Detained migrants plead for help in photos
Report by auditors of facilities in Texas refers to an ‘acute and worsening crisis’
HOUSTON — In one photo, one of 88 men in a cell meant for 41 presses a piece of cardboard with the word “help” against the window. In another, a man lowers his head and clasps his hands as if in prayer.
The images were released Tuesday by U.S. government auditors who visited facilities in south Texas where migrant adults and children who crossed the nearby border with Mexico are processed and detained.
As public outrage grows over the conditions in which thousands of people — some no more than a few months old — are being held by the U.S. government, the report offered new cause for alarm. It quotes one senior manager as calling the situation “a ticking time bomb.”
“Specifically, 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,” the report says. BuzzFeed first reported on a draft version of the report, which blurs most faces in the photos.
Auditors from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General visited five facilities and two ports of entry in the Rio Grande Valley, where more people cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally than any other section. The dangers there were recently illustrated in images shared around the world showing a young father and daughter who drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande and enter the U.S.
About 8,000 people were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Rio Grande Valley in early June, when auditors visited the facilities. About 7,500 people are detained there now, according to the agency.
U.S. Border Patrol made 132,887 apprehensions in May, including 84,542 adults and children travelling together. With long-term facilities for adults and children at capacity, the Trump administration has said it has to hold people in unsuitable Border Patrol facilities for much longer than the 72 hours normally allowed by law.
In a statement included in the report, Homeland Security blamed “an acute and worsening crisis,” and said it had tried to expand detention capacity and improve the conditions under which migrant families are held. It did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Immigrant advocates blame the administration for refusing to promptly release families, children and people seeking asylum, leading to increased numbers of people in detention. The report details several potential violations of federal law or Border Patrol standards.
The report was released a day after a group of Democratic politicians visited the Border Patrol facility in Clint, Texas, on the other side of the state, where lawyers previously reported some 250 children being detained in squalid conditions.