SAN ANTONIO — Flanked by two Texas Rangers, Gov. Greg Abbott commandeered the April 2021 news cycle with just eight words.
"Children at this facility are being sexually assaulted," he said, gesturing with his right hand to San Antonio's Freeman Coliseum.
Reporters, federal workers and Bexar County leaders stood 10 feet away under the beating April sun. Abbott's communications team had only notified the media of his visit 90 minutes earlier.
"This facility is a health and safety nightmare," Abbott said at the time. "The Biden administration is now presiding over the abuse of children."
Abbott demanded that President Joe Biden move hundreds of teenage boys seeking asylum in the United States from San Antonio's migrant care facility to some other federally run shelter.
The governor repeated "very credible allegations" made anonymously by people he said had been inside the complex: Migrant children at the Freeman were underfed and unsupervised, and boys with COVID-19 weren't quarantined.
He expanded on the bombshell claim later.
"We don't know the total number of children abused. We are concerned that it could be more than one," he said.
The press conference lasted only nine minutes, even after a passing train interrupted the governor's response to one reporter's question.
"I listened and thought, 'He's lying. These are lies. How would he know? He hasn't even gone in,'" Bexar County commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores said. "I knew what I had to do."
As Abbott returned to his caravan of SUVs with heavily-tinted windows, Clay-Flores stepped in front of the microphone array.
She told the gaggle she and other Bexar County leaders take seriously any allegations of child abuse, but made clear Abbott shared these claims before he or investigators toured the facility.
Clay-Flores, who spent days volunteering at the shelter, says she stopped the governor from returning to Austin and guided him inside the Freeman to meet some of the children staying there.
The boys applauded for Abbott when they saw him.
"He didn't give an interview afterwards, right? Wonder why," she said with a smirk.
That day, Abbott formally directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to investigate the reported abuse. Texas Ranger Lt. Richard Henderson would lead the inquiry.
"The investigation should and can begin tonight," Abbott said on April 7, 2021. "We may have answers as soon as tomorrow."
But in the year since, the state has not produced any evidence of wrongdoing, nor have Rangers announced any arrests associated with operations at the shelter.
Texas officials have only released some details about the allegations. Someone reported migrant boys "engaging in sexual behavior in the showers" and "acting out" sexually, according to a letter Abbott sent to Vice President Kamala Harris.
The letter, which includes "details from those reports that could be shared consistent with the law," does not allege adult staff or volunteers molested migrant children.
"I think they were false accusations," Clay-Flores said. "If they weren't, we should've seen proof a long time ago."
She says she never saw roughhousing described in the letter.
The last migrant boys left the Freeman shelter 47 days after the governor's visit.
Federal workers united about 70% of the migrants who stayed at the facility with family members or well-vetted sponsors. The others went to federally approved congregate homes.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff has noted it would be difficult for investigators to locate and interview these children, since they are now scattered across the country.
This week, the governor's office referred KENS 5's questions about the investigation to the Department of Public Safety. Each day for four days, KENS 5 asked the department whether the Texas Rangers' investigation is still open, if Rangers made any arrests and when investigators last updated the case file.
The DPS communications team acknowledged KENS 5's requests, but did not answer the questions prior to Thursday's deadline.
It's not clear whether the department has quietly closed its investigation.
After Abbott's press conference, Clay-Flores says the federal government tightened security at the facility. Volunteers and federal workers had to scan digital badges to check-in and check-out of the facility.
"At every moment, they knew who was in and whether or not they were still there," she said, adding that the allegations didn't otherwise change facility operations.
But she says she'd "like to think it made people even more dedicated."
Clay-Flores says San Antonio should again open its doors to migrant families, if necessary, this year. She added that the Freeman's operation in 2021 would be an appropriate roadmap for any future crisis response.
"Under the circumstances," she said," I would give Bexar County an A+."