[ad_1]
HOUSTON (AP) – Hundreds of immigrant children and teens have been held in a border patrol tent in crowded conditions, some sleeping on the floor because there are not enough rugs, according to nonprofit lawyers who monitor immigration detention centers.
Lawyers interviewed more than a dozen children Thursday in Donna, Texas, where the border patrol is holding more than 1,000 people. Some of the youths told lawyers they had been in the facility for a week or more, despite the agency’s three-day limit for child detention. Many said they were not allowed to phone their parents or other relatives who may be wondering where they are.
Despite concerns about the coronavirus, the children are held so closely together that they can touch the person next to them, lawyers said. Some have to wait five or more days to shower, and there isn’t always soap available, just shampoo, according to lawyers.
President Joe Biden’s administration denied lawyers access to the tent. During the administration of former President Donald Trump, lawyer visits to border patrol posts revealed serious problems, including dozens of children held at a rural station without adequate food, water or soap.
“It’s quite surprising that the administration talks about the importance of transparency and not letting children’s lawyers fix their eyes on where they are staying,” said Leecia Welch of the National Center for Youth Law, one lawyers. “I find that very disappointing.”
Although none of the children reported such serious situations as during the Trump era, Welch said the lawyers “weren’t able to lay eyes on anything to see for ourselves, so we weren’t able to. let’s just put together what they said. “
A 1997 judicial settlement, known as the Flores Agreement, sets standards for government detention of immigrant children. Lawyers have the right, under Flores, to oversee the detention of children. The Justice Department declined to comment on Thursday as to why lawyers were denied access. The Biden administration did not respond to several requests from The Associated Press requesting access to the tent.
Government figures show a growing crisis as hundreds of children cross the border every day and are taken into custody. The border patrol currently has a record of more than 3,000 children in detention, according to government data obtained by AP. This figure is increasing almost daily.
More and more children are waiting longer in Border Patrol custody because long-term facilities run by U.S. health and social services have virtually no capacity. Hundreds of children are apprehended every day at rates far higher than what HHS releases them to parents or sponsors. HHS currently takes an average of 37 days to release a child.
Biden ended the Trump-era practice of deporting children of immigrants who cross the border alone, but maintained deportations of immigrant families and single adults. Although his administration tried to deter immigrants from entering the United States, many believe they now have a better chance. More and more parents are sending their children across the border while they stay in Mexico or Central America.
Most border patrol posts were designed for short-term adult detention, with concrete cold cells with lights always on. The Donna tent has light partitions and rugs for sleeping, according to images the government released.
Six children have died after being detained by border officials during the Trump administration. One died of the flu at the border patrol station in Weslaco, Texas, where minors are currently being held.
HHS has asked its contractors to lift capacity restrictions imposed during the pandemic and speed up releases by paying for airfare for children instead of charging sponsors.
But experts and lawyers who work with children say the government can do more.
While the majority of youth detained by the government are teenagers, Border Patrol and HHS detain very young children who in some cases have been separated from adult guards.
The Associated Press this week interviewed the mother of a 4-year-old Guatemalan girl who crossed the border on March 5 with her aunt. Border officials evicted the aunt and tagged the unaccompanied daughter of a parent, placing her in the Donna tent.
The girl’s parents live in Maryland. Her mother told the AP she didn’t know their daughter’s whereabouts until Sunday and only spoke to her on Monday. According to the mother, the young girl was unable to speak during a phone call of almost 20 minutes. The PA does not identify the girl or her mother to protect the privacy of the child.
“She cried like something was going on, like she was scared,” the mother said this week. “I started to cry when I heard it that way. It didn’t feel right to me.
The parents requested that their daughter be released directly to them, but on Monday she was sent from South Texas to foster care in Michigan.
When she spoke to her mother on Tuesday morning, the girl was no longer crying but still couldn’t speak.
“She didn’t say anything,” she says. “I tried everything I could, but nothing.”
Homeland Security and HHS initially said they could not directly hand over the child to its mother. But after family lawyers threatened to sue and following PA investigations, the government notified the girl’s mother on Wednesday that it would speed up her release.
Family lawyer Amy Maldonado noted that the often tedious government processes and insufficient space to keep children at the border predate the Biden administration.
“I don’t hold them responsible for the full story,” she said. “But this child could have been handed over to his mother, and it is under this administration.”
___
Associated Press reporter Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link