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More migrant minors headed to Midland holding facility

Gov. Abbott tells NewsWest 9 the Biden administration is to blame for being ill-prepared to handle the influx of immigrants.

MIDLAND, Texas — More migrants are headed to West Texas. Congressman August Pfluger confirmed the new development to NewsWest 9 Wednesday evening. He says “several bus loads” are headed to the Midland holding facility. He was not able to provide an exact number.

Health and Human Services previously told NW9 last week that the facility was no longer accepting more migrant minors. At last count, 485 teen boys between 15-17-years-old were at the facility.

Governor Greg Abbott says his team continues to monitor the ongoing crisis at the border very closely. He says the Biden administration is to blame.

“Information changes moment by moment but it shows how ill-prepared the Biden admin was for their open border policy which was triggered when the day the President took office,” Gov. Abbott said. “This is their fault, they created this problem. Texas is stepping up in trying to deal with these challenges and try to make sure that the people of Midland and Ector counties are going to be as safe as possible.”

Information into the holding facilities, including the converted man camp in Midland, is very hard to come by. Local officials tell NewsWest 9 that they haven't been able to get much information. The governor says even he has a challenge getting information.

That's why state agencies are going in to extract what information they can. For instance, the concern over who may have COVID-19 in the Midland holding facility.

“More than 10-pecent of the migrants at that facility have tested positive for COVID,” Gov. Abbott said. “They expose themselves to adults. Are those adults going into Midland, either to a hotel or restaurant and exposing others in Midland-Odessa to COVID? We need to know this information. We have a public health issue we need to get to the bottom of and we will not be able to know that until we begin to get answers. That's exactly why we are sending Texas officials into these facilities to extract information we need to make sure we maintain the health and safety of the people in the region.”

The governor says he has sent in state entities like the TCEQ to ensure there are safe living conditions inside these facilities, like the one in Midland. DPS troopers have been dispatched to the border to catch and deter any migrants crossing.

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