The photos taken by Congressman Henry Cuellar offer a rare glimpse of conditions within the CBP’s facilities for unaccompanied immigrant children.
Photos from inside a US Customs and Border Protection tent in Donna, Texas, reveal the conditions of overcrowding of unaccompanied minor immigrants at a time when the Biden government is struggling to find sleeping space for the growing number of children who cross the border.
The photos, taken by Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, offer a rare glimpse of conditions within these Border Patrol facilities, which currently house more than 5,000 unaccompanied immigrant children. Axios first reported on the images taken by Cuellar.
Overcrowding problems stem from the increase in the number of unaccompanied children arriving at the border and the inability of CBP to transfer them to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which does not have enough space to sleep. HHS has sheltered more than 9,500 children in its shelter system or emergency influx facilities.
DHS has not given the media or lawyers who can visit these facilities as part of a court settlement, the ability to visit these facilities.
Lawyers who interviewed some of the children in Donna’s tent told BuzzFeed News that some minors were held for up to eight days in crowded areas, with no showers or the possibility of calling their families.
All children interviewed by lawyers have been in the custody of the border enforcement agency for at least five days, over the three-day limit where they can be in custody of CBP under the law.
CBP did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
“I have said several times since the beginning that a Border Patrol station is not a place for a child and that is why we are working around the clock to get these children out of the Border Patrol facilities, for the care and custody of the Department of Health. and Human Services that house them, “Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN on Sunday.
In 2019, visits to the Border Patrol facilities revealed that the children were being kept in dirty, overcrowded and unhealthy conditions. Lawyers who visited a Border Patrol post in Clint, Texas, described children caring for babies and young children, the lack of access to soap and toothbrushes and inadequate food, water and sanitation.
In a call to reporters last week, senior Biden government officials said HHS was rushing to open shelters, but noted that it would take months and would not be a solution to the current situation.
Instead, the agency turned to emergency entry points, like a convention center in Dallas and another facility in Pecos, Texas, to try to get children out of CBP custody more quickly.
In February, more than 9,400 unaccompanied immigrant children were found by US border authorities.
The Trump administration began the practice of expelling unaccompanied minor immigrants found on the border by U.S. border authorities, citing a public health code called Title 42. The administration was prevented by a federal judge from continuing the practice in November. An appeals court suspended the judge’s order in late January, but by then a new government had taken office and the Biden White House decided not to continue the practice of expelling unaccompanied immigrant children.
However, the Biden government continued to expel some immigrant and adult families that border officials met at the border, citing the same health code as Trump’s White House.
Before the judge forced the Trump administration to allow unaccompanied children to seek asylum in the United States, the government was quickly sending these children back to dangerous cities on the Mexican border or taking them back to the conditions in which they fled.