HOUSTON (AP) – Federal immigration officials say they are opening a second temporary holding facility on the Texas border to deal with a surge in arrivals of families and unaccompanied children fleeing violence and poverty in Central America.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a news release emailed Wednesday that temporary shelters at the international bridge in the Rio Grande Valley city of Donna will hold up to 500 people. Earlier this month, officials opened a similar tent facility in Tornillo, outside El Paso.
The government has struggled to manage the two-year-old surge in immigrants, detain them and try their cases.
A total of 46,195 people were apprehended on the southwest border in October, up from 39,501 in September. Family units apprehended in the year ending in September amounted to 77,674, up from 68,445 in the 2014 period.
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