Lawyers for the National Center for Youth Law spoke to about a dozen children in Donna, Texas, this week, according to Leecia Welch, the center’s senior director of child protection and welfare.
The children were terrified, crying and worried that they would not be able to speak to their families, Welch said. Some said they had not seen sunlight for days. Others said that if they were lucky, they would leave for 20 minutes at intervals of a few days.
“Donna is quickly becoming a humanitarian crisis,” Welch told CNN. “We understand that the administration has inherited this disaster, but I cannot emphasize how urgent the situation is with the growing number of unaccompanied children. We talked to several troubled kids who don’t understand why they can’t talk to their parents, see their siblings in Donna, or get some fresh air. “
In response to questions about the allegations, a CBP spokesman sent a statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stating that Border Patrol officers “do everything they can to care for the unaccompanied children in their care”.
“Dealing with the flow of unaccompanied children crossing our southwestern border is an important priority for this Administration and DHS,” the statement said. “It requires a coordinated and sustained response from the entire government.”
Earlier this week, a DHS official told CNN that Donna’s facilities were “significantly overcrowded”, describing the conditions that administration officials observed when they visited last weekend.
Lawyer: Children are scared, trying to comfort each other
The team of lawyers had access to speak with the children because they are monitoring the government’s compliance with the Flores agreement, a 1997 agreement that limits the time period and conditions under which American authorities can detain immigrant children.
Welch said that lawyers were allowed to enter an area designated for lawyers, but were not allowed to visit the areas where the children are staying.
The lawyers received a manifest from the facility, which was about 100 pages long, Welch said. Each page listed many children under the age of 10, she said.
At the facility, children are divided into groups of about 50, by age and sex, Welch said. This, she said, means that siblings of different sexes are separated, making the already stressful situation for children even worse.
Most children are in the establishment for five to seven days, Welch said, and they are scared. Because CBP employees are unable to hug or comfort children, children need to take care of each other and comfort each other, she said.
The lawyer said that hygiene at the site is also a concern. Some children bathe about once a week and sometimes the soap runs out, with only shampoo available, she said. A child told Welch that he had not bathed in six days.
Limited shelter space raises concern
CBP officials did not respond to CNN’s requests to comment on why lawyers were not allowed to visit the facility.
Earlier this week, the senior officer who runs the agency described the conditions of the facility to reporters, including three meals a day, 24/7 access to snacks and drinks, showers provided at least every 48 hours and a recreation area.
“These are just a few of the things we are doing with children,” said Troy Miller, a senior official who serves as CBP’s commissioner. “I tell you, many of us, maybe most of us are fathers, fathers, mothers – I myself have a 6-year-old son – and these Border Patrol agents go above and beyond to take care of the children every day.”
Welch said that what is needed immediately is rapid case management that allows children to be placed in the care of HHS as quickly as possible.
Authorities said they are working to increase the pace of processing.
“(W) and we continue to struggle with the number of individuals in our custody, especially due to the pandemic,” said Miller on Wednesday. “We need to get them out faster.”
In the past few days, the number of children in HHS custody has increased, indicating that the department is gradually absorbing the number of children crossing the US-Mexico border alone, taking them out of the Border Patrol facilities to shelters where they can be taken. answered.
There are about 8,800 unaccompanied children in HHS custody, the department said on Thursday, compared to last week, when the numbers hovered around 7,700.
CNN’s Geneva Sands and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.