US temporarily closes detention facility at Texas border
HOUSTON (AP) — The U.S. Border Patrol is temporarily closing a converted warehouse used to detain immigrants in South Texas for renovation.
The McAllen facility garnered international attention when images emerged of children separated from their parents detained in chain-link cages inside.
The agency said in a statement Wednesday that the facility, known as the central processing center, will reopen in 2022 with a smaller capacity and “modern detention areas.” It will also have a recreation area for children. The renovation was first reported by The Washington Post.
Opened in 2014 during the administration of President Barack Obama, the facility was first used to hold immigrant children mostly from Central America who were crossing the U.S.-Mexico border alone. The Trump administration used the facility to hold parents and children it separated during its 2018 enforcement of a “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings.
Adults and children detained by the Border Patrol generally sleep on mats and are issued Mylar blankets. While the agency is generally supposed to transfer immigrants out of its custody within three days, people have at times been detained at the processing center and other facilities for days or weeks.
The Border Patrol said it is using funds from Congress to renovate the facility. If border crossings surge again, the agency said it “consistently revaluates future operational requirements to support the safe and legal processing” of immigrants.
The agency has several stations in South Texas that can hold immigrants. It has designated its station in Weslaco, Texas, to hold children. About 65 children, some unaccompanied and others with their parents, were detained at Weslaco last week, with advocates for immigrants warning that the detention conditions left them particularly exposed to COVID-19.
Man pleads guilty in plot to attack White House, Trump Tower
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A South Carolina man has pleaded guilty to a terror charge for plotting to bomb or shoot up sites including the White House and Trump Tower in New York City in attacks inspired by the Islamic State group, federal authorities said Tuesday.
Kristopher Sean Matthews, 34, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge to provide material support to IS in a hearing before a U.S. magistrate judge in San Antonio.
Matthews acknowledged that since May 2019, he had conspired with 22-year-old Jaylyn Christopher Molina of Cost, Texas, to share bomb-making information for the purposes of domestic and foreign attacks on behalf of IS, and to radicalize and recruit other individuals to support the Islamic militant organization.
A grand jury indicted Molina and Matthews on Oct. 14 each with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and one count of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Matthews faces up to 20 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on March 4.
He remains in federal custody.
