MCALLEN, Texas – We are now learning how many immigrant children are housed in Texas, including the Houston area, and those shelters are overflowing.
More than three times more immigrants have been caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally this year compared to the last.
Many families, like the Floreses, left Central America long before the zero tolerance policy -- and while returning home is not an option, neither is separation.
There are 37 licensed refugee shelters in Texas, KPRC has learned, housing more than 5,000 children -- the vast majority of whom are unaccompanied minors.
At least a half dozen of these shelters are in the Greater Houston area, according to Health and Human Services data.
As apprehensions along the border have skyrocketed this year, the shelters have overflowed.
So have processing centers, like the largest one in the country in McAllen, where Dolores Alarcon and her son, Antonio, were separated.
They were deported and are now considering whether to try again.
According to Health and Human Services data, 17 Texas shelters for refugee children were recently approved to expand capacity – including some in Houston. It’s unclear when approval for any of these expansions was granted.