The number of migrant children in Texas shelters dropped dramatically in 2019

Editor’s note: The Tribune is no longer updating this graphic. The data was last updated in December 2019.

The number of migrant children living in Texas shelters has fallen to its lowest point in two years, a dramatic change after a hardline but short-lived federal immigration policy last year overwhelmed the state’s shelter network and led thousands of children to linger for extended periods in temporary shelters.

These shelters are where some unaccompanied minors go after leaving temporary U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities if officials cannot find U.S.-based sponsors to take them in. Most are run by private contractors, paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and regulated by the state. Shelters are meant to serve as temporary homes for children after they arrive in the U.S., typically without adults.

As of Nov. 20, Texas’ 35 state-licensed shelters had permission to accommodate up to 5,876 children, according to the health commission. With 1,355 kids living in them, they’re at 23% of capacity.

Some trends have emerged over a tumultuous 20 months since the Trump administration began its zero-tolerance policy, which separated thousands of migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border and classified them as “unaccompanied minors.”

After a record high, the number of children in shelters fell sharply

The policy sent a massive influx of children to shelters, and other changes to federal immigration policy prolonged children’s stay in the temporary facilities and overwhelmed the state’s capacity for months. But the number of kids has fallen rapidly since this summer.

Throughout 2018, Texas shelters asked regulators for permission to add more beds as the number of children in their care ballooned. Their population peaked in December 2018, when they held 8,549 children — 85% of their capacity.

It’s unclear how much of the surge can be attributed to a greater number of child separations  or children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border unaccompanied, and how much is the result of federal policies that slowed the rate at which children are paired with sponsors. The federal government said it ended a portion of its strict screening policies last year that had slowed the placement of migrant kids with relatives.

Some shelters are closing

Since last year’s peak, three shelters in Texas have closed. Most notably, a hastily built tent city in Tornillo closed in January after eight months of housing a high of 2,777 children after the federal government scrambled to build shelter capacity.

Southwest Key, a nonprofit shelter operator that for years housed the largest share of migrant children in Texas, shut down its Conroe shelter in September, the second facility to close in recent months.

And the number of shelters with permission to house more kids beyond their usual capacity has fallen as well, down to only one shelter in November.

For-profit contractor replaces nonprofits

But even as the number of migrant children in Texas has declined, the total number of shelters has grown as a for-profit shelter operators added facilities.

Florida-based Comprehensive Health Services Inc. opened its Los Fresnos shelter in October and now has four shelters in Texas. The firm has close ties to the Trump administration; former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly sits on the board of its parent corporation, Caliburn International Corp.

The number of children living in CHS-run shelters was 190 in November, or 14% of the 1,335 children in shelters across the state. The gradual pivot from nonprofit to for-profit shelter operators mirrors a national trend, according to an investigation by the Associated Press and PBS.

One nonprofit provider, Upbring, opened an additional shelter in October. That shelter, in McAllen, housed 17 kids in November.

Regardless of operator, all shelters, which are licensed as child care providers by the state, have a long history of regulatory inspections that have uncovered serious health and safety deficiencies.

A Texas Tribune review of state records found that between 2016 and 2019, inspectors discovered more than 552 health and safety violations at the facilities, which can each house anywhere from 16 to 1,200 children at a time.

The facilities’ inspection reports, though often light on details, paint a picture of the abuses that young children may face in a foreign environment where many have language barriers and a history of trauma from the journey to the U.S.

Counts of children on this page are current as of November 2019, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.