Long Beach Convention Center opens as temporary facility for unaccompanied migrant children

On a tour of the Long Beach Convention Center, Mayor Robert Garcia speaks in the sleeping quarters set up for migrant children inside Exhibit Hall B. Federal officials on Thursday prepared to receive 150 migrant children at the Long Beach Convention Center, one of several structures in California and other states being repurposed as temporary intake facilities to cope with an overflow of unaccompanied minors at the southern border. Gaby Hernandez, executive director for the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition, said turning the Convention Center into a facility for migrant children is not an appropriate solution to the country’s larger immigration issues. Until then, he said, facilities such as the Convention Center are “a more humanitarian setting.” “Detention centers along the border,” he said, are “no place for a child.” Long Beach officials launched an online portal with information about how community members, organizations and businesses can support the children.