompanied alien children) and apprehended by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security." Under these circumstances, children are transferred to the custody and care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Jurisdictions in the search area included Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County, and the cities and towns of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Herndon, Vienna and Manassas.

Wilson and other Northern Virginia leaders had spoken out against the search for shelter space in the area. After the latest update from HHS, Wilson told WTOP the city would have wanted to work with the federal government to ensure the children were treated properly.

The call for space for permanent facilities came after HHS announced unaccompanied children were moved from the Homestead, Florida, temporary facility. Critics had described the facility as a prison camp, but federal officials say the HHS facilities should be called shelters rather than detention centers, The shelters are different from the detention centers U.S. Customs and Border Protection runs near the U.S.-Mexico border.