TEXAS — The Biden administration is preparing to open an overflow shelter in Texas to handle the growing number of migrant children making their way into the U.S., reports from CNN and several other sources indicate.

According to those reports, it will be located in Carrizo Springs, which is located just over 80 miles northwest of Laredo, in Dimmit County.

The Health and Human Services Department told CNN the facility, which has been used in the past, will hold about 700 children and can be expanded.

All of the children sheltered in the facility, the agency said, will be medically cleared from COVID-19 quarantine prior to entry, and the facility won’t house any children younger than 13.

The need for the shelter comes as unaccompanied migrant children have increasingly been taken into custody along the border, capacity is reduced at other facilities due to COVID-19, there exists speculation that the Biden administration will relax border enforcement, and conditions deteriorate in parts of Latin America, CNN reported.

Unaccompanied children taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security are referred to HHS and are subject to expulsion.

According to a 2019 Associated Press report, at the time a record 69,550 were held in custody by the U.S. government over the past year.  

The Associated Press contributed to this report.