In Attempt To Mitigate Reports Of Filthy, Abusive Conditions, Border Patrol Gives Highly Controlled Tour To Journalists
Journalists were not permitted inside any of the cells at the Clint, Texas facility, which has drawn controversy this week over reports of inhumane conditions. They were also prohibited from having conversations with detained children, citing government policies. “Don’t talk to her,” one agent said to a reporter who saw a girl, who appeared to be 10 or 11 years old, crying uncontrollably while speaking in Spanish with a relative on a phone in a processing room. “If you ask her anything you’ll be thrown out,” the agent warned. Meanwhile, The Associated Press explains what happens when a child is detained.
The New York Times:
‘Don’t Talk To Her’: A Glimpse Inside A Troubled Border Station Housing Migrant Children
Children as young as 3 pressed their faces against the windows of one crowded cell holding nearly 20 migrant girls, some sprawled on the floor. Boys gazed through the fencing of a containment zone exposed to the 101-degree heat. Customs and Border Protection authorities on Wednesday allowed a group of journalists on a brief, highly controlled tour of the border station in Clint, a farming town near El Paso, hitting back at reports of filthy and abusive conditions for the children detained inside. Agents claimed that they were supplying soap and toothbrushes for the children, pointing to shelves with those items in a supply room. (Romero, 6/26)
The Washington Post:
Border Patrol Argues Child Treatment At Clint Migrant Facility Not As Described, Gives Access To Texas Station
U.S. authorities did not allow cameras on the tour, and reporters were barred from talking to children. Some of the children in the holding cells pressed up against windows to watch the entourage. Border Patrol agents and other government workers wore surgical masks to protect them from contagious diseases. Approximately 90 children were in the holding cells Wednesday. The rest — all teenage boys — were housed in a fenced-in area of an adjacent sally port that has been converted into a holding area with triple-decker bunk beds and mats. It can accommodate up to 200 children for sleeping. (Moore, 6/26)
The Associated Press:
US Had Open Beds As Migrant Kids Languished At Texas Station
As more than 200 children languished in troubling conditions in a remote Border Patrol station, the government's system of child detention facilities had at least 500 beds available. Records obtained by The Associated Press show that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had beds available in facilities across the U.S., which when tallied up numbered 512 last week. Under federal law, the department is responsible for sheltering migrant children until they are placed with family sponsors. (6/27)
The Associated Press:
AP Explains: What Happens When Migrants Arrive At US Border
The harrowing photo of a drowned toddler and her father along the Rio Grande has illustrated the risks migrants are willing to take to reach the U.S. in the face of increasingly hardline Trump administration policies aimed at keeping them out. For many people trying to enter the country, it's a matter of waiting, waiting and waiting some more for the OK to come across — unless they try to force the issue and slip over the border, a dangerous and sometimes lethal undertaking that involves trekking through the scorching desert and fording the deceptively tricky Rio Grande. (Galvan, 6/26)
And in other news —
The New York Times:
Migrant Children Are Spending Months ‘Crammed’ In A Temporary Florida Shelter
About half of the roughly 2,300 children confined in a privately run Florida facility intended as a temporary shelter for migrant teenagers have been there for more than 20 days and many of them for months, despite legal standards that require children who cross the border to be speedily released or sent to state-licensed shelters that are equipped to offer longer-term care. (Jordan, 6/26)
CNN:
In Response To Employee Walkout, Wayfair Donates $100,000 To The Red Cross
Wayfair will donate $100,000 to the American Red Cross after an employee backlash over the sale of bedroom furniture for use in a migrant detention facility. In a letter to employees, Wayfair cofounders Steve Conine and Niraj Shah said the company will donate the money to support the American Red Cross "in their effort to help those in dire need of basic necessities at the border." CNN obtained the letter. The company didn't say whether the funds for the donation come from the proceeds or profits as a result of the use of its furniture in a detention facility. (Alesci, Meyersohn and Trafecante, 6/26)
The Wall Street Journal:
Wayfair Workers Stage Walkout Over Sales To Border Camps
Employees of Wayfair Inc. walked out of the company’s Boston headquarters on Wednesday in protest of the online retailer’s sale of $200,000 worth of bedroom furniture to a southern border facility for migrant children seeking asylum in the U.S. The walkout evolved into a demonstration that swelled to hundreds of people as employees were joined by human-rights and other groups in Copley Square, a public space just minutes away from the Wayfair workplace. (McGee and Levitz, 6/26)
Texas Tribune:
Migrants' Deaths On Rio Grande Focus Attention On Government Asylum Policy
The harrowing image of Salvadoran migrant Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, who drowned in the Rio Grande after reportedly being unable to request asylum, has returned attention to the U.S. government's controversial policy of forcing migrants to wait in Mexico before allowing them to cross the border to claim asylum. Known as “metering,” the policy is meant to address a record surge of migrants, mainly families from Central America, making the trek through Mexico to the U.S. (Roldan, 6/26)
