AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas child welfare officials said Wednesday that they received three reports alleging abuse and neglect at a San Antonio coliseum that is holding more than 1,600 immigrant teenagers who crossed the southern border.
It is the first time state officials announced that they are investigating such allegations at one of the emergency facilities the U.S. government has quickly set up in Texas amid a sharp increase in crossings of unaccompanied youths. A county official who also volunteers at the San Antonio site, the Freeman Coliseum, said the nature of the allegations does not align with what she has seen in multiple visits there.
Child welfare officials would not reveal details about who made the allegations, but Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said his understanding was that they came from someone who had been inside the facility. One of the allegations includes sexual abuse, but no details were provided.
Other allegations include insufficient staffing, children not eating and those who tested positive for covid-19 not being separated from the crowds, Abbott said at a news conference that he quickly arranged outside the facility Wednesday evening. For weeks, Abbott has joined Republicans in criticizing the Biden administration for its handling of the migration challenge at the southern border.
"This facility should shut down immediately. The children should be moved to better-staffed and better-secured locations," Abbott said.
Bexar County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores, who has been inside the facility as both an elected official and a volunteer, said the teenagers are offered three meals and two snacks a day, and anyone who tests positive for covid-19 is put in a separate area far from other children. She toured the facility with Abbott after his news conference and said he asked staffers questions that included covid-19 testing protocols.
"I wish the governor had done his tour before the press conference when he politicized children," said Clay-Flores, a Democrat.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it could not comment on specific cases but "has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment and inappropriate sexual behavior."
The allegations were received by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Spokesman Patrick Crimmins said he did not know if the state had received other abuse or neglect allegations at emergency sites for migrant youths in Texas.
Health and Human Services has rushed to open large sites to house migrant children across the Southwest amid a sharp increase in crossings of unaccompanied youths at the southern border. The agency's lack of capacity as border crossings were rising at the start of the Biden administration has led to children sometimes waiting for weeks in crowded and unsuitable Border Patrol facilities.