美国国家公共电台 NPR U.S. Plans To Expand Tent Camp In Texas For Unaccompanied Migrant Children

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Reporters got a rare glimpse inside a temporary shelter for migrant children in far west Texas on Friday. The facility opened in June as a series of huge tents on a remote stretch of desert just north of the Mexican border. Its capacity has rapidly expanded since then. It can now contain up to 3,800 children. Monica Ortiz Uribe tells us what's driving the need for more shelter space and what it's like inside.

MONICA ORTIZ URIBE, BYLINE¹: The shelter is spread out in an L-like shape with two segregated² wings - one for boys and another for girls. Shelter staff dart³ about in four-wheeled utility vehicles. It's run like a mini city with its own ambulances, firefighters, urgent care clinic and a sanitation⁴ crew. At both ends are soccer fields. The teens, ages 13 through 17, sleep on bunk⁵ beds in large, air-conditioned tents. Friday's lunch menu was red tamales, refried beans and rice. Migrant children are spending more time in the shelter system, an average of 59 days, twice as long as last year's average. That's straining capacity at roughly 100 federally funded shelters nationwide and created the need for more bed space at Tornillo.

MARK GREENBERG: We now have the largest number of children in shelter in the history of the program.

ORTIZ URIBE: Mark Greenberg worked in the Obama administration's Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS. He helped oversee⁶ the migrant child program.

GREENBERG: But it's not because arrivals are at a historic high. It's because it is taking much longer for children to be released from the shelter system.

ORTIZ URIBE: One reason, says Greenberg, is because some of the children's relatives are reluctant to claim them. HHS is now sharing sponsor information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE has arrested at least 40 sponsors.

MARK WEBER: Really appreciate it.

ORTIZ URIBE: Mark Weber is a spokesman for HHS. He acknowledged that their stricter vetting⁷ process is causing delays.

WEBER: We don't want to place the child in a home where there's a potential threat. So we have to balance speed with safety.

ORTIZ URIBE: Weber also blamed the delay on the influx⁸ of children crossing the border. Their numbers are slightly up from last year but still significantly below the record high set in 2014.

JENNIFER PODKUL: The government is running an emergency shelter at a time when there is no emergency.

ORTIZ URIBE: Jennifer Podkul is the director of policy for a legal organization that represents kids in immigration court.

PODKUL: Even if when you have an ORR program that's especially designed for this population, that caters⁹ to them, that does have programming that's age appropriate, it's still not in the best interests of the child to be separated from caring family and in a stable environment outside of detention¹⁰.

ORTIZ URIBE: Kids who are close to being released to their sponsors are moved to Tornillo to free up space at other more permanent shelters. More than half of them, close to 900, are waiting on the results of fingerprint¹¹ testing on their sponsors before they can go home. For NPR News, I'm Monica Ortiz Uribe in Tornillo, Texas.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

3 dart   

v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲

参考例句：

• The child made a sudden dart across the road.那小孩突然冲过马路。
• Markov died after being struck by a poison dart.马尔科夫身中毒镖而亡。

4 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

5 bunk   

n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话

参考例句：

• He left his bunk and went up on deck again.他离开自己的铺位再次走到甲板上。
• Most economists think his theories are sheer bunk.大多数经济学家认为他的理论纯属胡说。

6 oversee   

vt.监督，管理

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts.士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Use a surveyor or architect to oversee and inspect the different stages of the work.请一位房产检视员或建筑师来监督并检查不同阶段的工作。

7 vetting   

n.数据检查[核对，核实]v.审查（某人过去的记录、资格等）( vet的现在分词 )；调查；检查；诊疗

参考例句：

• Scripts had to be submitted to Ministry of Information officials for vetting. 必须把脚本提交给信息部官员审查。 来自互联网
• Their purpose in clicking deeper into a site is one of vetting. 他们深入点击网站的目的是一种诊疗。 来自互联网

8 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

9 caters   

提供饮食及服务( cater的第三人称单数 )； 满足需要，适合

参考例句：

• That shop caters exclusively to the weaker sex. 那家商店专供妇女需要的商品。
• The boutique caters for a rather select clientele. 这家精品店为特定的顾客群服务。

10 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

11 fingerprint   

n.指纹；vt.取...的指纹

参考例句：

• The fingerprint expert was asked to testify at the trial.指纹专家应邀出庭作证。
• The court heard evidence from a fingerprint expert.法院听取了指纹专家的证词。