Dear Friend --

We continue to make incredible progress at the Long Beach migrant shelter. As of today, 1,280 migrant children at our site have been unified with family or a caring sponsor in the United States. These reunifications represent dedicated humanitarian work from our federal partners at Health and Human Services, UCLA Health, the staff at the Long Beach Convention Center, and the committed lawyers and staff at Immigrant Defenders that work to represent the children.

I’m grateful that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Becerra, immigration and civil rights attorneys, and community leaders have called our shelter a national model.

When we opened the intake shelter just a few months ago, we said we would do everything we could as a city and as a community to support these children. Your support has been overwhelming and I can’t thank you enough.

We announced when we opened the facility that shelter operations at our Convention Center would end by August 2, and we are just three weeks away from that important date. Since opening, our community has donated well over 100,000 toys, books and other items to support these kids. The love and outpouring of care and kindness our community has shown has been amazing.

Long Beach is a city with a rich history of supporting immigrants and honoring the contributions of migrant communities. I've been able to speak with many of the kids over the months, and they appreciate the love and care that our community has shown. We look forward to working towards unifying the remaining kids with family in the weeks ahead.

Thank you,

Mayor Robert Garcia