It was announced in 2022 that the former American Hebrew Academy on Hobbs Road would be used to house unaccompanied immigrant children, but so far no children are being housed at the facility.

In June 2019, the American Hebrew Academy closed, and on June 10, 2022, the board of directors of the American Hebrew Academy announced that the campus at 4334 Hobbs Road would be leased to the Department of Housing and Human Services (HHS) Administration for the Children and Families Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

There has been much speculation on social media sites about exactly what is happening at the American Hebrew Academy, but few answers.

On Friday, Dec. 29, the Administration for Children and Families Office of Refugee Resettlement released, “ORR Influx Care Facilities for Unaccompanied Children: Fact Sheet.”

Under the heading Greensboro ICF [Influx Care Facility] it states:

“HHS has secured a facility in Greensboro, North Carolina as the site of the future Greensboro ICF. When opened, the ICF will provide shelter for boys and girls, 13 to 17 years old, and has a capacity of up to 800 beds. There are currently no children in care at the site, and no current activation date. Opening the facility will depend on a variety of factors including capacity requirements and UC [unaccompanied children] referral rates, among other considerations. Current facilities on campus will be utilized for education, housing, mental health, medical, and case management needs.”

The report gives the status of other ICF sites and states that:

  • The Pecos ICF in Pecos Texas opened as an emergency intake site for unaccompanied children and is now an influx care facility with a funded capacity of 1,000 beds with 407 children at the site.
  • The Dimmit County ICF in Carrizo Springs, Texas has a funded capacity of 250 beds and currently houses 176 children at the site.
  • The ICF at Fort Bliss near El Paso, Texas was placed in a “warm status, which means a facility is not fully staffed and there are only minimal onsite facility management services, such as payment of utilities, infrastructure repairs, and fence landscaping, and storm damage preparation.”

From the report, it appears the ORR has hundreds of empty beds at the currently open ICF sites and that Fort Bliss is further along than the site in Greensboro, which is the only one listed as a “future” ICF site.