Empty facility for migrant children costs $720,000 a day to staff (logistics, US)

[C C]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/migrant-chi...s-per-day/

INTRO: The last migrant child to be held at the Homestead facility for unaccompanied minors left on August 3 – but, since then, the U.S. government has likely spent more than $33 million to staff the massive, empty space. The spending was revealed Wednesday during congressional testimony with Jonathan Hayes, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Hayes said Homestead remains staffed to support up to 1,200 children. "I think it's about $600" per day, Hayes estimated — a total of roughly $720,000 per day, or more than $33 million in the nearly seven weeks since it stopped sheltering children.

"So $600 a day for 1,200 invisible, imaginary, nonexistent human beings at Homestead right now?" asked Wisconsin Democratic Representative Mark Pocan.

"It's the beds, but yes sir," Hayes replied.

Hayes explained that because the site is intended for use in case of a sudden influx of unaccompanied migrant children, his agency prefers to keep it staffed. "What I was told by my planning and logistics team, the senior career professionals at ORR, you're looking at a minimum of 90 to 120 days in order to reactivate the staff back for that," Hayes said. "And again, given the extreme uncertainty of referrals coming across our nation's southern border, and how many kids we might have to care for, that wasn't a switch that was turned off at this point."

Hayes was speaking at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the mental health needs of migrant children in custody, and two inspector general reports that found migrant children receive insufficient mental health care in government custody. (MORE - details) ... RELATED (video report): https://youtu.be/JDSJ1r5q9X0

[Syne]

And that's what happens when you don't secure borders.

Of course, Democrats never care how much taxpayer money they spend.

[Leigha]

Maybe because (according to the article) it would take 90-120 days to ''reactivate'' the staff if they were to close and reopen the facility, they feel it's best to keep it staffed even if it's vacant. $33 million seems pretty crazy, though.

[Magical Realist]

There's never too much money to throw at the brown people menace along the border. Trump's gotta please his xenophobic base. He's even reappropriated Pentagon funds to help build his so-called "wall." I wonder how much of that wall has actually been built.

[C C]

There's never too much money to throw at the brown people menace along the border. Trump's gotta please his xenophobic base. He's even reappropriated Pentagon funds to help build his so-called "wall." I wonder how much of that wall has actually been built.

The Pentagon is canceling three border wall projects because the costs went up (Sep 17, 2019)
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-...s-went-up/

Three proposed sections of border wall for Arizona are on hold, according to a Monday federal court filing, because they’re going to cost more than the Defense Department planned on spending...


Donald Trump’s border wall: how much has been built? (Aug 30, 2019)
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter...ally-been/

. . . But despite the chants and Trump’s repeated assurances that a border wall is under construction, what’s been achieved so far doesn’t reflect his campaign promise. Before Trump became president, 654 miles of the nearly 2,000-mile U.S. Mexico border had primary barriers. As of today, that hasn’t increased. To date, the administration has replaced about 60 miles of dilapidated barriers with new fencing. And a major component of Trump’s pledge — that Mexico would pay for the wall — hasn’t been part of the equation. U.S. taxpayers have paid the cost...


Another budget fight looms this month in Congress centering on border wall funding (Sept 16, 2019)
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/09/16/...september/

. . . Trump's continued aggressive push to build the wall has split the Texas delegation in Congress. Democrats, especially those whose districts are along the border, remain steadfastly opposed. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, called the decision to divert military funds a "a power grab that will undermine our national security." Senate Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have said that they trust the president's judgement and expect to get those funds back, characterizing immigration through the southern border as a crisis that warrants such funding.

[...] In many parts of the state, border wall construction has already been finalized. Though congressmen in the Rio Grande Valley included protections for environmentally sensitive areas in the 2018 omnibus spending bill, the rest of the construction will predominantly take place on the over 1,000 miles of privately owned land along the Texas-Mexico border. Scott Nicol, an activist with the Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club, works with property owners whose land is at threat of being seized by the government for border wall construction. He said law makers in Washington lack perspective when making decisions on border security...

[Zinjanthropos]

Where do the kids go? To work on a wall? Become part of a wall (worse case scenario)? Well, it's not the New Jersey Turnpike.

Great chance to double dip for the employees. Work one job and get paid for two. It's like a phoney company billing the gov't.

[C C]

Where do the kids go? To work on a wall? Become part of a wall (worse case scenario)? ...

If the wall was in China and required mortar and reinforcing material, then probably so.