An image from the report An image from the report

THE INSPECTOR GENERAL at the US Department of Homeland Security has warned of “dangerous overcrowding” at migrant detention facilities in Texas. 

A report published yesterday by the agency watchdog came a day after a group of Democratic lawmakers toured detention centres for undocumented immigrants in the state which borders Mexico. 

The report included images taken at several Texas sites, showing dozens of migrants, including young children, packed shoulder to shoulder into cage-like holding areas.

“We encourage the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take immediate steps to alleviate dangerous overcrowding and prolonged detention of children and adults in the Rio Grande Valley,” acting DHS Inspector General Jennifer Costello said in a memorandum to acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan.

The report contained details like this:

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Time bomb

Photos from March which show migrants being held beneath the Paso del Norte International Bridge. SIPA USA / PA Images SIPA USA / PA Images / PA Images

Costello said one senior manager at a detention facility described the situation as a “ticking time bomb” and raised security concerns for agency staff and detainees.

She said her office had toured five Border Patrol holding facilities in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley in early June and observed “serious overcrowding and prolonged detention of unaccompanied alien children, families, and single adults”.

“Specifically, Border Patrol was holding about 8,000 detainees in custody at the time of our visit, with 3,400 held longer than the 72 hours generally permitted.

Of those 3,400 detainees, Border Patrol held 1,500 for more than 10 days.

Children at three of the five Border Patrol facilities had no access to showers and few spare clothes, while two facilities had not provided hot meals, only sandwiches.

Most single adults had not had a shower in a month and were being given wet-wipes. Some detainees were suffering from constipation after a diet consisting only of bologna sandwiches.

According to Border Patrol figures, 223,263 people were detained in the Rio Grande Valley sector between October 2018 and May 2019, up 124% from the same period a year earlier.

US Democratic presidential hopefuls denounced the conditions depicted by the report.

“No human being deserves to be treated like this,” Senator Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter. “This is abuse, it’s dehumanisation, and it’s not who we are as a country”.

“Sickening. Human beings are being herded like animals right now in our country,” Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted, while Senator Bernie Sanders wrote that those in charge of the detention centres “do not respect basic human rights”.

The report comes as the White House, as well as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials, pushed back against criticism from the Democratic lawmakers who toured migrant detention facilities on Monday.

Cruelty

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Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who visited two such centres in Texas, described the conditions as “horrifying” and said migrants were being subjected to “systemic cruelty”.

“There’s abuse in these facilities,” the outspoken Democratic congresswoman from New York told reporters.

“They put them in a room with no running water and these women were being told by CBP officers to drink out of the toilet.”

White House advisor Kellyanne Conway told Fox News that was an “outrageous claim”.

“Everybody who has control over that facility, or control for the Border Patrol, has said that’s not true, they’ve not heard of this,” Conway said.

© – AFP 2019