Photographs from inside a temporary migrant shelter at Texas Customs and Border Protection offer a troubling insight into the crowded conditions facing hundreds of children in U.S. custody.
The photos, provided to Axios by Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) Monday, were taken over the weekend at a “soft-faced” CBP facility in Donna, Texas. He said he didn’t take the photos himself.
They arrive as the Biden administration continues its unprecedented media blackout at these facilities, with the Department of Homeland Security directly refusing to allow journalists to visit and report on the conditions.
Speaking to Axios, Cuellar described what he considered “terrible conditions for children,” arguing that minors should be transferred much more quickly to the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Under U.S. law, unaccompanied minors must be transferred from medical care to HHS within 72 hours.
But in the wake of the spiral border crisis, children have been reported to have been cared for by CBP for more than ten days.
The new administration’s efforts to undo former President Donald Trump’s border policies have triggered a flood of illegal Central American and Mexican immigrants on the U.S. border, including thousands of unescorted children.
Children, who enter the United States without their parents or another adult, spend an average of 136 hours in border patrol custody before being handed over to Heath and Human Services.
Faced with the extraordinary border patrol crisis, Cuellar argued that officers “were doing their best in the circumstances,” but “they are not equipped to care for the children” and “need help from the administration.”
More photographs provided by the House Democrat showed children crowded in the midst of a contagious pandemic, a problem that will only get worse as migrants are expected to increase.
Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 34,000 steps in just 19 days, as of last Thursday. As of Saturday, there were 10,000 migrants in CBP custody in general.
Cuellar did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.