Migrant children to arrive at Long Beach Convention Center today - Long Beach Press Telegram

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The first group of migrant children will likely arrive at the Long Beach Convention Center on Thursday, April 22, making it the second of three shelters for immigrant minors to open in Southern California amid an ongoing crisis at the southern border.

The center will house about 1,000 migrant children, mostly young girls ages 5 and up. That may include pairs or groups of siblings, but the facility will not be used specifically for siblings found at the border together, as officials said earlier this month.

The Department of Health and Human Services is running the shelter, and officials’ goal is for kids to spend seven-to-10 days in the facility before being placed with a family member or sponsor, Mayor Robert Garcia said, though some cases are more complex and may take longer.

“The goal here,” he said, “is quick reunification.”

The first group to arrive was set to be relatively small — about 12 children — though Garcia said Thursday “that’s a really flexible number.” The children will first receive health screenings for communicable diseases and allergies, among other potential concerns, said Cmdr. Nick Munoz of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. In all, as many as 150 children could arrive in Long Beach by the end of the day Thursday, HHS said in a press release.

• The sleeping area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed. The beds are in pods of 30. Long Beach officials and the U.S. HHS led a tour of the facility in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Congressman Alan Lowenthal and Mayor Robert Garcia enter exhibit hall A of the Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Some of the recreation items that children will have access to in the Convention Center. There is an in indoor and outdoor recreation area at this site. Migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Medical exam rooms will be set up inside exhibit hall A of the Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• The sleeping area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed. The beds are in pods of 30. Long Beach officials and the U.S. HHS led a tour of the facility in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Some of the recreation items that children will have access to in the Convention Center. There is an in indoor and outdoor recreation area at this site. Migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Mayor Robert Garcia speaking to officials in the recreation area that children will have access to in the Convention Center. There is an in indoor and outdoor recreation area at this site. Migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Bonnie Preston, acting regional director for HHS region 9 speaking to city officials during the tour of the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Mayor Robert Garcia speaking to officials in the recreation area that children will have access to in the Convention Center. There is an in indoor and outdoor recreation area at this site. Migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Mayor Robert Garcia shows the area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed. Long Beach officials and the U.S. HHS led a tour of the facility in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Mayor Robert Garcia speaking to officials in the recreation area that children will have access to in the Convention Center. There is an in indoor and outdoor recreation area at this site. Migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Commander Nick Munoz speaking to city officials about the medical care children will receive as city officials tour the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• The sleeping area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed. The beds are in pods of 30. Long Beach officials and the U.S. HHS led a tour of the facility in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Congressman Alan Lowenthal and Mayor Robert Garcia enter the exhibit hall of the Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• The welcoming area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed. Long Beach officials and the U.S. HHS led a tour of the facility in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• The area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed. Long Beach officials and the U.S. HHS led a tour of the facility in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Site leader Alex Sanchez speaking to city officials before they tour the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• The area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed. Long Beach officials and the U.S. HHS led a tour of the facility in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• The sleeping area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed. The beds are in pods of 30. Long Beach officials and the U.S. HHS led a tour of the facility in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• The sleeping area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed. The beds are in pods of 30. Long Beach officials and the U.S. HHS led a tour of the facility in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

• Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia speaks at the sleeping area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed. The beds are in pods of 30. Long Beach officials and the U.S. HHS led a tour of the facility in Long Beach on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The center is able to house up to 1,000 children and the first children are expected to arrive by noon today. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

HHS officials gave a tour of the Convention Center Thursday morning, during which local elected representatives got a glimpse at how the facility is set up to accommodate the children.

Officials were still wrapping up construction and final preparations at the center, where 12 doctors from UCLA were expected to provide the health screenings, Munoz said, and his federal agency also has a nine-person team on hand.

How many people will staff the Convention Center in total wasn’t immediately known.

But Bonnie Preston, acting regional director of HHS’s Region 9, said during a briefing following the tour that there would likely be about one youth care worker for every five younger kids, and one youth care worker for every eight older kids. The ratio of case management workers, she said, would be different, but she didn’t say what that ratio would be.

The center, though, is set up to accommodate all of the children’s needs, officials said.

Conference rooms will be used as classrooms, with cohorts of 30 children receiving lessons together. The children would get at least three hours of lessons per day, Preston said.

In Exhibit Hall B, pods of 30 cots each had been set up, separated by beige curtains. In one pod, the cots had been made up with white sheets, a pillow and a folded blanket. Some of the cots had books on them, as well as school supplies and backpacks — and two pairs of shoes underneath.

Toward the end of the hall, there was a lounge area with several sofas and tables. Toward the north end, there were rows of dining tables and chairs.

Projectors displayed pink butterflies onto the north wall.

“We want to make the area warm and welcoming for the children,” said Charlie Beirne, general manager of the Convention Center. “They’re coming in through some traumatic experiences.”

The recreation area, on large grey carpets, included soccer nets, two large Jenga sets and boards for beanbag toss. Two big screens television are set up for both movies and video games. Tables covered with snacks sat across the hall.

Outside that hall, a recreation area was being outfitted with turf, allowing the children to play outdoors, Garcia said. That area also included trailers with showers, with a not-yet-determined schedule of how many times a week the children will bathe.

The children will have multiple hours of recreation time set aside per day, Preston said.

They will also have three-to-four hours of classroom time with teachers daily.

As they arrive, the children will be grouped in pods of 30, each led by a staff member who will guide them during various scheduled activities each day, Preston said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was set to provide advisors on mask-wearing for the youth, Preston said.

Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, joined the Thursday tour and said during the briefing that followed that he was proud of the site, particularly after having toured detention facilities along the border a few times in prior presidential administrations.

“They were no place for people or for children,” he said. “They were cramped together. They were in cages.”

Unlike in those facilities, Lowenthal said, the Long Beach Convention Center has been transformed into a place where kids can feel welcome and will be treated humanely.

“I’ve never been more proud of my city than I am today,” he said, “with what it’s doing to step up in this crisis.”

While the federal government is operating the facility, local organizations and community members will be able to volunteer and provide services there. Representatives of some groups that will participate, like Centro CHA, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the Long Beach Ministers Alliance, also attended the tour and shared their thoughts.

“I’m really glad to say that this is not a political matter,” LBMA President Gregory Sanders said. “This is really the truest form of Christian expressions of compassion. If you ever want to see Christian compassion, I believe I just witnessed that today.”

The Long Beach City Council earlier this month OK’d letting the federal government use the Convention Center as a temporary shelter for kids found at the southern border without a parent.

The Department of Health and Human Services has since signed a contract with the Convention Center, but that document and its terms — including how much rent the federal government is paying — has not yet been released publicly. Officials, though, said Thursday that they were committed to providing that information soon.

The Convention Center has legally not been able to hold events for the last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, but that’s set to change this fall. City officials have said the shelter will close Aug. 2 at the latest, which will allow conventions that have already been planned to move forward.

The mass vaccination site in the Convention Center parking lot will also not be impacted by the shelter’s operations.

The federal government’s request to use the site as a temporary shelter came as as a surge of unaccompanied minors, fleeing violence and poverty in Central America, have sought to cross the southern border. Border authorities encountered nearly 19,000 children without a parent in March, an all-time monthly high.

Long Beach isn’t the only city in the region that’s been tapped to help with the crisis; a migrant shelter in San Diego is currently operating for about 500 teen girls, and a third shelter is expected to eventually come on in Pomona.

With the facility sitting vacant, Long Beach officials have said using the site for a humanitarian cause was an easy decision to make.

“Long Beach has a proud and long history of welcoming and helping immigrants and refugees,” Garcia said in a statement earlier this month. “From our Cambodian community to the work done by our churches and faith organizations, we have led with compassion and kindness.”

Long Beach became home to the largest concentration of Cambodians outside the country itself after thousands sought refuge from genocide in their homeland in the 1970s and ’80s. And housing immigrant children in need, he said, is an extension of that legacy.

“As an immigrant,” Garcia said, “I know how important it is to support all people, especially children — and I am proud to support our country in this important work.”

This story is developing and will be updated. 

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