There are no more immigrant children being kept at the Long Beach Convention Center, Mayor Robert Garcia announced during a press conference Friday, July 23.
“We are very proud to announce today that all 1,538 kids have left our migrant shelter,” Garcia said, “and have been of course unified with family or sponsors. As of this morning, there are no children actually left here at the shelter who are awaiting reunification.”
However, Garcia said later in the press conference that around 150 children out of the 1,538 kept at the convention center have been sent to other facilities.
The rest were reunited with family members or sponsors who live in the United States, according to Garcia.
According to Yliana Johansen-Mendez, legal services director for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, almost 90% of the children kept at the convention center were reunited with immediate family members, such as parents, grandparents, older siblings, aunts and uncles.
The 1,538 children were brought to the Long Beach Convention Center on a rolling basis since it began operating as a federally-run detention center in April.
It was always planned that the center would close by August, due to previously scheduled events that will take place at the Long Beach Convention Center.
According to the Associated Press, four migrant child detention centers in California will be closed this summer, with similar sites in Pomona and Fort Bliss remaining in operation.
Over 200 medical workers from UCLA Health staffed a clinic within the Long Beach Convention Center, which provided health care services such as exams, urgent care visits, COVID-19 testing and more to the children.
“Many of them had very difficult journeys just to get to the United States,” William Dunne of UCLA Health said at the press conference. “And at the end of the day, the most important thing for us to remember was that they were children. They needed love and care and compassion.”
The children received legal advice and advocacy from the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which held presentations within the convention center to inform the children of their rights.
“The children who we saw here have come from long treacherous journeys,” Johansen-Mendez said. “Fleeing violence, fleeing the effects of climate change as hurricanes devastated some of their countries and communities. They’re seeking a better life.”
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