The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released new pictures Tuesday of Border Patrol facilities in Texas where migrants are being detained. They are more horrifying even than one might have imagined. One senior manager reportedly called the heinous conditions a “ticking time bomb.” At an El Paso border station, some agents have reportedly been arming themselves in case riots occur due to the abhorrent treatment of the migrants.
The newly released IG report on the facilities is titled, “Management Alert—DHS Needs to Address Dangerous Overcrowding and Prolonged Detention of Children and Adults in the Rio Grande Valley.”
In one picture of the Border Patrol’s Weslaco, Texas, station, migrant women and children are squeezed together side by side on the floor as they try to sleep, some of them wearing medical masks in an effort to keep from getting sick. In another photo from the agency’s McAllen, Texas, station, migrant men and some children are so tightly packed into a cage that most of them barely have enough room to sit. Any way you look at it, this is entirely cruel and inhumane treatment. It’s your government—the Trump administration—at work.
Rep. Joaquin Castro posted this video following his visit to an El Paso border station.