The Long Beach City Council voted unanimously last night to make the Long Beach Convention Center a temporary shelter for migrant children.
The move follows a surge in the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border. The city follows in the footsteps of San Diego, where city officials started housing hundreds of kids at its convention center last week. But things aren’t going well in San Diego: there are reports the facility is almost at capacity and some kids have tested positive for COVID-19.
And as of Monday, no family reunifications have taken place, according to KPBS reporter Max Rivlin-Nadler.
“This is an emergency intake situation,” Rivlin-Nadler says. “The government function itself has been so stripped down over the past couple of years. It takes some time to rebuild that and get kids to their family members in a way that's safe, and that's right now taking several weeks.”