A migrant detention centre in Clint, Texas, has been slammed for its inhumane treatment of around 255 migrant children who were separated from their parents as part of the Trump Administrations ill thought out 2018 “zero tolerance” policy which affected around 3,000 children before it was suspended.
Protest rally against President Trump’s soon overturned policy of separating immigrant children from their parents,
Rena Schild/Shutterstock
despite these children being extremely vulnerable and in many cases traumatised after being forcibly removed from their parents care they were simply locked up either in overcrowded cells without anything more than basic sanitation. There were no adults supervising them on a regular basis and many were left weeks later wearing the same dirty clothing they crossed the border in. Lice infestations were rife and there was an influenza outbreak which seemed to go untreated given reports that children who were very ill were simply left lying on the ground on mats.
The border authority has acknowledged that the Clint facility was in their words not suited to the task but they were effectively hamstrung by limited resources. A statement they put out read:
“US Customs and Border Protection leverages our limited resources to provide the best care possible to those in our custody, especially children … As our leadership have noted numerous times, our short-term holding facilities were not designed to hold vulnerable populations, and we urgently need additional humanitarian funding to manage this crisis.”
Fortunately it appears that the majority of the children have now been moved to better facilities although around 30 are still there. Not surprisingly this has led to outrage from several Democrats including Veronica Escoba who has been especially vociferous regarding this travesty.
On Monday, Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar, who had been deeply critical of the reported conditions, said she had been told that only 30 children remained in the Clint facility.
This morning, my office was informed that only 30 children remain in the Clint Border Patrol station in El Paso County.
Last week, @hrw lawyers found 255 children in beyond alarming conditions in the same station. pic.twitter.com/tmBC3M0aqP
— Rep. Veronica Escobar (@RepEscobar) June 24, 2019
