The temporary shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children at Naval Base Ventura County closed last week just three days after federal officials announced it would "phase down" and close within two months.
The last group of about 110 13- to 17-year-olds living at the Navy facility was released Aug. 7, more than three weeks before the scheduled Aug. 31 closure date that was reported to Ventura County health officials.
About 1,540 immigrant teenagers lived at the Port Hueneme shelter during the two months it operated.
Children at the two other temporary shelters in the U.S. were discharged, as well. They left the Fort Sill Army installation in Oklahoma on Aug. 6 and Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas on Saturday, according to federal officials.
The Defense Department authorized the Department of Health and Human Services to use the three military sites as emergency shelters through January to help cope with a surge of unaccompanied children — primarily from Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras — illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Administration for Children and Families, a branch of Health and Human Services, suspended use of the temporary shelters after it "expanded capacity to care for children in standard shelters, which are significantly less costly facilities," spokesman Kenneth Wolfe said in an email. "At the same time, we have seen a decrease in the number of children crossing the southwest border."
Nearly 7,800 minors were temporarily housed and discharged from the three military shelters after they opened in May and early June, Wolfe said.
Most children were released to a family member or sponsor living in the United States while they await immigration proceedings.
Custody of unaccompanied minors detained at the border is transferred within 72 hours to Health and Human Services, which has about 100 permanent shelters near the southwest border.
But the shelters became overwhelmed as 57,000 children were detained illegally crossing the border without a parent during a nine-month time period ending in June.
That number is expected to reach 90,000 by the end of September — a nearly fourfold increase from the 24,000 unaccompanied minors detained by Customs and Border Protection during the 2013 fiscal year, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
There have been fewer unaccompanied children apprehended at the border since the start of July, Wolfe said, but the temporary shelters could be reopened if there is another significant increase.
After the Port Hueneme shelter opened, donations of hygiene products, clothes, toys, books and school supplies poured in from community members with the hope that they would help the children.
The donations eventually filled a classroom at the Center for Employment Training in Oxnard, said Jessica Flanagan, a Ventura resident who organized the effort.
But because the shelter was supported by federal agencies, getting donations to the Navy base was difficult.
Most of the donated clothing went to local low-income families at an event hosted by the center. The rest of the items will go to the Los Angeles-based consulates of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador or permanent foster homes that serve unaccompanied immigrants in California, Flanagan said.