The federal government plans to open a shelter in Tucson for unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border alone, but officials would have to seek zoning exemptions on the two locations being considered.
And that process could take months.
Southwest Key is seeking to turn a studio/apartment complex on North Oracle Road, north of downtown, or a southeast Tucson hotel into a shelter for children who are crossing the border illegally without parents or legal guardians, city and county documents show.
Last week, the city of Tucson gave the Austin, Texas-based nonprofit the permit to start interior renovations. But Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik, who represents Ward 6, said the certificate of occupancy will be denied because it’s within 500 feet of a residential area.
The group can seek an exemption with the zoning examiner, but he said, that would take several months. That’s time federal government doesn’t have.
Part of the issue is that the exemption requires a 30-day notice to residents of the surrounding neighborhood so they can voice their opinion. If the exemption is denied, Southwest Key can appeal.
City officials would not comment on Tuesday. However, they confirmed officials from the city’s planning and development services department met with Southwest Key representatives on Tuesday.
Pima County officials have said the organization would also have to go to the Board of Supervisors for a “modification of a rezoning condition” because the hotel had been previously approved for an assisted-living facility.
Southwest Key spokeswoman Cindy Casares referred questions to the Administration for Children and Families’ Office, which didn’t return a request for comment Tuesday.
The federal government is scrambling to deal with a surge of children and youth crossing the border illegally, mainly through South Texas, which is expected to climb to 90,000 this year.
Last week, Customs and Border Protection started flying more than 1,000 children to Arizona for processing before being transferred to shelters in other parts of the country — a move that was expected to continue.
The agency is housing them in an old processing center at the Nogales Border Patrol stations that used to be a warehouse and not designed to hold children, especially for prolonged periods. Some are as young as 4, consular officials have said. There are also some teen mothers with their babies being held there.
Consular officials have said conditions are improving, with the agency bringing in televisions, showers, laundry machines and other amenities. The media have not been allowed inside the facility.
The Nogales International reported Monday that Nogales medical service providers and emergency crews have taken three youths from the Border Patrol station to Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital.
One of the youths was a 17-year-old girl who was 32 weeks pregnant when she was taken to the hospital last Thursday after complaining of labor pains. The following day, paramedics brought a 16-year-old male to the hospital for treatment of an “active cough,” and an 18-year-old man was hospitalized with seizures on Sunday, the newspaper reported. The teen suffering seizures had been off his medication for as many as 15 days.
CBP normally has to transfer the children within 72 hours to a division of the Administration for Children and Families’ Office, which takes custody of them while they are reunited with parents or relatives in the United States to continue their immigration proceedings.
But there’s no bed space because of the large numbers apprehended so far this year —more than 47,000.
The Defense Department has made military bases in San Antonio, Texas; Ventura County, California; and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, available to temporarily house some of the minors.
Kozachik said he wonders why officials haven’t made the bases in Arizona available. “There are options on the table we aren’t exercising and we should be doing so proactively,” he said.
The number of minors coming north without parents is not new. In the early 2000s, authorities apprehended between 35,000 and 40,000 a year, but most of them were from Mexico, and in most cases they were deported quickly and reunited with relatives there.
Three out of four unaccompanied children apprehended this year have come from Central America and are increasingly younger. The average age is 14.
“What brought the focus and attention right now is that the system that is designed to take care of these children has imploded,” said Wendy Young, executive director of Kids in Need of Defense, during a conference call with reporters. “There is no bed space available for them.”
