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HOUSTON (AP) – The day after giving birth at a Texas border hospital, Nailet and her newborn baby were taken by federal agents to a detention center that immigrants often refer to as the “icehouse.”
Inside, large cells were filled with women and their young children. Nailet and her son were housed with 15 other women and were given a mat to sleep in, with little room to get away despite the coronavirus pandemic, she said. The lights were on 24 hours a day. The children were constantly sneezing and coughing.
Nailet, who kept her newborn baby warm with a quilt she obtained from the hospital, told The Associated Press that border patrol officers would not tell her when they would be released. She and her son were held for six days at a border patrol station. This is twice as long as federal rules generally allow.
“I had to constantly insist that they bring me wipes and diapers,” said Nailet, who left Cuba last year and asked that her last name not be released for fear of reprisal if she was. forced to return.
More immigrant families crossed the US-Mexico border in the first weeks of President Joe Biden’s administration. Warning signs are emerging from the border crises that marked former President Donald Trump’s tenure: Hundreds of newly released immigrants are being dropped off at nonprofit groups, sometimes unexpectedly, and accounts like that of Nailet of prolonged detention in short-term institutions are increasing.
Virus control measures have dramatically reduced space in detention facilities which were overwhelmed in a surge of arrivals in 2018 and 2019, when reports of families crammed into cells and children unaccompanied having to take care of each other.
Most border patrol stations are not designed to serve children and families or to hold people back for the long term. To cope with the new influx, the agency reopened a large tenting facility in South Texas on Tuesday to accommodate immigrant families and children.
In a statement last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said some of its facilities had reached “maximum security retention capacity” and cited several challenges: COVID-19 protocols, changes in law Mexican and limited space to retain immigrants.
“We will continue to use all current authorities to avoid keeping individuals in a rally for any length of time,” said the agency, which declined an interview request.
Meanwhile, long-term detention centers for children crossing the border alone – some sent by parents forced to wait in Mexico – are 80% full. US Health and Human Services, which operates these centers, will reopen state-of-the-art facility in a former camp for oilfield workers in Carrizo Springs, Texas, starting Monday. It can accommodate around 700 teenagers. Surge installations come at an estimated cost of $ 775 per child per day, and Democrats sharply criticized them during the Trump years.
There is no clear determining factor for the increase in the number of families and children crossing. Some pundits and supporters believe more 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 requires asylum seekers to stay south of the border while a judge reviews their cases. The White House is not adding more people to the schedule but has not said how it will resolve outstanding cases. He also refused to deport unaccompanied children under a pandemic-related public health order issued by Trump.
Others cite the fallout from natural disasters in Central America and unrest in countries like Haiti.
The United States has also stopped returning some immigrant families to parts of Mexico, particularly to areas of Tamaulipas state across from south Texas. The change in practice appears uneven, with immigrants being deported elsewhere and no clear explanation for the differences.
A law has entered into force in Mexico which prohibits 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 remained “on the same terms.” The statement noted “that it is normal for there to be adjustments at the local level, but that does not mean that the practice has changed or has stopped.”
Some pregnant mothers, like Nailet, who have been denied entry to the United States, cross again during labor. Their children become US citizens by birthright. The border patrol usually frees these families in the country, although there have been reports of deportations of immigrant parents and children born in the United States.
In Nailet’s case, CBP said an unexpected increase in the number of families crossing the border near Del Rio, about 241 kilometers west of San Antonio, led to his extended detention.
Supporters say officials should have released Nailet quickly, along with other families with young children, and should expedite treatment to avoid delays. Authorities have long resisted what they call “catch 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 of having given birth, Nailet treated her newborn baby in the cold cell. When she told border officials that the hospital announced her return on February 1, she said they refused to take her.
CBP says Nailet and her son had a checkup on Wednesday night.
She was released on Thursday and taken to a hotel with the help of a non-profit group, the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition, which is one of several organizations welcoming more immigrant families after they left the country. government.
Dr Amy Cohen, child psychiatrist and executive director of immigration advocacy group Every Last One, described how border detention can traumatize a newborn: the cold, the constant light, the stress from their mother who breastfeed.
“It is an extremely vulnerable time,” she said. “It consumes the stress she’s going through. This is his first exposure to the world outside the womb. It is extremely cruel and dangerous. “
An increase in the number of illegal border crossings combined with delays in processing families has led to appalling conditions at several border crossings in 2019, with food and water shortages and children in many cases fending for themselves.
The year before, when the Trump administration separated thousands of immigrant families under its “zero tolerance” policy, scores of people were detained in a converted warehouse in south texas. Thousands of children taken from their parents have been placed in government custody, including state-of-the-art facilities in Tornillo, Texas, and Homestead, Florida.
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Associated Press journalists Christopher Sherman and María Verza de Mexico contributed to this report.
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