New Mexico camp pauses plan to house migrant children

SANTA FE, N.M. – A private Christian camp in northern New Mexico won’t be hosting immigrant children from the U.S.-Mexico border for the foreseeable future, camp officials said Thursday.

“At this point we’re not moving forward as an (Emergency Intake Site) location,” chief financial officer Patrick Price told The Associated Press.

Earlier this week, a page on the Glorieta Camps website had stated that the organization was asked by the White House and U.S. Health and Human Services Department to house and feed potentially 2,400 unaccompanied children at its property near Santa Fe.

Glorieta Camps officials had said Wednesday that the organization was prepared to take children this week but only for around 60 days to avoid curtailing its summer programs.

The White House is under increasing pressure to reduce crowding at immigration detention facilities, particularly those housing children. The Biden administration has scrambled to set up temporary shelters everywhere from military bases to convention centres and a converted camp for oil field workers.

The New Mexico camp is run by a Christian faith-based non-profit called Glorieta 2.0. The sprawling property borders national forest land that includes hiking trails and vistas where visitors can commune with nature.

Camp employees and other groups had been calling on the public to help provide supplies and were seeking volunteers to help care for the kids. Social media posts and emails were requesting toiletries, bath towels, water bottles and clothes for 13- to 17-year-old boys.

Camp officials said Thursday they were encouraged by the response of supporters over recent days and that all donations and supplies received so far will be held until they get confirmation of if or when the camp may become a host site in the future. If that does not happen within a few months, the supplies will be sent to another site.

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Attanasio is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.