Photos: A Tent City for Detained Children in Texas

Originally published by The Atalantic

Twenty miles outside of El Paso, Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border, sits the Tornillo Port of Entry, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility which was selected by the Trump administration to be the first site for temporary housing for the overflow of unaccompanied minors and the children of detained migrant parents, under the new “zero-tolerance” policy. A quickly erected tent city inside the facility is currently set up with 450 beds, according to NBC reporting, but is built for expansion. At the moment, it is unclear how many children are being held in Tornillo, but Reuters photographer Mike Blake was able to photograph several dozen teenage boys moving between tents yesterday as he flew over. Via NPR, the reporter John Sepulvado attempted to have a look inside the new tent city, but officials asked him to leave. He spoke with Texas State Representative Mary Gonzalez, who had toured the facility, saying that the tents were air-conditioned and she “felt the kids were at least safe.” The extended weather forecast for Tornillo predicts high temperatures up to 106 degrees Fahrenheit. For further coverage in the Atlantic, see also “Audio: Hear the Voices of Children Detained at the Border” and “The Outrage Over Family Separation Is Exactly What Stephen Miller Wants.”

Immigrant children, many of whom have been separated from their parents under a new "zero-tolerance" policy by the Trump administration, are being housed in tents next to the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas, on June 18, 2018. #

2.Children walk through the new tent city housing facility in the Tornillo Port of Entry on June 18, 2018. #

3.A metal fence stands adjacent to the United States border near the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Tornillo Port of Entry, as seen from Guadalupe, Mexico, on June 18, 2018. #

4.Children of detained migrants play soccer at a newly constructed tent encampment, as seen through a border fence near the CBP Port of Entry in Tornillo on June 18, 2018. #

Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters

5.Boys walk past tents toward outdoor toilets in the Tornillo Port of Entry on June 18, 2018. #

6.The Tornillo facility, a shelter for children of detained migrants, is seen in this government handout photo provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in Tornillo, Texas, on June 14, 2018. #

7.Children are walked into a tent in the Tornillo Port of Entry on June 18, 2018. #

8.A government handout photo of the inside of a dormitory tent at the Tornillo facility, provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on June 14, 201