Mountain View’s Moffett Field Nixed as Possible Shelter Site for Migrant Children

A vacant NASA facility in Santa Clara County was on the checklist as a probable migrant kid’s shelter, but the feds eliminated it with little clarification.  

The inflow of migrant little ones at the US-Mexico border seems like a dilemma taking place a at ease 2,000 miles away from the Bay Area. But that nearly improved this 7 days. In a piece published very last Wednesday, the New York Occasions described that “In the scramble to find extra house for the youngsters, the Biden administration is thinking about housing them at unused college structures, military bases and even a NASA internet site, Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain See, Calif.”

That web page is now owned by NASA, and a great deal of it leased to Google. A NASA spokesperson verified to the Instances that Moffett Discipline was getting considered as a shelter, describing it as “currently vacant home,” and stressing that “This hard work will have no impression on NASA’s ability to carry out its primary missions.”

But the question is now moot, as the feds are apparently no lengthier taking into consideration the web site. The Chronicle experiences that Moffett Field will not be a migrant little ones shelter. That reporting builds off the over assertion from Silicon Valley’s congressional representative Anna Eshoo, who’s also on a committee that oversees the US Department of Health and fitness and Human Solutions (HHS), who are accountable for this procedure.

“HHS educated me today that they are no lengthier moving forward with thing to consider of Moffett Discipline as a shelter for unaccompanied youngsters at the time,” states Eshoo’s assertion. “As Chairwoman of the Wellness Subcommittee that oversees HHS, I will carry on to do anything I can to make sure unaccompanied youngsters arriving at our borders and in the care of HHS are dealt with humanely and with dignity.”

Immigration advocacy organizations are most likely to spike the soccer that they brought this improve of system, but the Chronicle’s reporting on their protests notes that just “More than 50 people protested Monday afternoon at Moffett Field” from the shift (various in butterfly costumes). An HHS spokesperson incredibly significantly sidestepped when the Chron requested for remark on the selection, simply saying that they evaluate “the availability of infrastructure, the site, the expense of working a shelter at the internet site, and other factors that can have an effect on its appropriateness for young children.”

Indeed, the migrant young children difficulty is a important problem. Reuters noted this week that “about 9,200 unaccompanied children” have been in HHS custody right after attempting to enter the US by yourself, “the highest number since 2019,” and that “Most of the kids in custody are teens, but hundreds are under 12 years old.” With COVID-19 worries, capacity at shelters is sensibly decrease, so extra shelters are demanded. Biden is continuing the Trump-era restriction of turning adults and family members absent at the border, but he’s making it possible for unaccompanied little ones into the region, which seems the humane call, but makes zillions of logistical and ethical issues.

So is this youngsters in cages? It is not young ones in cages, and relatives separation is no for a longer time in impact less than President Biden. But these services are not all that nice. It is notoriously tricky for reporters to get an truthful seem at these situations, but what tiny reporting we have implies they are “they are unlicensed, and it’s a carceral environment.” So the kids are not in cages, they’re extra in shitty dorms that they are not authorized to depart.

Even now, the migrant little ones inflow is not likely away for the Biden administration. But it’s not coming right to the Bay Area, at minimum for now.

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Picture: Jeff Ferland via Wikimedia Commons