SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A federal agency has closed the last of five temporary emergency shelters in Texas that housed unaccompanied illegal immigrant children.
The Department of Health and Human Services says the last four children staying at the Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio have been relocated and the shelter there closed down Wednesday.
Spokesman Kenneth Wolfe says the department has opened new permanent, state-certified shelters and is expanding existing facilities.
The dormitory at Lackland, which opened in April, could hold up to 300 youngsters. Most of the kids who stayed there were caught near the border with Mexico.
The San Antonio Express-News reports that the agency has rounded up 8,541 unaccompanied children since October, exceeding the 2011 total.
(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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