SMU Dedman School of Law's Natalie Nanasi, who researches and teaches on issues relating to immigrant women and children, recently volunteered at Dallas' emergency migrant shelter at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
"It's something like I've never seen before," says Nanasi.
Imagine 2,300 identical green cots. Row after row of cots in a cavernous convention center space. Nanasi says the kids have food, but the showers are portable, outdoor units. The facility is still working on entertainment for the teens as they wait to be released to family members already in the U.S.
Nanasi shared several ways she feels the humanitarian crisis should be addressed.
1. Release the children from the decompression center as efficiently as possible. "Every boy I spoke to this weekend has a family member in the United States that he longs to reunite with. Vetting of these sponsors ensures that kids are released to safe adults, but every effort must be made to expedite the process," Nanasi said.
2. Care should be taken that this decompression center remains more like a shelter than a prison. "I have represented immigrants detained by law enforcement in this country and can safely say that the Dallas Convention Center is not, and does not feel like a jail…But strict rules are already in place and it is not difficult to imagine a path that leads to lockdowns and a more combative, custodial relationship."
3. Sites like the Dallas emergency migrant shelter should be temporary. "Volunteers are moving mountains to make the Convention Center as comfortable as possible...But the facility does not compare to a licensed shelter that affords privacy, safety, and critical services such as mental health counseling. Pop-up decompression centers cannot become the norm," she said.
4. We as a country must rediscover our compassion. "Pragmatism supports providing aid to our neighbors in Central America; financial support for these countries may stem the tide of migrants. But it is also the right thing, the moral thing, to do," Nanasi said.
