Dear Friend --

We are proud to report today that every child at our emergency migrant shelter has been reunified with family or sponsors in the United States. The shelter opened on April 22 and now, 3 months later, we are able to close the shelter, on time, as promised with 1,538 children reunified.

Since it opened, staff and volunteers at the shelter have worked tirelessly on behalf of these children to make sure that they were well cared for with access to excellent medical care from UCLA Health, legal representation from the amazing Immigrant Defenders Law Center, and — most importantly — a safe home in our country.

I want to thank everyone who made this achievement possible, but also all the members of our community for their outpouring of support and compassion for these kids. To date, we have received over 130,000 items including books, toys, and clothing that were donated to the shelter as well as $240,000 in contributions to the Long Beach Community Foundation's Migrant Children Support Fund. These efforts were so important to welcome these children to Long Beach and to our country.

Long Beach has a long history of welcoming and helping immigrants and refugees; from our Cambodian community to the current work of advocates and organizations who lead with compassion, kindness, and inclusion. As an immigrant, I know how important it is to support all people, especially children — and I have been so proud to see our city step up to this challenge by welcoming these kids.

This humanitarian mission has always been about ensuring the safe reunification of families and we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to help here in Long Beach.

Thank you, 

Mayor Robert Garcia