Border overload

DONNA, Texas — The Biden administration for the first time Tuesday allowed journalists inside its main border detention facility for migrant children, revealing a se- verely overcrowded tent structure where more than 4,000 people, including children and families, were crammed into pods and the youngest kept in a large playpen with mats on the floor for sleeping.

With thousands of children and families arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent weeks and packing facilities, President Joe Biden has been under pressure to bring more transparency to the process. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency allowed two journalists from The Associated Press and a crew from CBS to tour the facility in Donna, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley.

The facility has a capacity of 250 but more than 4,100 people were being housed on the property Tuesday. Most were unaccompanied children processed in tents before being taken to shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services and then placed with a family member, relative or sponsor.

The children were being housed by the hundreds in eight pods about 3,200 square feet in size. Many of the pods had more than 500 children in them.

Oscar Escamilla, acting executive officer of the Border Patrol agency in the Rio Grande Valley, said 250 to 300 kids enter daily and far fewer leave.

“That number is so lopsided,” said Escamilla.

On Tuesday, journalists watched children being processed. They went into a small room for lice inspection and a health check. Their hair was hosed down and towels were tossed in a black bin marked “Lice.” The minors — many of whom have made long journeys to get to the border, including stretches on foot — also were checked for scabies, fever and other ailments. No coronavirus test was administered unless a child showed symptoms.

Nurse practitioners also gave psychological tests, asking children if they had suicidal thoughts. All shoelaces were removed to avoid harm to anyone.

The children were then led down a green turf hall to a large intake room. Those 14 and older are fingerprinted and have their photo taken; younger children did not.

Then they were taken to a second intake room where they got notices to appear for immigration court. Border Patrol agents asked them if they had a contact in the U.S. and allowed the child to speak with them by phone.

Children were given bracelets with a barcode that shows history of when they showered and medical conditions.

Separately, a few hundred Honduran migrants set out for the Guatemalan border before dawn Tuesday in hopes of eventually reaching the United States — though all other recent caravans have been broken up far short of that goal.

The Guatemalan and Mexican governments have taken a harder line against such caravans in recent times under pressure from the United States.

The large traveling groups, however, represent only a fraction of the regular daily migration flows, which typically go relatively unnoticed. Mexico last week began restricting crossings at its southern border to essential travel and stepped up operations to intercept migrants, especially families, in the south.

T here has been hope among migrants that the Biden administration would take a more compassionate view of them, but White House officials have tried for months to make it clear that the U.S. border is closed.

U.S. authorities are expelling immediately the majority of migrants who cross the southern border, though a high number of unaccompanied children, which the Biden administration has said it will not expel, have created logistical challenges.

In Central America, some have taken the situation as a sign that if they take young children, their chances of being allowed to remain in the U.S. will be higher.

The Northern Triangle countries — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — have accounted for the majority of people arriving at the U.S. southern border in recent years. Gang violence and a lack of economic opportunities are the main reasons migrants give for leaving.

The economic situation in those countries has only grown more acute under pressure from the pandemic and two major hurricanes that raked the region in November.

The Biden administration has said it wants to spend $4 billion on development in those countries to address root causes of immigration.

(AP/Dario Lopez-Mills) Migrant youths lie inside a pod Tuesday in Donna, Texas, at the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, as the Biden administration allowed journalists inside the border facility for the first time. The facility has a capacity of 250, but more than 4,100 people, mostly unaccompanied children, were being housed there Tuesday.