A Democratic congressman has shared new photos of crowded conditions at border facilities, where officials have been overwhelmed by a surge of migrants in recent months.
The photos, shared by Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” show dozens of children huddled in glass-walled rooms, lying shoulder to shoulder with aluminum blankets in a facility in Donna, Texas.
Cuéllar, whose district is in southern Texas and shares a border with Mexico, said many of the migrant children have been detained “for longer” than the legal 72-hour limit.
Under federal law, children who arrive at the border without their parents must be transferred within three days of US Border Patrol custody to long-term facilities run by US Health and Human Services. Until they can be released to family members or sponsors.
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Cuéllar said it has been nearly impossible to reduce the number of people in detention centers and that border patrol officers are building new shelters to accommodate them.
“The cities, the counties, the NGOs, we are feeling the worst of what is happening with the family units,” Cuellar said.
This March 20, 2021 photo provided by the Office of Representative Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, shows detainees at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) temporary overflow facility in Donna, Texas. (Photo courtesy of Representative Henry Cuellar’s Office via AP)
More than 16,000 unaccompanied children were in government custody as of Thursday, including some 5,000 in substandard Customs and Border Protection facilities.
The Biden administration has faced criticism for not allowing the media access to Border Patrol facilities that are temporarily holding thousands of migrant children seeking to live in the United States.
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Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill have called on the administration to open the facility to cameras, asserting that current policy is designed to prevent the public from “fully realizing” what is happening at the border.
US authorities reported encounters with more than 100,000 migrants at the southern border in February, the highest since a four-month run in 2019.
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The gatherings have averaged around 5,000 people per day during March, which would be an increase of around 50% from February if those numbers hold up for the entire month.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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