Nogales Facility For Unaccompanied Child Migrants Close To Shutting Down

By Kate Sheehy
Published: Monday, July 21, 2014 - 12:06pm

Immigrant children entering the United States alone and illegally are no longer being sent to a Border Patrol station in Nogales, Ariz. The facility is close to shutting down.

At one point, the Nogales processing center held as many as 1,100 child border crossers, now just 20 remain. Border Patrol facilities across the country are being cleared out as children are moved to shelters operated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Customs and Border Patrol says barring further need, the Nogales center will close.

The facility has been used since May to help manage a surge of nearly 60,000 children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras coming to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Apprehensions are down and with the opening of a new facility in Texas; Border Patrol says it’s not necessary to continue sending kids to Nogales.