美国国家公共电台 NPR Almost 15,000 Migrant Children Now Held At Nearly Full Shelters

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We have news this morning of almost 15,000 children held in shelters by the United States. Federal contractors¹ run the shelters, and they are filling up with young people, young migrants, mostly from Central America. The U.S. can place them with families but has changed the rules to do that less. NPR's John Burnett joins us from El Paso, Texas. Hey there, John.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE²: Morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: So why are these children in government custody³?

BURNETT: Well, most of them are teenagers from Central America who traveled to the border alone. They're escaping poverty and gangs, and they want to ask for asylum⁴. But the numbers keep rising. Last month, border agents report they were apprehending⁵ on average 175 of these so-called unaccompanied children every day.

INSKEEP: Wow.

BURNETT: And the network of these government-contracted shelters is just running out of space. They're at 92 percent capacity. One source who's familiar with the operation out here in Tornillo, in far west Texas, the biggest shelter of all, told me there are barely any beds left. This is unsustainable.

INSKEEP: Do they have to be in shelters?

BURNETT: Well, they could add even more beds for these kids, which is expensive and controversial, or they can seek a way to release these children from custody even quicker. Right now, you see, the kids are caught in a bottleneck⁶. The feds have to screen an adult sponsor who steps forward to take the child, and that's usually a family member already living in the U.S. And then the child stays with them while their asylum case is pending⁷.

But that vetting⁸ process has slowed to a crawl, partly because of a requirement that was added last year. Anybody who lives in the sponsor's household has to be fingerprinted¹⁰ and get a criminal background check. The Trump¹¹ administration says they're just taking extra precautions to protect the children from, say, a convicted child molester¹². And so by relaxing that screening process, I was told, Tornillo has 1,300 kids ready to release today.

INSKEEP: Tornillo. That's a major facility that we're talking about here, where these kids are. Has the government decided¹³ what it's going to do?

BURNETT: Well, I spoke¹⁴ with a senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services, and they're the ones who oversee¹⁵ the shelters, and she told me it's too early to say what action, if any, they'll take to relieve this shelter overload¹⁶, that everything's on the table. The official said, we continue to look for options that don't jeopardize¹⁷ the child's safety. And she added, the real problem is a broken immigration system that acts as a perverse¹⁸ incentive¹⁹ for all these young people to cross the border in the first place.

INSKEEP: Have you been able to learn what it's like inside the shelters holding these almost-15,000 kids?

BURNETT: So Tornillo's the largest shelter in the country with 2,800 kids. I took a tour out there in the summer when it was smaller. The boys and girls stay in these big sand-colored tents lined up in rows on a patch of desert just a few-hundred yards from the Rio Grande. The shelter's staffed up, at present, to care for 3,000 children. So they're going to max out any week now. Today, the average stay in Tornillo is 50 days, and that's worrying. Child welfare experts say detention²⁰ is never in the best interest of a child. It's bad for them mentally and physically²¹.

And this is why Tornillo gets so much criticism. Protesters are out there all the time calling for it to be shut down. Here's El Paso County Commissioner²² Vince Perez. Tornillo's in his precinct, and he complains it's giving the county a bad name.

VINCE PEREZ: We're already battling this perception that it's inherently a violent place. Now you have a massive detention facility where you have thousands of children that are detained there. It's certainly deplorable, what's happening.

INSKEEP: OK. This shelter has been criticized not just by protesters, but by federal inspectors²⁴. What happened?

BURNETT: Well, last month, the inspector²³ general of Health and Human Services identified two problems. Staffers at Tornillo didn't undergo FBI fingerprint⁹ background checks, and there weren't enough mental health clinicians for the kids. The nonprofit that runs Tornillo is now addressing both issues and they'll - but they want to say, anybody who's listening, Tornillo is not a detention facility. The kids are not in cages. They provide humane²⁵, comfortable living conditions, healthy meals, medical care, classes, soccer fields and soon a big Christmas celebration.

INSKEEP: That's NPR's John Burnett. Thanks.

1 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 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。

3 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

4 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

5 apprehending   

逮捕，拘押( apprehend的现在分词 )； 理解

参考例句：

• China has not been totally unsuccessful apprehending corruption suspects. 在逮捕腐化分子方面，中国并非毫无进展。
• Apprehending violence is not an easy task. 惧怕暴力不是一件容易的事。

6 bottleneck   

n.瓶颈口，交通易阻的狭口；妨生产流程的一环

参考例句：

• The transportation bottleneck has blocked the movement of the cargo.运输的困难阻塞了货物的流通。
• China's strained railroads already become a bottleneck for the economy.中国紧张的铁路运输已经成为经济增长的瓶颈。

7 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

8 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

9 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。

10 fingerprinted   

v.指纹( fingerprint的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The criminal was fingerprinted in the sheriff's office. 罪犯在警长办公室里被取下指纹。 来自辞典例句
• They were then taken to be photographed and fingerprinted. 然后，他们被带去照相、留指纹。 来自互联网

11 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

12 molester   

参考例句：

• A nationwide manhunt for an alleged child molester is over. 一个全国搜捕骚扰儿童的行动告一段落。 来自互联网
• Did the molester penetrate the child? 这名性骚扰者插进小孩的身体了吗？ 来自互联网

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

15 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。

16 overload   

vt.使超载；n.超载

参考例句：

• Don't overload the boat or it will sink.别超载，否则船会沉。
• Large meals overload the digestive system.吃得太饱会加重消化系统的负担。

17 jeopardize   

vt.危及，损害

参考例句：

• Overworking can jeopardize your health.工作过量可能会危及你的健康。
• If you are rude to the boss it may jeopardize your chances of success.如果你对上司无礼，那就可能断送你成功的机会。

18 perverse   

adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的

参考例句：

• It would be perverse to stop this healthy trend.阻止这种健康发展的趋势是没有道理的。
• She gets a perverse satisfaction from making other people embarrassed.她有一种不正常的心态，以使别人难堪来取乐。

19 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

20 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。

21 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

22 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

23 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

24 inspectors   

n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors. 他们假装成视察员进了学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Inspectors checked that there was adequate ventilation. 检查员已检查过，通风良好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 humane   

adj.人道的，富有同情心的

参考例句：

• Is it humane to kill animals for food?宰杀牲畜来吃合乎人道吗？
• Their aim is for a more just and humane society.他们的目标是建立一个更加公正、博爱的社会。