'Help': Photos from US migrant detention centres reveal despair and overcrowding as people go a month without showers
Jon Sharman, Lily Puckett
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Trump says migrants living 'far better now' in detention day after images of crowded cages published
Donald Trump has claimed migrants in US detention centres are “living far better now”, a day after inspectors criticised squalid conditions and published images showing families held in overcrowded cages.As Democrats claimed the migrants were being denied basic human rights, the president launched a series of tweets defending his actions, and saying many of those in detention were living in better conditions than they were in the countries they had come from.“Many of these illegals aliens are living far better now than where they came from, and in far safer conditions,” he wrote. “No matter how good things actually look, even if perfect, the Democrat visitors will act shocked and aghast at how terrible things are.”He added: “If illegal immigrants are unhappy with the conditions in the quickly built or refitted detentions centres, just tell them not to come. All problems solved.”The comments were made as the nation got ready to mark the July 4 national holiday and the president prepared to address crowds in Washington DC. Democrats condemned the conditions revealed by the department of homeland security’s office of inspector general, and said the president should act immediately. “How can anybody look at these photos and think this isn’t a human rights abuse,” tweeted California senator Kamala Harris, one of nearly two-dozen Democrats seeking the party’s nomination to take on Mr Trump next year.The inspectors’ report, based on visits to five facilities in Texas’s Rio Grande valley, found that children had few spare clothes, no laundry facilities and insufficient to eat. It also said many of the centres were extremely overcrowded. “At one facility, some 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,” it said.“We are concerned that overcrowding and prolonged detention represent an immediate risk to the health and safety of DHS agents and officers, and to those detained.”The inspectors said in addition to holding roughly 30 per cent of minor detainees for longer than 72 hours, the facilities struggled to meet other federal standards. “For example, children at three of the five border patrol facilities we visited had no access to showers,” it added. “While all facilities had infant formula, diapers, baby wipes, and juice and snacks for children, we observed that two facilities had not provided children access to hot meals – as is required.” Mr Trump has doubled down on his position over immigration as he kicks off his reelection campaign, aware that few issues more energise his base.This week, a congressional delegation visited a detention centre operated by the border patrol agency in Clint, Texas, where hundreds of children were moved after it was revealed they were living in very poor conditions.Among those to visit was congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who accused border agents of conducting “psychological warfare” against detained migrants. She said they had told her they were told to drink water from toilets if they were thirsty.“Our border patrol people are not hospital workers, doctors or nurses,” said Mr Trump. “The Democrats’ bad immigration laws, which could be easily fixed, are the problem. Great job by border patrol, above and beyond.”
Conditions at five US migrant detention centres in Texas have been described as a “ticking time bomb”, as photographs emerged of people crammed in their dozens into cells far too small for the purpose.
Official investigators found thousands of people had been in Border Patrol custody for longer than the agency’s own 72-hour limit, while some had not been given access to showers for a month. Children at three of the five centres had no access to showers.
Two sites did not give child detainees hot food until inspectors arrived, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) representatives were forced to leave one centre early because “when detainees observed us, they banged on the cell windows, shouted, pressed notes to the window with their time in custody, and gestured to evidence of their time in custody”.
One man was pictured holding a scrap of cardboard bearing the words, “Help 40 Days Here”. He was among 88 men being held in a cell designed for 41, the DHS inspector general’s office (OIG) said.
In a report on conditions at several Border Patrol sites in the Rio Grande Valley released on Tuesday, OIG added that “at one facility, some single adults were held in standing-room-only conditions for a week”. Most single adult detainees were still wearing the clothes they arrived in “days, weeks and even up to a month prior”.
And despite rules ordering Border Patrol agents to recognise people’s dietary and religious needs, “many” adults were being fed only bologna [processed sausage] sandwiches. “Some detainees on this diet were becoming constipated and required medical attention,” OIG’s report said.
Images showed children sleeping on the floor in chain-link cages with only foil blankets for comfort. Inspectors said overcrowding had become “dangerous” and quoted a senior manager at one facility as calling the situation a “ticking time bomb”, and a hazard for both staff and the people detained.
It comes just weeks after the watchdog rapped Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials over “egregious violations” of standards at two of their facilities, where staff were found to be serving spoiled food.
Donald Trump‘s administration has faced criticism for its handling of the flow of people trying to enter the US from Latin American countries. Mr Trump has called the asylum system broken, saying that some take advantage of it with frivolous claims.
The OIG report noted that the Rio Grande area of Texas had seen a 124-per-cent increase in attempted border crossings in the last year. Border Patrol facilities were holding about 8,000 people during the inspectors’ visits in June, with 3,400 detained longer than the 72 hours permitted. Of those,1,500 had been held more than 10 days.
Eight hundred and twenty-six of the 2,669 children at Border Patrol’s facilities had been held longer than the 72 hours generally permitted under the customs agency’s standards and a prior court finding.
Of the 1,031 children held at the centralised processing centre in McAllen, 806 had already been processed and were awaiting transfer to Health Department custody. Of those, 165 had been in custody longer than a week. More than 50 were less than seven years old.
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