150 children from Mexican border expected to be housed in Erie dorm

At least 150 refugee children detained at the U.S.-Mexico border are expected to arrive in Erie late Tuesday or early Wednesday to receive temporary shelter, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson.

The unaccompanied children, who will range in age from 7-12 years old, will be housed at a dormitory owned by the Pennsylvania International Academy, located adjacent to the ErieBank Sports Park in Summit Township.

Six children will be assigned to each room in the 648-capacity dormitory, as more children are expected in the future.

At 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, a handful of officers from the Federal Protective Service, a uniformed police division within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, were seen outside the facility and employing police tape to block off a side of the parking lot.

Officers on the scene said they could not provide any information on the children’s arrival time.

Trish Danner, spokesperson for the U.S. Health and Human Services department, said she had yet to be notified of the children’s departure from the border. The children are reportedly being transported by a contracted transportation service.

Danner said the children will be cared for at the facility by staff from a number of federal agencies and volunteer groups.

“Some children will be processed fairly quickly because they have a relative or a sponsor here,” she said. “But there are others that could be here for months, depending on the situation.”

Danner added that foster care could be an option.

The Pennsylvania International Academy, owned by Glen Renaud, is among numerous sites across the country that have offered to temporarily house unaccompanied children seeking asylum.

Renaud has refused to comment on the matter with the Erie Times-News.

According to a recent report in U.S. News & World Report, the Border Patrol encountered 18,663 unaccompanied children along the border during the month of March.

Most accounts indicate that the number of unaccompanied children being picked up has been affected by the Biden administration’s policy of exempting children from pandemic-related policies that have prompted the expulsion of most adults seeking asylum.