Dallas County offers to house detained immigrant children

Dallas County officials toured various sites on Monday that could be used to house immigrant children detained at the border.

Judge Clay Jenkins said hosting the children is the compassionate thing to do. The county is offering to help house the young people and has not been asked by the federal government to do so.

Jenkins said key factors include places that have playgrounds, cafeterias for eating and room for living quarters. In this case, classrooms would serve as sleeping areas.

“My focus is as long as this is happening, how can we provide The best compassionate care to the children,” Jenkins said.

Edison Middle School is one of the possible places to house and care for the children of refugees. Another location Jenkins toured was DISD's Cobb Athletic Center.

Jenkins says the federal government would choose the locations, pay for necessary retrofitting to accommodate the children as well as pay for the contractor to run the entire operation.

A large number of Dallas-based charities would be able to assist the endeavor.

“Our charitable partners can come in and provide services because there are 7 and a half million people here and there's not that many people in the desert. We just provide those services better here, a lot more services to choose from than less populated less areas,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins says the process could involve several hundred children and multiple locations. A decision to move forward with a specific plan could play out within 72 hours of getting a green light.

Jenkins said he would tweet developments, as he has phone calls scheduled with federal officials every few hours.

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