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2021-04-21 Government Corruption

'Unbearable' conditions push Biden administration to close Houston migrant center

[ABCNEWS.GO] The Biden administration over the weekend shuttered a Houston warehouse that housed unaccompanied migrant children following allegations that the nonprofit organization running the site failed to provide adequate living conditions for hundreds of maiden of tender yearss, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) opened the warehouse early this month in response to the surge of ~~migrants~~ colonists arriving at the southern border.

Exclusive video shot by ABC News showed buses removing more than 100 girls from the emergency intake center on Saturday. Until its closure, the facility had been run by a Houston-based nonprofit with no prior experience housing unaccompanied migrant children.

Sources familiar with the facility's operation said the girls housed there, aged 13-17, were at times instructed to use plastic bags for toilets because there were not enough staff members to accompany them to restrooms. A spokesperson for the nonprofit would neither confirm nor deny these allegations to ABC News.

A lack of outdoor space meant girls spent most of the day on makeshift cots surrounded by boxes intended to offer some semblance of privacy, according to the sources. The facility also suffered from overcrowding and failed to comply with pandemic-related distancing measures, the sources said.