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Eight months after its shelters for immigrant children came under public scrutiny over allegations of abuse and lax supervision, Heartland Human Care Services says it will close four shelters in suburban Chicago and add staff, training and other resources at its remaining five facilities. The decision, announced to employees in a memo Friday, comes as another agency, Maryville Academy, plans to open two additional shelters, including one as early as next month. (Sanchez, Eldeib and Cohen, 3/13)

The Defense Department is reviewing a number of military bases to find a location that can house up to 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children as the U.S. braces for a surge of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border this spring. The Department of Health and Human Services submitted the request for space late last week, as Homeland Security leaders warned that tens of thousands of families are crossing the border each month. That flow, said Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, will grow worse this spring as the weather gets better. (3/12)

The Trump administration will try to persuade a U.S. appeals court on Wednesday to block California laws aimed at protecting immigrants, seeking a win in one of numerous lawsuits between the White House and the Democratic-dominated state. At issue in the hearing before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a 2018 administration lawsuit over three California laws that extended protections to people in the country illegally. (3/13)

A Democratic senator from Oregon advocating against migrant youth detention camps says he toured a Florida facility and found children are being held there for too long in a restrictive environment. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley said that he talked to three boys who also confirmed reports that employees told teenagers they would not be reunited with family if they misbehaved. (3/12)