A Southern California congressman trained as a physician introduced a bill Wednesday that aims to prevent the deaths of migrant children and other detainees at U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities.
After Deaths of Migrant Kids, Lawmakers Push for Changes in Border Detention
01:38
Migrants wait to be processed and loaded onto a bus by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents after being detained on June 2, 2019, in El Paso, Texas. The location is in an area where migrants frequently turn themselves in to Border Patrol and ask for asylum after crossing the border. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
More Coverage of Immigration Detention
The "Humanitarian Standards for Individuals in Customs and Border Protection Custody Act" by Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, would require CBP to conduct health screenings by medical professionals within 12 hours of individuals being detained, and improve conditions for them while they are held.
The legislation also calls for migrants in CBP custody to have access to private toilets, at least a gallon of clean drinking water per day and facilities with a temperature kept at "comfortable levels" — which would halt the use of freezing cold holding rooms former detainees refer to as "hieleras."
"These standards will ensure our treatment of children and families is consistent with the principles of basic human dignity," said Ruiz, who represents the Coachella Valley.
Sponsored
Standing at the Capitol before a row of doctors wearing white lab coats and Democratic lawmakers, Ruiz read the names of seven minors who have died while in immigration custody or shortly after release since last December.
He said the first reported death of a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl, Jakelin Caal Maquin, prompted him to visit CBP facilities.
"The conditions I saw were deplorable, subhuman and heartbreaking," said Ruiz, who has experience as an emergency room doctor. "Open toilets in crowded cells without any privacy. Visibly sick children coughing on one another. Babies who were dirty and didn't have diapers."
A CBP spokesman said agency policy prohibits him from commenting on pending legislation.
While agency guidelines do not require health screenings by medical professionals for every detainee, they say medical care, clean drinking water and edible food should be available to migrants.
In January, in response to a surge of children and families being apprehended at the border, then-CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan directed the agency to beef up medical efforts, including health assessments for minors, to better care for people in custody.
McAleenan, now Department of Homeland Security acting director, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week that 200 medical professionals are providing screenings at the border.
Still, Democratic lawmakers supporting Ruiz's bill say CBP officers are woefully underequipped and underresourced to meet the basic needs of detainees, many of them Central Americans who say they are fleeing extreme poverty and violence in their home countries.
"I hope that the House of Representatives and also the Senate will send a strong message that the United States, the strongest and most prosperous nation on earth, is one that will treat humanely those folks who come here seeking refuge," said Democratic Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
This comes as the White House is asking Congress for $4.5 billion to respond to what it calls a "humanitarian and security crisis at the border."
Ruiz said that Congress shouldn't hand out that money without improving conditions for CBP detainees, as outlined in his bill.
"This is the blueprint of where that humanitarian aid can be spent," he said.