DALLAS — Beginning as early as this week, FEMA will use a downtown Dallas convention center to house up to 3,000 migrant teens.

This initiative is part of a Biden Administration emergency measure as more families, teens, and children arrive at the US-Mexico border.

FEMA approached the city and asked to lease the center to use as what it’s calling, “a decompression facility.” It’s intended to help relieve the current overcrowding at the border.

Unaccompanied children are coming in at record numbers. Border Patrol facilities, where they’re generally supposed to be held for only 3 days, are full and U.S. Health and Human Services don’t have the capacity to meet this surge of minors waiting to be transferred.

So, that’s where Dallas is helping out.

The convention center will be used for up to 90 days to house boys ages 15 to 17, while arrangements for more permanent sheltering or connections to sponsor families are made. The Department of Homeland Security say in the case of unaccompanied minors, more than 80 percent of the time, that child has a family member in the U.S., and 40 percent of the time, that’s a parent of a legal guardian.

This is a federal operation contracted to use a city facility, meaning the city of Dallas is actually not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of this, nor is it financially responsible for supporting it.

FEMA and HHS are responsible for providing food, security, cleaning, and medical care.

City manager, T.C. Broadnax, says, "We are committed to working with our federal partners to accommodate the request to utilize our facilities. Collective action is necessary and we will do our best to support this humanitarian effort.”

Dallas faith-based nonprofits and organizations are standing ready to support the agencies in any way, providing pastoral, emotional, and legal support.

“There are people there who are in need and there are people here who can help. And that’s what we want to be able to do and to be able to respond properly,” says Rabbi Andrew Paley with Faith Forward Dallas.

Catholic Charities in Dallas is willing to provide support as well. 

“As you can imagine, as a teenager it’s pretty traumatic to go to a totally different country and not know anybody. So really, our volunteers who are coming are really trying to provide a peaceful transition as they’re here,” says Jeremy Bermender of Catholic Charities.

Catholic Charities also tells Spectrum News 1 it’s looking for bilingual volunteers that can provide mental and social stimulation for the youth coming in.