Lawyers have apparently been denied access to a Texas border facility where hundreds of migrant children are being held.
The Border Patrol tent facility, which is located in Donna, Texas, is housing more than 1,000 people and has children sleeping in close quarters, with some sleeping on the floor due to a dearth of mats. Nonprofit lawyers are complaining that they have been denied access to evaluate the situation.
“It is pretty surprising that the administration talks about the importance of transparency and then won’t let the attorneys for children set eyes on where they’re staying,” said lawyer Leecia Welch. “I find that very disappointing.”
Some of the children at the tent facility have reportedly had to wait some five days to shower and have lacked soap while doing so, with just shampoo being provided, the lawyers said, according to the Associated Press. Some have complained about being housed there for more than a week despite Border Patrol’s three-day limit for detentions.
Phone calls to parents have allegedly been denied for some of the child detainees.
Welch, who works with the National Center for Youth Law, said that while the children do not appear to be in as bad of a situation as during former President Donald Trump’s administration, lawyers “weren’t able to lay eyes on any of it to see for ourselves, so we’re just piecing together” what the children said.
Lawyers are entitled to access child migrant facilities such as the one in Donna under the 1997 Flores agreement to conduct oversight of how the children are being treated.
The Washington Examiner reached out to both the Justice Department and the White House about the report of lawyers not being allowed access to the tent facility but didn’t immediately receive responses.
Democrats and Republicans have raised concerns about the influx of migrants at the southern border.
A group of more than two dozen GOP lawmakers wrote a letter urging President Biden to redeclare a national emergency as numbers of migrants swell and threaten to overwhelm facilities.
“There is a crisis at our southern border. It is critical that our leaders recognize the severity of the circumstances and respond accordingly,” the lawmakers said. “Your administration’s refusal to enforce immigration laws has encouraged countless migrants to make the treacherous journey across our border. We urge you to recognize that an immigration crisis is underway and reinstate a national emergency concerning our southern border.”
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Customs and Border Protection is reportedly expecting a peak of some 13,000 unaccompanied migrant children to the United States in May. The projection passes the number of migrant children that came at any month during 2019’s humanitarian crisis at the border.
