Families say teens were caught in San Antonio immigration raid now in federal custody<\/a><\/p>\nThe shelter is located on the city’s South Side next to a residential neighborhood. The teen has been held here for 4 months in the shelter funded by the federal government and run by a federal contractor named Compass Connections, a San Antonio-based nonprofit. <\/p>\n
Aerial video shows the shelter\u2019s outdoor play area. The day we visited, it was quiet, but neighbors say they can hear children playing outside on weekends.<\/p>\n
According to federal data from USASpending.gov and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website, Compass Connections has received more than $38 million this fiscal year alone under one agreement tied to the Unaccompanied Children Program.<\/p>\n
Federal records also show that since 2016, the organization has received more than $1 billion in taxpayer funding to house and care for migrant children in shelters across Texas and beyond.<\/p>\n
The program is designed to house migrant children who do not have a parent or legal guardian available in the United States.<\/p>\n
But in this case, the family is in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe four people who needed to sign have already signed off, but that was two weeks ago, and now the delay is a letter,\u201d the teen\u2019s mother said.<\/p>\n
She said her husband had been handling the paperwork to secure their son\u2019s release. He has a work permit, a valid driver\u2019s license and filed the family\u2019s asylum case after they fled Honduras.<\/p>\n
Last week, he was detained while driving back from a job in Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n
Now, the process to get the teen released is stalled, according to his mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have asked them to give my son medicine to sleep because he doesn\u2019t sleep, and he is going to go crazy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t sleep at night, but he falls asleep during the day in the classes they give them at the shelter.\u201d<\/p>\n
At home, younger siblings are waiting.<\/p>\n
The family says they are now afraid that if a parent steps forward to claim the teen, they could also be detained, leaving the children without a caregiver.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a huge risk now for people to request the kids. If they go to pick them up,\u201d immigration attorney Erinaldi Agosto told Fox SA in January.<\/p>\n
Under current policy, information about sponsors can be shared with ICE.<\/p>\n
The family has reached out to Congressman Joaquin Castro for help. A spokesperson said the congressman\u2019s office has been in touch with the family.<\/p>\n
We also contacted Compass Connections. The organization referred questions to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., which oversees migrant children shelters.<\/p>\n
We attempted to speak with someone at the number they gave us for HHS. We want to know why the teen remains in custody even after the paperwork was completed, and what happens when a parent handling the process is detained.<\/p>\n
We are still waiting for a response.<\/p>\n
We also asked Homeland Security how many children are currently being held in San Antonio under their custody. That response is pending.<\/p>\n
The family asked not to be identified out of fear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio, Texas \u2014 A teenager detained during a high-profile ICE raid at a clandestine club off San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-229927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-san-antonio","9":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","10":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}