Immigrant Children Will Not Be Housed In The Old SSA Building

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Baltimore officials say a vacant downtown office building is no longer being considered as a place to house immigrant children.

The building was once used by the Social Security Administration. Federal officials were considering using it as temporary housing for 9,500 unaccompanied children from Central America who were caught at the U.S.-Mexico border last month.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake tells a local radio station that aides to the mayor were informed Wednesday by federal officials that the building would not be used for that purpose.

Rawlings-Blake and senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin had objected to the plan, saying the building was not equipped to house the children.

Mikulski says she hopes the federal government will consider other locations in Maryland.