Governor Greg Abbott [TX-R] held a press conference right outside of the Coliseum Expo Center in San Antonio to expose multiple reports of physical and sexual abuse as well as neglect allegedly taking place inside. The Center is a makeshift holding facility for migrant minors and Gov Abbott understandably demanded that Biden ‘shut it down, now!’.
Abbot also told a very shocked crowd of reporters that children who are COVID-19 positive are not being socially distanced from others inside the over-crowded facility:
“The Biden administration has caused this crisis and has repeatedly failed to address it,” Abbott proclaimed. “The Biden administration opened borders. The administration failed to plan for the influx of children that they invited to come. Now they face allegations of despicable child abuse and neglect. This must end.”
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services both received tips that migrant children were being abused at the Freeman Coliseum.
“Children at this facility are being sexually assaulted,” Abbott claimed. “Second, there are not enough staff to safely supervise the children at this facility. Third, some children in this facility are not eating throughout the day. And fourth, children with COVID are not being physically separated from children without COVID.”
“We don’t know the total number of children abused,” the Republican governor of Texas said.
“It is my understanding, the allegations come from more than one person who has been in this facility,” Abbott said at the news conference outside of the Freeman Coliseum.
“To end this abuse, the Biden administration must immediately shut down this facility,” Abbott declared. “The children who are in this facility should be moved to other federally run facilities where the federal government has the space, personnel, and resources to ensure their safety.”
“The Biden administration has already said they have other locations across the entire country,” Abbott said. “Certainly they must have locations that have better staff, better safety measures, and situations where children would not be subject to abuse like this.”
“Thousands of children have already been sent to multiple locations across the state of Texas, and from every location that I’ve have heard about in the state of Texas the number of children far exceeds what is allowed by law,” Abbott added.
“President Biden’s disastrous decisions caused this crisis, and his administration must act now to protect these children, secure the border, and end this crisis,” Abbott said in a press release.
Abbott has ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Rangers to open an “immediate” investigation into the accusations. The investigation will be headed by Richard Henderson, senior Texas Rangers lieutenant.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg described the allegations as “disturbing if true” and called for a “thorough investigation.”
A White House spokesperson offered a discrediting response to the allegations. Rather than take aggressive action to get to the bottom of these claims they promised to ‘look into it’:
“The Biden Administration takes the safety and well-being of children in its care very seriously,” the White House statement reads. “Currently we see no basis for Governor Abbott’s call to shut down the San Antonio Freeman Coliseum as an intake site, however, his claims will be looked into and investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services.”