HOUSTON (AP) – Hundreds of immigrant children and teens have been detained at a border patrol tent facility in suitcase conditions, with some sleeping on the ground because there aren’t enough mats, according to nonprofit lawyers who supervise immigrant detention centers.
Lawyers on Thursday interviewed more than a dozen children in Donna, Texas, where the Border Patrol welcomes more than 1,000 people. Some of the youths told lawyers they had been at the facility for a week or more, despite the agency’s three-day detention limit. Many said they were not allowed to call their parents or other relatives who might wonder where they are.
Despite concerns about the coronavirus, the children remain so close that they can touch the person next to them, lawyers said. Some have to wait five days or more to shower and there is not always soap available, only shampoo, according to lawyers.
President Joe Biden’s administration denied lawyers access to the store’s facility. During former President Donald Trump’s administration, lawyers ’visits to border patrol stations revealed serious problems, including dozens of children detained at a rural station without adequate food, water or soap.
“It’s quite surprising that the administration talks about the importance of transparency and then doesn’t let children’s lawyers put their eyes on where they’re staying,” said Leecia Welch of the National Center for Youth Law. one of the lawyers. “I find it very disappointing.”
Although none of the children reported such serious situations as during the Trump era, Welch said the lawyers “were not able to put their eyes on it to see them for ourselves, so we are meeting what they said “
A 1997 court settlement known as the Flores Agreement lays down rules for government detention of immigrant children. Lawyers have the right to Flores to supervise child detention. The Justice Department declined to comment Thursday on why access to lawyers was denied. The Biden administration has not responded to several requests from The Associated Press seeking access to the store.
Government figures show a growing crisis as hundreds of children cross the border daily and are arrested. Currently, the Border Patrol has a record high of more than 3,000 detained children, according to government data obtained by AP. This figure increases almost daily.
There are more children waiting longer in Border Patrol custody because the long-term facilities operated by US Health and Human Services have almost no capacity. Hundreds of children are detained daily at rates much higher than those released by HHS to parents or sponsors. Currently, HHS takes an average of 37 days to release a child.
Biden has stopped the Trump-era practice of expelling immigrant children crossing the border alone, but has maintained expulsions of immigrant families and single adults. Although his administration has tried to dissuade immigrants from entering the United States, many believe they now have more chances. There have also been growing reports of parents sending their children alone to the border while staying in Mexico or Central America.
Most border patrol stations were designed for short-term detention of adults, with concrete and cold cells with the lights always on. According to images released by the government, the Donna store has clear screens and mats for sleeping.
Six children died after being detained by border agents during the Trump administration. One died of the flu at the Weslaco, Texas border patrol station, where juvenile detainees are currently being held.
HHS has told its contractors to lift the capacity restrictions enacted during the pandemic and speed up releases by paying the children’s airfare instead of charging sponsors.
But experts and lawyers working with children say the government can do more.
Although most youths detained by the government are adolescents, both the Border Patrol and the HHS detain very young children who, in some cases, were separated from adult caregivers.
This week, the Associated Press interviewed the mother of a four-year-old Guatemalan girl who crossed the border on March 5 with her aunt. Border authorities kicked the aunt out and tagged the girl unaccompanied by a father, putting her in Donna’s store.
The girl’s parents live in Maryland. Her mother told the AP that she did not know her daughter’s whereabouts until Sunday and that she did not speak to her until Monday. According to the mother, the girl could not speak in a phone call for almost 20 minutes. The AP does not identify the girl or her mother to protect the boy’s privacy.
“She cried like something was happening, like she was scared,” the mother said this week. “I started crying when I felt like that. It didn’t seem right to me. “
The parents demanded the direct release of their daughter, but on Monday she was sent from South Texas to take refuge in Michigan.
When she spoke to her mother Tuesday morning, the girl was no longer crying, but she was still unable to speak.
“He didn’t say anything,” he said. “I tried everything I could, but nothing.”
Both Homeland Security and HHS initially said they could not directly release the child to their mother. But after family lawyers threatened to sue and after AP investigations, the government notified the girl’s mother on Wednesday that they would speed up her release.
Amy Maldonado, the family’s attorney, noted that the government’s often cumbersome processes and inadequate spaces to keep children at the border predate the Biden administration.
“I don’t hold them responsible for the whole story,” he said. “But that child could have been released for his mother, and that’s up to that administration.”
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Associated Press journalist Colleen Long in Washington contributed to the report.