MAYPEARL – The federal government will spend approximately $6.1 million to house 700 undocumented children in Ellis County for three weeks, according to an official with BCFS, the private contractor hired by U.S. Health and Human Services to carry out the operation.
When 200 more children arrive at a smaller camp in Rockwall County on Friday, that will cost about $1.9 million to house them for 21 days, the official added.
Reporters got a tour of the Lakeview Camp southwest of Waxahachie this afternoon, where just under 500 children are already living. A couple hundred more kids are due by Friday, bringing the total to 700 here.
Bilingual officials will work to place them with relatives already in the U.S. until they can appear at an immigration court hearing, HHS said.
Groups of the children, ages 12-17, were playing soccer outside this afternoon as dozens of security and staffers watched. Inside a multi-purpose building nearby, the 55 girls here were taking a class. Others were watching movies and working on crafts.
There have been no security incidents or issues, said Ellis Co. Sheriff Johnny Brown. BCFS is paying the off-duty deputies and police officers directly.
Gov. Greg Abbott is making $200,000 grants available to Ellis and Rockwall counties to help if any overtime issues arise. But Sheriff Brown said he does not anticipate any cost to the county.
No law enforcement is being pulled from regular duty to staff the camp, Sheriff Brown reiterated.
"We're being paid $60 per day, per kid," said Rick Dubose, superintendent of the North Texas District Council Assemblies of God.
This isn't about politics, he added.
"I hope no one misinterprets our action as some kind of an activist motive. It's not that," Dubose said. "It's a compassion that we have for kids."
The additional funds are used to pay for staff, security, and logistics.
The children will remain in Ellis County until Friday, Jan. 1. Those who haven't been placed with family members will have to be moved to another location, yet to be identified.
The southern border with Mexico is seeing another surge in undocumented children coming across in recent weeks.
In October and November alone, Border Patrol apprehended 10,000 kids who are fleeing economic hardship and gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
In all of last fiscal year, there were only 34,000 apprehensions of children.
HHS said it has already asked the U.S. Department of Defense for any extra facilities it can use to house the kids. Last summer, HHS temporarily placed kids at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and Fort Sill in Oklahoma.
The children are all immunized and medically screened, said Andrea Helling, spokesman for HHS. Each child gets tested for multiple things including lice, scabies, HIV, and pregnancy for the girls.
BCFS has its own emergency management team, which brought in a fire engine. BCFS then rents a Careflite ambulance. There are 12 BCFS medical personnel staffing a clinic at the camp, who said they have only treated children for allergies and cuts and bruises from playing soccer.
Rockwall County has a capacity of 300 children, but will begin receiving some by the end of the week.
There's another location in Ventura County, Calif., which the federal government will not identify, that will be able to house 400 undocumented children.
