Children sleep behind bars, on concrete floors at border 'prison', House Democrats say

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption White House calling for more beds at detention centers The Trump White House...calling for an increase in the number of beds at detention facilities holding immigrant families. Veuer's Nick Cardona has that story.

More than two dozen Democratic members of Congress visited a holding facility in Texas for separated immigrant children Saturday and described conditions as "cruel and inhumane" that bring "a great shame to a great country."

The delegation visited a Customs and Border Protection processing facility in the U.S.-Mexico border city of McAllen, the epicenter of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy in which people entering the U.S. illegally face being prosecuted.

They described seeing children sleeping behind bars, on concrete floors and under emergency “mylar” heat-resistant blanks. California Congressman Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said, “It is, for all intents and purposes, a prison.”

Until a public outcry erupted, forcing President Donald Trump to reverse course, parents were jailed and children taken to government-contracted shelters. About 9,000 such family units have been caught in each of the last three months, according to U.S. border authorities.

Although the separations have been stopped, some 2,000 children have still not been reunited with their parents.

The policy, as originally articulated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, was viewed as a tool to discourage people coming up from dysfunctional countries in Central America to seek asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico.

Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fl., told reporters that after her visit "my concern is not alleviated" over the fate of the separated families.

"This is cruel and inhumane," she said, describing the inside of the facility as a "sea of humanity" of little girls, boys, fathers.

Instead of building a border wall, she said, Trump should help alleviate some of the conditions in Central America that have driven tens of thousands of people to flee north.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. said the current policy of separating kids from their parents has "brought great shame to a great country."

Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn., said Border Patrol agents grappling with the issue at the facilities were "concerned and confused." "We need consistency and compassion out of this administration," she said.

Esty also called on the president to refrain from saying the children were "infesting" the U.S. "It's insulting, it's dangerous and we need to do better," she said.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., called Trump's rapid change of position on the separation issue an "insane flip-flop."

He also slammed the president for branding such children as criminals, and members of the MS-13 gang.

"(He) wants Americans to believe that the hundreds of people we saw in this facility were a danger to them and to this country," the Himes said.

While noting that most Border Patrol workers at the facility were trying to do the best they can, Himes said the Congressional delegation was there to see that the children receive "the values and ethic good treatment that we are here to demand."

Immigration officials have said they could seek up to 15,000 beds in family detention facilities, and the Pentagon is drawing up plans to house as many as 20,000 unaccompanied immigrant children on military bases.

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