The last detained migrant child just left the government's infamous tent city

The Tornillo, Texas tent city is finally coming down.

The massive facility built to house an overflow of migrant children once held as many as 2,500 minors. Now, the last child has left the grounds, Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) tweeted Friday, adding his criticism for the much-decried makeshift shelter.

After migrant families were separated and detained under President Trump's zero tolerance immigration policy, already-built detention facilities quickly hit capacity. The Tornillo tent city was built to hold the influx of children detained and separated from their families, and was at one point expanded to hold as many as 3,800 kids.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

As months wore on and rules regarding the sponsorship of housing children were loosened, the tent city quickly started emptying out. Tornillo started being dismantled last week, but as many as 1,500 children were still detained there, Vice News reported. That number was officially down to 800 by Tuesday, per the Department of Health and Human Services, and reports later said the last of Tornillo's detained children would likely leave by the weekend. It's unlikely all those children were released to sponsors or family members so quickly; while The Washington Post reports that the "vast majority" will be placed with sponsors or moved to other facilities, it's unclear where they were relocated to.