North Houston facility to house 500 unaccompanied teens who crossed the border

HOUSTON - Unaccompanied minors crossing the border isn’t new.

"We’ve been working on surges of children coming across our borders since back in 2014 when we had over 60,000 kids come across," said Dr. Bob Sanborn with Children At Risk.

The number of kids crossing the border last year was low, the pandemic is probably why.

Now, border crossings are on the way up again.

"We had horrible hurricanes in Central America last year so that’s been part of it," Sanborn said.

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Keep in mind the majority of these kids come here to be reunited with relatives.

"We never condone children coming across the border just because the path from Central America to Mexico is a very dangerous one and nobody should go through this,’ said Caser Espinosa with F.I.E.L. 

"These kids have gone through a lot of trauma to get here,’ said Sanborn.

In order to get the kids out of the hands of ICE, emergency intake sites are popping up all over the state.

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The National Association of Christian Churches is behind the site in north Houston that will house 500 females between 13 and 17-years-old.

"We are hoping at the end of the day we can see some of these folks reunite with their families and at least try to give them a fighting chance of fighting their case in court," said Espinosa.