BBC Exposes Conditions of Central American Migrants in Kamala's Tents

[AbsolutSurgen]

'Heartbreaking' conditions in US migrant child camp

Quote

 

At a US border detention centre in the Texan desert, migrant children have been living in alarming conditions - where disease is rampant, food can be dangerous and there are reports of sexual abuse, an investigation by the BBC has found through interviews with staff and children.

In recent months, the US has seen a massive rise in migrants and asylum seekers from Central America. Violence, natural disasters and pandemic-related economic strife are some of the reasons behind the influx, experts say.

Some have also suggested the perception of a more lenient administration under Democrat Joe Biden has contributed to the crisis, though the White House has urged migrants against journeying to the US border.

The tented camp in the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas, is the temporary home for over 2,000 teenaged children who have crossed the US-Mexico border alone and are now awaiting reunification with family in the US.

Findings from the BBC's investigation include allegations of sexual abuse, Covid and lice outbreaks, a child waiting hours for medical attention, a lack of clean clothes and hungry children being served undercooked meat.

The BBC has spoken to camp employees about these conditions and seen photos and video smuggled out by staff.

What are the camp conditions?

The Fort Bliss camp consists of at least 12 tents, some of which house hundreds of children at a time. The children spend most of their day in the tents, getting out for an hour or two of recreation, or to line up with hundreds of others for a meal.

Staff told the BBC the food was mostly edible, but a 15-year-old who has now been released said he was fed uncooked meat. "Sometimes the chicken had blood, the meat very red. We couldn't stand our hunger and we ate it, but we got sick from it."

A number of tents have also been set up just to accommodate the large numbers of sick children - the children have nicknamed it 'Covid city'.

"Hundreds of children have tested positive for Covid," said one employee who asked to remain anonymous because staff are banned from speaking about the camp.

In addition to Covid, outbreaks of the flu and strep throat have also been reported since the camp opened in late March.

And some children in need of urgent medical attention have been neglected.

In a secret recording of a staff meeting in May given to the BBC, an employee told of a child who was coughing up blood and needed urgent medical care.

"They said 'we are going to send him to lunch'," the employee reported another staff member as saying. "It was a three and a half hour wait to see anybody."

The 15-year-old who spoke to the BBC was released last month after 38 days in detention. He said he caught Covid-19 soon after arriving in the camp, and became severely ill. After he recovered, he was sent back to live in a crowded tent and became ill again.

"When we went to ask for medicine they gave us dirty looks, and they always laughed among themselves," said the boy, who preferred to remain anonymous, of some camp workers.

"Lice has been rampant," an employee told the BBC. "And one of the major shortages has been lice kits." Staff said a tent of around 800 girls was locked down last month because of lice.

Photos and video smuggled out of the facility by staff and given to the BBC, show rows of flimsy bunks, set inches from each other, extending in long lines through the vast tents.

"I think the crowding is the number one reason that illnesses have spread," said an employee.

Wild sandstorms sweep through the Chihuahuan desert where the camp is set.

"The whole tent starts shaking, some of the tents open up and sand rushes in. You literally have to shield your whole body from sand," said a female employee who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"By the end of the day, we are all just covered in dust from head to toe," she added. Staff told the BBC that showers are on offer, but many children don't want to take them because they have no clean clothes to change into.

There is a shortage of underwear, other clothing items and shoes in the camp, according to employees.

"It is heartbreaking to hear their stories and to see them very plainly suffering and to hear the same kinds of complaints over and over again about things that could be corrected so easily," said a staff member.

"After a child has been here for a few days, they say, 'you've got to get me out of here as soon as possible, I just can't stand it anymore,'" he added. "They feel like they are in a prison."

What do the authorities say?

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which employs private contractors to help run the camp, says it is committed to transparency, but the BBC was denied access to the camp.

HHS did not respond to the specific allegations of neglect in Fort Bliss uncovered by the BBC, but says in a public statement that it is "providing required standards of care for children such as clean and comfortable sleeping quarters, meals, toiletries, laundry, educational and recreational activities, and access to medical services".

What are the reports of sexual abuse?

There are reports of staff sexually abusing children at the Fort Bliss camp. At a camp training session, secretly recorded by a staff member and shared with the BBC, an employee voiced concern.

"We have already caught staff with minors inappropriately," she said.

Another employee told the BBC that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had spoken to staff about a rape.

"DHS mentioned there was a rape - they are giving the girls pregnancy tests," she said. "And I heard the other night that another contractor was caught in a boys' tent, you know, doing things with him."

What state are the children in?

Many of the children in Fort Bliss become severely depressed, according to staff, who say there are multiple cases of children self-harming.

"I thought that I was not going to get out of there, that I was not going to see my family again," the 15-year-old who spoke to the BBC said, welling up with emotion.

"Sometimes, and at night, we would cry. During the worst time I was nearly at the point of committing suicide," he said.

Why have so many children crossed the border alone?

Over a million migrants have tried to cross into the US this year, according to US Customs and Border Patrol - almost twice as many as last year.

Many adults are deported due to a public health rule put in place in the Trump era. But most children under President Joe Biden have been allowed to stay. These children are mostly coming from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador.

Around 80% of the migrant children who end up in the US alone have relatives in the country, but the system is failing to unite them quickly.

Earlier this year, HHS set up a system of emergency camps - Fort Bliss is one - to relieve overcrowding in facilities run by US Customs and Border Patrol.

Currently, children spend an average of 31 days in the HHS camps, down from 40 days at the beginning of the Biden administration in January.

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss".

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Living up to expectations I see

[AbsolutSurgen]

At some point the US needs to come up with a coherent plan on immigration.  It's been, what, 60 years since you had one?

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

4 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

At some point the US needs to come up with a coherent plan on immigration.  It's been, what, 60 years since you had one?

It doesn't help that we're absolutely in the "reaping" phase of the last half century of our policies towards Central America

[Jason]

 

 

[finaljedi]

The rot comes from the middle out, not from the top.  Like every time I read this shit it's like they hire people who were deemed not mentally sound enough to be a prison guard.  They need to dump out pretty much all of middle management and a good chunk of the lower people who probably shouldn't have been hired in the first place.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

3 hours ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

It doesn't help that we're absolutely in the "reaping" phase of the last half century of our policies towards Central America

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

2 hours ago, finaljedi said:

The rot comes from the middle out, not from the top.  Like every time I read this shit it's like they hire people who were deemed not mentally sound enough to be a prison guard.  They need to dump out pretty much all of middle management and a good chunk of the lower people who probably shouldn't have been hired in the first place.

 

This rot has been par for the course for generations.

 

The Deportation Machine

PRESS.PRINCETON.EDU

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The unknown history of deportation and of the fear that shapes immigrants' lives

 

 

[Guest]

The Dems had no real plan to fix conditions for immigrants at the border and were just using it as a weapon against Trump?

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Looks like she's finally gonna come:

 

Under pressure from critics, Harris to visit US-Mexico border

WWW.ALJAZEERA.COM

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Kamala Harris is leading the Biden administration’s efforts to address the surge of migrants arriving at the border.

 

[Fizzzzle]

10 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

At some point the US needs to come up with a coherent plan on immigration.  It's been, what, 60 years since you had one?

It should just be a fucking open border. The whole world should just have open borders, as far as I'm concerned.

 

Restricting immigration really only became a thing in the western world in the late 18th century, and even then it was generally "no black people, otherwise we don't care." Got too confusing to have to tell the difference between free black people and enslaved ones, you see. Then slavery was abolished, so they banned Asians. Had to give poor people someone to be angry at OTHER than robber barons, you see. Then it was eastern Europeans. That's where commies come from, you see. Then we finally let Asians in, but only the engineers and doctors and whatnot. Have to have an example minority group that is successful to teach all the other poors that they're just lazy, you see.

 

In my mind, affordable housing, job growth, minimum wage expansion, and open borders are all linked. And for a change, the answer is DEregulation (except for minimum wage, but the cat's out of the bag on that). Allow more dense housing, open the borders, and life becomes better for everyone.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Border Patrol chief who supported Trump's wall is forced out

APNEWS.COM

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CALEXICO, Calif. (AP) — The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol was forced out of his job Wednesday, after less than two years in a position that lies in the crosshairs of polarizing political debate. Rodney Scott wrote to agents that he will be reassigned, saying he “will continue working hard to support you over the next several weeks to ensure a smooth transition.”

 

[BloodyHell]

11 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

It should just be a fucking open border. The whole world should just have open borders, as far as I'm concerned.

 

Restricting immigration really only became a thing in the western world in the late 18th century, and even then it was generally "no black people, otherwise we don't care." Got too confusing to have to tell the difference between free black people and enslaved ones, you see. Then slavery was abolished, so they banned Asians. Had to give poor people someone to be angry at OTHER than robber barons, you see. Then it was eastern Europeans. That's where commies come from, you see. Then we finally let Asians in, but only the engineers and doctors and whatnot. Have to have an example minority group that is successful to teach all the other poors that they're just lazy, you see.

 

In my mind, affordable housing, job growth, minimum wage expansion, and open borders are all linked. And for a change, the answer is DEregulation (except for minimum wage, but the cat's out of the bag on that). Allow more dense housing, open the borders, and life becomes better for everyone.

No, absolutely not. Countries need control of their borders. And no, open borders and housing development aren't really that linked. Opening the border won't suddenly change zoning restrictions.

[Fizzzzle]

3 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

No, absolutely not. Countries need control of their borders. And no, open borders and housing development aren't really that linked. Opening the border won't suddenly change zoning restrictions.

You're right. That's why I said it's all connected. Changing just one of them won't matter and may in fact exacerbate the problem if you don't change the others at the same time.

[Jason]

4 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

No, absolutely not. Countries need control of their borders. And no, open borders and housing development aren't really that linked. Opening the border won't suddenly change zoning restrictions.

 

If you see the way NIMBYs talk it has a lot of xenophobic nativism built it, just scaled down to the city level instead of the national level. People will complain about "why should we cater to transplants from <other places>, we have enough housing for our current residents many who have lived here their whole lives" etc etc.

[BloodyHell]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

 

If you see the way NIMBYs talk it has a lot of xenophobic nativism built it, just scaled down to the city level instead of the national level. People will complain about "why should we cater to transplants from <other places>, we have enough housing for our current residents many who have lived here their whole lives" etc etc.

Sure, i absolutely agree, and many  NIMBY'S are probably also racist, but opening the borders is definitely not going to help the housing crisis, it's just going to add to the number of homeless already in America.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Most NIMBYs are probably better characterized as "classist" rather than outright "racist".

[Joe]

Open borders would definitely not be a good thing and a sure way to make sure the Democrats never win an election ever again.

[Guest]

Team Open Borders

[Joe]

5 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Team Open Borders

Found the secret Republican.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Open borders are fine in the abstract but without a safety net it's just as destructive as free trade has been with no safety net or plan for disaffected workers

[Fizzzzle]

4 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Open borders are fine in the abstract but without a safety net it's just as destructive as free trade has been with no safety net or plan for disaffected workers

That's why I said it's all connected. Doing one without any of the others won't make a difference, or just make things worse. Unfortunately, that's why I assume it will never happen.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Even working that list, which is largely fine btw, on a piecemeal approach it would be dead last in the priority list. 

[LazyPiranha]

Open borders could conceivably work just fine assuming we shifted focus on matters of immigrant labor.  If we’re really that concerned about the problem, the far easier and more effective solution would be to punish employers.  While those laws are on the books they’re used so rarely it’s a joke.  Some years have literally less than a dozen prosecutions.  Given the number of undocumented workers out there that number is a farce.  Penalties are equally low in general.  As a society we focus all blame and punishment on the immigrants as opposed to the reason they’re even coming here.  

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

2 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

punish employers

lol

[LazyPiranha]

2 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

lol

I didn’t say it was going to happen, I’m just saying it would be a better solution.

[Joe]

Punish employers how?

[Guest]

We don’t have legit tools for verifying whether a person has legal status for employment, and that’s kinda on purpose

[Joe]

Just now, sblfilms said:

We don’t have legit tools for verifying whether a person has legal status for employment, and that’s kinda on purpose

What do you mean? E-Verify, no?

[LazyPiranha]

22 minutes ago, Joe said:

Punish employers how?

How else do we punish people?  Fines and in absurdly extreme situations for this kind of offense jail. 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Joe said:

What do you mean? E-Verify, no?

E-verify only validates the documents are real, not that the person who handed them in is that person. Lots of documented people rent their docs to undocumented immigrants to get around it, or use stolen docs. It’s weak stuff and seems to be intentionally so as there are many fixes that have been offered and not implemented 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

15 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

E-verify only validates the documents are real, not that the person who handed them in is that person. Lots of documented people rent their docs to undocumented immigrants to get around it, or use stolen docs. It’s weak stuff and seems to be intentionally so as there are many fixes that have been offered and not implemented 

Say it with me now: national ID cards

[Joe]

21 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

E-verify only validates the documents are real, not that the person who handed them in is that person. Lots of documented people rent their docs to undocumented immigrants to get around it, or use stolen docs. It’s weak stuff and seems to be intentionally so as there are many fixes that have been offered and not implemented 

I mean true, but it’s substantially more people that just get fake docs as opposed to lent docs at least in my experience. Plus this wouldn’t work if the lent doc was a green card holder as you still have to verify the green card picture looks like the person. This could conceivably work with a sibling (I may know someone that does this lol).

 

22 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

How else do we punish people?  Fines and in absurdly extreme situations for this kind of offense jail. 

Shouldn’t we want to legalize all the undocumented workers first? Or do we just want hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed people?

[Guest]

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but my mother in law named my wife after herself. Sweet, you might think. But it was really just so she would have a legit social security card. We found this out when my wife began receiving SSA wage statements that included wages from the first three years of her life