Jul 1, 2019 - Politics & Policy

Migrant child speaks on border detention camps

Axios

Migrant detention facility — Tents stand at the U.S. Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

In a dramatic video posted by AP, a 12-year-old girl says she slept on the floor and kids weren't allowed playtime or baths during her stay at the Texas facility that's dominated headlines over the past week.

Details: “There are some children, like the age of my sister, they cried for their mother or their father. They cried for their aunt. They missed them," the girl told a lawyer in the video. “They cried and they were locked up.”

Why it matters: The Border Patrol station in Clint at one point had 700 kids in a facility designed for 100 adults.

That number has declined to just more than 100, AP notes.
Per AP: "On Friday, a federal judge ordered that an independent monitor appointed last year move 'post haste' to improve conditions at Border Patrol stations, where children are supposed to be held just 72 hours."
"In the Clint station, some had been held almost a month."

Between the lines: This girl and her 6-year-old sister crossed the border with their aunt to reunite with their mother who came to the U.S. to seek asylum 4 years ago. The girls were separated from their aunt at the border.

The Florida facility visited by Democratic politicians in recent days holds unaccompanied minors and is overseen by HHS, rather than Border Patrol.

The bottom line: The government is struggling to hold the surge of migrant children and families who have been crossing the border over the past year, Axios' Stef Kight notes.

That surge is drawing critical attention to a system of government, private and non-profit detention centers and migrant child housing that is failing to provide proper care — and often times hurting — children in its custody.

Go deeper: Watch the video here

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Migrant child speaks on border detention camps

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