HOUSTON (AP) – The day after giving birth at a Texas border hospital, Nailet and her newborn son were taken by federal agents to an establishment that immigrants often call the “refrigerator.”
Inside, large cells were full of women and their small children. Nailet and her son were housed with 15 other women and were given a sleeping mat, with little room to walk away despite the coronavirus pandemic, she said. The lights stayed on all day. The children sneezed and coughed constantly.
Nailet, who kept her newborn warm with a duvet she got at the hospital, told The Associated Press that Border Patrol agents would not tell her when they would be released. She and her son were detained for six days at a border patrol station. This is twice what federal standards generally allow.
“I had to constantly insist that they bring me towels and diapers,” said Nailet, who left Cuba last year and called for her last name to be withheld for fear of retribution if she is forced to return.
A larger number of immigrant families have been crossing the U.S.-Mexico border during the first weeks of President Joe Biden’s administration. Warnings are emerging of the border crises that marked the tenure of former President Donald Trump: Hundreds of newly released immigrants are abandoned with nonprofit groups, sometimes unexpectedly, and accounts like Nailet on prolonged detention at short-term facilities is growing.
Measures to control the virus have drastically reduced the space on operating facilities that were overwhelmed during a wave of arrivals in 2018 and 2019, when reports of families packed into cells and children appeared unaccompanied who had to take care of each other.
Most Border Patrol stations are not designed to serve children and families or support people in the long run. To cope with the new influx, the agency reopened a large store facility in South Texas on Tuesday to house immigrant families and children.
In a statement last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said some of its facilities had reached “maximum safe retention capacity” and mentioned several challenges: COVID-19 protocols, changes in Mexican legislation and limited space for immigration.
“We will continue to use all current authorities to avoid keeping people in a congregated environment for any period of time,” said the agency, which rejected an interview request.
Meanwhile, long-term detention facilities for children crossing the border alone (some sent by parents forced to wait in Mexico) are 80 percent full. US Health and Human Services, which runs these centers, will reopen an overvoltage facility in a former field for oil field workers in Carrizo Springs, Texas, as early as Monday. It has a capacity for about 700 teenagers. Surge installations cost an estimated $ 775 per child per day, and Democrats harshly criticized them during the Trump years.
There is no clear driving factor for the increased crossover of families and children. Some experts and advocates believe more people are trying to cross illegally now that Biden is president, believing his administration will be more permissive than Trump’s.
Many have waited a year or more under Trump’s “Stay in Mexico” program that forces asylum seekers to remain south of the border while a judge considers their case. The White House does not add people to the program, but has not said how it will resolve the pending cases. He also refused to expel children unaccompanied by a public health order related to the pandemic issued by Trump.
Others cite the consequences of natural disasters in Central America and the turmoil in countries like Haiti.
The United States has also stopped sending some immigrant families to parts of Mexico, particularly areas of the state of Tamaulipas in southern Texas. The change in practice seems to be uneven, as immigrants are expelled from other places and there is no clear explanation for the differences.
In Mexico, a law has come into force banning the detention of children in migrant detention centers. But Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement that agreements with the United States during the pandemic remain “on the same terms.” The statement notes that “it is normal for there to be adjustments at the local level, but that does not mean that the practice has changed or stopped.”
Pregnant mothers, such as Nailet, who have been denied entry to the United States, cross again while in labor.. Their children become citizens of the United States by birthright. The Border Patrol usually releases these families in the country, although reports have emerged about the expulsion of immigrant parents and children of American descent.
In Nailet’s case, CBP said an unforeseen increase in the number of families crossing the border near Del Rio, about 241 kilometers west of San Antonio, led to his prolonged detention.
Advocates say officials should have released Nailet quickly, as well as other families with young children, and should speed up processing to avoid delays. Authorities have long resisted what they call “capture and release,” which they say inspires more immigrants to try to enter the country illegally, often through smugglers linked to transnational gangs.
Still in pain to give birth, Nailet breastfed her newborn in the cold cell. When she told border officials the hospital said she would return on Feb. 1, she said they refused to take her.
CBP says Nailet and her son passed a health check Wednesday evening.
She was released Thursday and taken to a hotel with the help of a nonprofit group, the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition, which is one of several organizations receiving a larger number of immigrant families after leaving custody. of the government.
Dr. Amy Cohen, a child psychiatrist and executive director of the immigration advocacy group Every Last One, described how detention at borders can traumatize a newborn: the cold, the constant light, and the stress emanating from the nursing mother.
“It’s a tremendously vulnerable time,” he said. “She’s consuming the stress she’s experiencing. This is her first exposure to the world outside the womb. This is extraordinarily cruel and dangerous.”
An earlier increase in illegal border crossings combined with delays in processing families led to horrific conditions at several border stations in 2019, with food and water shortages and in many cases children are defending themselves.
The previous year, when the Trump administration separated thousands of immigrant families under its “zero tolerance” policy, many people were detained in a converted warehouse in South Texas. Thousands of children taken from their parents went into government custody, including surge facilities in Tornillo, Texas and Homestead, Florida.
___
Associated Press journalists Christopher Sherman and María Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.