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