(CNN) - The Fort Bliss shelter looks more like a warehouse, according to people who have been there, with rows and rows of stacked coters on top of each other, filling large white tents where they expect hundreds of undocumented immigrant minors.Now, officials are talking about duplicating that population, 5.000 to 10.000 children, which could worse even more a situation already difficult.

The lawyers who have visited the facilities described for CNN children's scenes with little work, some crying, others spending time sleeping.Some do not dare to play outside of Texas, without knowing when the next turn of Lavandería will arrive.Several have been there for more than a month, while waiting for their next stop.

Durante la primavera, el Gobierno de Biden se apresuró a sacar un número récord de menores inmigrantes de las instalaciones de retención de la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección de Fronteras de Estados Unidos​ (CBP, por sus siglas en inglés), que parecen más bien cárceles, para llevarlos a refugios como éste en Fort Bliss.The lawyers and defenders who visited the centers say they are better equipped.

But they still worry that the facilities do not meet all the needs of a especially vulnerable population.

"Fort Bliss is emblematic of a myopic approach to cleaning[customs and border protection] without properly worrying about restoring and expanding the shelter system[of the refugee resettlement office]].We are storing more than 4.000 children in soft tents in a military base, "said Leecia Welch, senior director of Legal Defense and Child Welfare of the National Center for the Youth Law, which visited the center at the end of April and described a nausebound smell in theplace.

Until May 23, there were 18.187 minors in all facilities of the Department of Health and Human Services of the United States, (HHS), according to the latest government data.

The use of emerging sites is also expensive.The daily cost is more than double that of the shelter program already established by the Department of Health and Human Services, which is approximately US $ 775 per day, compared to around US $ 290 per day, according to government data.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, told journalists - Monday - that the center of Fort Bliss, as well as other emergency centers, allowed the administration to quickly move minors outside the CBP facilitiesto a place that could better meet your needs.I also contradicted concerns about the conditions in the facilities.

"I walked by fort bliss.I toured the housing area for boys and girls.We keep boys and separate girls.I didn't see any problems with minors' clothing, "Becerra said when asked about Fort Bliss, Monday.

Democratic representative Verónica Escobar, from Texas, who visited Fort Bliss last Friday, told CNN that she had observed some improvements in the place, but said there were still deficiencies, such as lack of access to clean clothes and the permanence of theminors in the place for more than 40 days.

"It is absolutely unacceptable.No minor should be there for more than two weeks.It should be just an emergency admission.[...] Should only be a situation used as a transition, "said Escobar.

HHS has an authorized beds of around 13.500 equipped with a multitude of services, such as education and recreation, but given the limitations of capacity related to the pandemic, the department has had to depend on temporary sites to accommodate the minors.

"We were flying the plane while we built it," said an administration official to CNN, referring to the need to adapt on the march.

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The HHS is considering expanding its site in Fort Bliss, until its potential capacity of 10.000 beds, according to federal documents obtained by CNN.Becerra said Monday that it is difficult to know what to expect, without knowing how many minors will arrive at the border between the United States and Mexico in the coming weeks, but accepted that the intake sites are not designed so that minors remain for prolonged periods before beingdelivered to their families.

Escobar raised his concern about the size of Fort Bliss and the duration of the stay to the secretary of the HHS and the leaders of the White House, who, he said, were receptive to what she called a "constructive critic".

"I understand that it is an emergency reception center.I understand.They have done their best with the resources they have, with the deadline they needed to put things in motion, but in the face of the future, we have to divide those megasites, "he said."It doesn't bother me that there is 10.000 or 5.000 minors in El Paso.What bothers me is to have them everything located in a single megasite ".

Emerging facilities open by HHS in recent months were the main theme of a call among the members of the Hispanic group of Congress and Becerra, last Thursday, according to a source familiar with the meeting.The members asked the secretary how the sites were selected, as well as the way they could involve local suppliers, said the source.

Democratic representative Norma Torres, from California, who participated in the informative meeting with Becerra, has visited four of the temporary facilities.He described the sites as "much more human" than the border facilities, but pointed out that he visits the site in his district, located in the Pomona Fairplex, weekly to ensure that the conditions do not deteriorate.

When asked about the conditions in Fort Bliss, Torres said he did not observe problems during his visit."This is a fear that I have and that is why I visit the facilities here in my district every week.I don't want to hear any story like this one that comes out of this installation that is in my district, "he told CNN.

Minors express self -harm thoughts

Welch and a team of lawyers visited seven emergency shelters in recent weeks and interviewed more than 100 minors about the facilities conditions.The lawyer team had access to speaking with minors because they are supervising compliance by the Government of the Flores Agreement, a 1997 agreement that regulates the conditions in which US officials can stop immigrants.

In general, emerging facilities adopt the form of emergency shelters, offering basic needs, but without providing other services, such as education and case management, hundreds of minors housed in places.The conditions of the emergency reception centers can vary, and change regularly, but in some cases, the rapid rhythm to which the centers contributed to their deficiencies.

The minors reported that they did not have access to clean clothes, that they spent the day sleeping to spend time and frequently cried.In Fort Bliss, which houses children between 13 and 17, some minors decided not to play outdoors because they were not sure when their clothes would be cleaned again, according to Welch, who added that minors also reported self -linges of self -harm thoughts.While traveling the facilities, a bunk in which two children were sitting collapsed, Welch recalled.

Some children have been abruptly transferred from Fort Bliss to other HHS facilities where they are placed in more restrictive environments "due to alleged danger or the risk of escape," said Neha Desai, immigration director of the National Center for the Law of the Law of the Law of theYouth, who described these environments as of less freedom of movement and greater security.

In one case, a minor was transferred on the basis of "frivolous and not corroborated accusations on gangs", and in another case, a minor was transferred to allegedly refuse to receive medical treatment, while others were told that they met withHis family when they were actually being transferred, Desai explained.

In Houston, the National Association of Christian Churches, which had been helping to house the minors, was closed abruptly, shortly before the lawyers prepared to visit the place.

Welch and his team have since located more than a dozen girls who were in the place.Girls described fainting, lack of food or inappropriate food, lack of clean clothes and restrictions in bathrooms that forbade them to use them after 10 at night.

"HHS undertakes to guarantee the well -being of minors in our charge.We proactively closed the facilities of Erie and Houston because they did not comply with our care standard and we are tirelessly working with the contractors to ensure that these standards are met at the sites that operate today, "said an HHS spokesman in a statement, referring to the siteemergency established in Houston and another in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Dean Hoover, lawyer of the National Association of Christian Churches, refused to comment on the conditions.

A high price

One of the main challenges of the temporary centers is the lack of case management, which is usually integrated into the reception centers of the Refugee Resettlement Office already established.The HHS awarded more than US $ 268 million to a private company, Family Endeavors Inc., to help in emergency reception centers, although the award has a potential value of US $ 579 million.

In a sign of the continuous need for personnel, the refugee resettlement office renounced the requirement that young people care personnel have a minimum of one year of experience in child welfare, unless it is required by the state in which it operatesThe shelter, according to a notification obtained by CNN.

Two major Texas centers, the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, from Dallas, and Freeman Coliseum, from San Antonio, will close in early June because their lease contracts expire.

In the Dallas Convention Center, the space seems more like an emergency refuge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) than a traditional HHS refuge, with cuers aligned in a large space.There, some minors have spent weeks with little or no access to the outside.More than 300 minors were at the Dallas Convention Center for more than 50 days, and more than 450 children were at the San Antonio facilities for more than 40 days, said Desai.