Immigrant Children Will Continue Staying in Temporary Housing at Port Hueneme Naval Base

Hundreds of immigrant children are currently being housed at Port Hueneme Naval Base. When the temporary immigrant shelter opened at the base it was supposed to only be here for 120 days, but this week the Defense Department decided to keep the shelter open at least through January of 2015.

The shelter at Port Hueneme Naval Base can be home to 575 immigrant children at a time.

“My patience for little kids never gets old. I would love to care for every little kid that I can,” said Nancy Lopez of Oxnard.

People looking for a job like Oxnard residents Nancy Lopez and Yasmine Corres were excited to hear that because the shelter is staying open Southwest Key Programs was looking to hire an additional 330 people to staff the facility.

On Thursday morning Lopez and Corres went to the Marriot Hotel in Ventura to attend the Southwest Key Programs job fair. Unfortunately for Lopez and Corres, when they arrived the job fair had been canceled for Wednesday and Thursday without notice. Hotel employees told NewsChannel 3 that hundreds of people came to the job fair the first four days it was open, and they are not sure why Southwest decide to cancel the last two days.

“I am really upset because I really wanted to work with kids,” said Lopez.

Southwest Key Programs had published the open positions on its website. It included 275 openings for youth care workers. That position’s primary duty was to supervise the children. The pay ranged from 16 to 22 dollars an hour.

“That’s really good pay you know, especially if it’s to start, that is really good pay,” said Lopez.

NewsChannel 3 reached out to Southwest Key Programs and the Department of Health and Human Services to find out if all the 330 open positions were successfully filled. They have yet to respond to our repeated calls.