Washington/New York City, US
Reuters
Government investigators warned of dangerous overcrowding at more migrant facilities on the south-west US border, publishing photos on Tuesday of packed cells in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley where some children have no access to showers or hot meals.
A report issued by investigators for the Department of Homeland Security said supervisors raised concerns for the health and safety of detainees and agents, warning that the overcrowding represented a “ticking time bomb.”
An overcrowded fenced area holding families at a Border Patrol station is seen in a still image from video in McAllen, Texas, US on 10th June, 2019, and released as part of a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General on 2nd July, 2019. PICTURE: Office of Inspector General/DHS/Handout via Reuters
The DHS watchdog issued the report after visits to five US Customs and Border Protection agency facilities in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) area during the week of 10th June.
It came as President Donald Trump’s administration pushed back against criticism of its migrant detention centres on the US-Mexico border.
Conditions at the centres have been a flashpoint since May when the watchdog warned of similar conditions at facilities in the El Paso, Texas sector, west of the Rio Grande Valley, with migrants held for weeks instead of days, and adults kept in cells with standing room only.
Security incidents among men at RGV facilities included detainees clogging toilets in order to be released from cells, migrants refusing to return to cells, and special operations teams brought in to show that Border Patrol was prepared to use force, the report on Tuesday said.
Migrants banged on cell windows and shouted when investigators visited. Most single adults had not had a shower despite several being held as long as a month. One photo showed a man in a packed cell holding a message reading: “Help 40 Day[s] Here.”
The Rio Grande Valley is the busiest area of the border for migrant arrests, which hit a 13-year monthly high in May during a surge in the arrival of Central American families. At the time of the investigators’ visits, US Border Patrol was holding around 8,000 detainees in custody in the Rio Grande Valley sector, with 3,400 held longer than the 72 hours permitted.
An overcrowded area holding families at a Border Patrol station is seen in a still image from video in Weslaco, Texas, US on 11th June, 2019 and released as part of a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General on 2nd July, 2019. PICTURE: Office of Inspector General/DHS/Handout via Reuters
Members of a congressional group visiting facilities in El Paso on Monday said migrants were being kept in deplorable conditions.
The delegation had been told to surrender its phones ahead of the tour, but Democratic US Representative Joaquin Castro smuggled a device into a Border Patrol station and took video of women in a cramped cell.
Some said they had been held for 50 days, some separated from children, denied showers for up to 15 days and in some cases, medication, Castro tweeted.
According to Democratic US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, women were told to drink out of toilets.
“I don’t know what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is talking about,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in an interview with Fox Business Network, calling members of CBP “some of the bravest men and women on the planet.”
“They provided three meals a day to people who are here illegally and unlawfully, two snacks in between,” Gidley said.
The Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform said the panel had invited the acting heads of the Department of Homeland Security and CBP to testify on 12th July on the administration’s border policies including the conditions of children at detention centres.
Trump has made a crackdown on illegal immigration a centrepiece of his domestic policy agenda and 2020 re-election bid. But his efforts to build a wall on the southern border have been blocked in Congress, and he was forced last year to backtrack after his “zero tolerance” border policy of separating migrant children from their parents provoked widespread outrage.
Demonstrators take part in the Never Again Para Nadir protest, led by Jewish groups, against ICE Detention camps in Boston, Massachusetts, US, on 2nd July, 2019. PICTURE: Reuters/Brian Snyder
A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked a Trump administration policy that would have kept thousands of asylum seekers in custody while they pursued their cases.
The American Civil Liberties Union, and other immigrant rights groups, sued the government in April to stop the policy of denying bond hearings to asylum seekers.
US District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled that people detained after entering the country to seek asylum were entitled to such hearings.
Several hundred people gathered in New York on Tuesday to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants, part of a planned nationwide day of protests by rights groups targeting members of the US Congress.
The demonstrations were fuelled by fears the Trump administration is preparing a roundup of immigrants who are in the country illegally. Trump last month delayed the raids by two weeks.
Migration flows from Central America have dropped sharply since May as Mexico deployed thousands of militarised police as part of a 7th June deal with the United States to avoid US tariffs on Mexican goods and other enforcement measures.
– With reporting by Jonathan Allen and Angela Moore in New York, Doina Chiacu in Washington, Julio-Cesar Chavez in El Paso, Texas, and David Alire Garcia in Mexico City
