Government to house more immigrants in tents at the border

EL PASO, Texas (AP) – The Trump administration is opening two new tent facilities to increase the Border Patrol’s capacity to hold migrant families.

The tents in El Paso and in the Rio Grande Valley will hold 1,000 parents and families. Occupants will have access to showers, recreation areas and sleeping quarters. The facilities are set to operate through the end of the year. The government calls the tents “soft-sided” shelters.

The Border Patrol’s El Paso sector has become the epicenter of the influx of immigrant families from Central America. On Tuesday alone, the agency said it arrested around 1,100 migrants in the sector.

Besides providing extra space, the tents also offer a better setting for processing immigrants, which take up to two hours per migrant.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.  PHOTO: AP

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