This archive report was first published on 3 July 2019.
Government Watchdog Exposes Squalid Conditions in Border Centers ¶
On July 2, 2019, a government watchdog released a report detailing squalid conditions in border centers along the southern border. The report, released by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, found that migrant centers were overcrowded, with children lacking showers and hot meals.
Inspectors from the department visited five facilities in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas in June and found that children had few spare clothes and no laundry facilities. Many migrants were given only wet wipes to clean themselves and bologna sandwiches to eat, causing constipation and other health problems.
Overcrowding was so severe that migrants banged on cells and pressed notes to windows begging for help. At one facility, single adults were held in standing-room-only conditions for a week, and at another, some single adults were held more than a month in overcrowded cells.
Democratic lawmakers, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have called for answers from the Customs and Border Protection agency. They have also announced hearings next week into the conditions at detention centers.
The report's findings have sparked outrage among lawmakers and the public. Representative Elijah E. Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, demanded that the acting secretary of homeland security and the newly appointed acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection come to Capitol Hill to discuss the Facebook group and the allegations in the report.
According to the report, 826 of the 2,669 children detained at the facilities were held longer than 72 hours, in violation of a federal court settlement and Customs and Border Protection policy. Senior managers raised security concerns at the facilities, calling the situation 'a ticking time bomb.'
