Forced to care for thousands of “unaccompanied” minors, the Biden administration threw money at the problem, scrambling to open more than a dozen “Emergency Intake Sites” operated by private contractors as a stopgap alternative to border holding cells. In Houston, a multimillion-dollar no-bid contract went to an organization called NACC Disaster Services, a wing of the National Association of Christian Churches, led by an evangelical pastor named Jose Ortega.Ortega’s NACC site was abruptly closed on April 17, barely two weeks after it opened, with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) citing the need to “ensure continuity of care under conditions that meet our strict standards” but thus far offering no further explanation for canceling the contract. The agency’s press office acknowledged receiving multiple calls and emails with requests for comment, but it has not yet provided a response.Have information about what happened at the Houston warehouse or another federal shelter for migrant children? Email the author at keegan.hamilton@vice.com.
The 50-year-old Ortega told VICE News his original vision was for the NACC to purchase a large facility in Houston with proper housing and an outdoor play area, but Biden officials told him there was no time. With the migration wave at the border becoming a full-blown crisis, the White House was desperate to find somewhere to warehouse the kids—and what Ortega had to offer was a literal warehouse, a 114,400-square-foot building near Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.Ortega said in late March he spoke personally with President Biden’s HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, who urged him to convert the warehouse into a temporary shelter within 24 hours.“He begged me,” Ortega said of his phone call with Becerra. “He said, ‘We'll dance salsa, we’ll dance merengue, we’ll dance whatever, but please do me this favor: Receive these kids.’”Ortega’s facility had been used as a warming shelter during a winter freeze in Houston, but the NACC had no experience offering care for vulnerable children like the ones arriving at the border. Parts of the warehouse lacked air conditioning, and it was full of cardboard boxes stacked on wood pallets.Locations for other federal “Emergency Intake Sites” have included convention centers and a massive tent city on a Texas military base. According to government data, around 14,500 kids are currently being held in HHS custody, down from a peak of over 25,000 earlier in the spring. With arrivals at the border on the decline, six of the sites are slated for closure.“We have enough details to know something very frightening and inappropriate happened at that facility.”
“It was a nightmare,” Ortega said. “Every agency, there were four or five agencies, they all wanted to be the boss. They’re all fighting with each other.” The buses carrying migrant girls, Ortega said, would sometimes arrive on short notice in the middle of the night. The girls came wearing “institutional clothing, sweats, and jail flip-flops,” he recalled, and some hadn’t showered for over a week. Those with lice or other medical issues went to the medical tent—a blue tarp set up in the warehouse, adorned with a cardboard “Clinico de Medico” sign with stars and smiley faces.“If you entered in the middle of night, you wouldn’t have known the difference between it being a detention center or a warehouse where they’re just storing dry goods.”
‘The girl didn’t know if she was going to be kidnapped.’
Welch, who works for the National Center for Youth Law, said that while only three declarations from the Houston site have been filed publicly, she spoke with more than 10 others who gave similar accounts. She noted that many girls were awake during the evening incident because they were bored and slept all day.“Lots of other young people described a very similar set of facts, kind of zeroing in on this attempted abduction,” Welch said. “We had a lot of accounts that, although we don't know the details of what exactly happened, we have enough details to know something very frightening and inappropriate happened at that facility.”Asked about alleged misconduct or abuse at the emergency intake sites in general, not just Houston, HHS Secretary Becerra told reporters the agency and its Inspector General’s office would investigate and “report it to local law enforcement, as we must.”Ortega and another NACC employee claim what happened was not an attempted kidnapping but an overzealous HHS employee who conducted several impromptu security checks by trying to see if kids could be lured out of the facility.Ortega described the person as an African American woman who wore a Navy or Coast Guard-type uniform and had the rank of captain, known to him and staff as “Captain BB.” Ortega seemed to be describing a member of HHS’ Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which has been deployed to the intake sites and has blue jumpsuit-style uniforms.“I’ve been doing my best to try to make sure there's a proper investigation, and honestly, to this day, I have no idea if there has been.”
Ortega’s security contractor, Mauricio Garcia, president of the Houston Harris Commission, spoke to VICE News on a phone call with Ortega’s attorney also on the line. Garcia said he wasn’t at the warehouse himself, but he was told his staff intervened to prevent a girl from being removed in the middle of the night.“When she said it was a breach of security, we said, ‘That’s absolutely insane; you’re the person who is allowed to do that.’”