U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday released photos and video of South Texas immigrant processing centers that have become a renewed focus of criticism for continued poor conditions despite President Biden's promises to fix Trump-era problems.
The images appear partly in response to photos released by Rep. Henry Cuellar and published by Axios on Monday showing migrants crammed into "pods" divided only by plastic sheathing. Cuellar, a Democrat who represents the border town of Laredo, Texas, said he recently witnessed "terrible conditions for the children" at the Donna Processing Center.
Cuellar said the "pods" were meant to house 260 individuals, but that one of them held more than 400 unaccompanied male minors. He said the children needed to be quickly moved from the facility into the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.
"We ought to take care of those kids like they're our own kids," he said.
The controversy comes barely two months into the Biden presidency, amid a surge in migrants coming to the U.S. from Central America that began late last year. The new administration says it sees ending a Trump-era policy of forcing migrants to remain in Mexico while their cases adjudicated as "a moral imperative."
More has to be done to address this growing humanitarian crisis.
These migrant children need our help right now. Not later. https://t.co/hbeLnfIxNF
— Rep. Henry Cuellar (@RepCuellar) March 22, 2021
Cuellar said one reason he released the photos was because the Biden administration had refused media access to the facility in Donna, Texas.
The new White House says the Trump administration handed it a crumbling immigration and asylum system.
The images appear to show migrants undergoing processing and general living conditions, such as rows of migrants sleeping on mattresses on the ground, covered in silver emergency blankets. Other images show unaccompanied minors and families in line for processing or to receive meals.
In a brief statement accompanying their release, Customs and Border Protection said it "continues to transfer unaccompanied minors to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as quickly and efficiently as possible after they are apprehended on the Southwest Border."