Breastfeeding mothers detained by US Border Patrol are only receiving half the amount of water they need, and hungry babies are not getting enough food, according to a doctor who recently visited a McAllen, Texas, center that she compared to “torture facilities."



Dr. Dolly Lucio Sevier, a physician in the Rio Grande Valley who toured the Border Patrol processing center known as Ursula last week, said nursing mothers told her they were only receiving 1.5 liters of water a day at meals, and would drink more if they had access to it. Mothers who are breastfeeding should drink at least 3 liters a day and be given extra food, she said.



US Customs and Border Protection is “endangering the health of these infants” by providing “breastfeeding mothers less than adequate supplies of fluids and nutrition," Sevier said in a declaration set to be filed in federal court as part of a request for a temporary restraining order against the government.

The temporary restraining order is the latest following a series of reports from lawyers and physicians who have visited CBP facilities detailing the squalid conditions immigrant children and adults are being held in for days and even weeks. The attorneys visited the facilities as part of the 1997 Flores court settlement agreement that gives lawyers for the plaintiffs the right to inspect facilities holding immigrant children.

Recent reports from a Border Patrol facility in Clint, Texas, drew outrage last week after lawyers described children caring for infants and toddlers, a lack of access to soap and toothbrushes, and inadequate food, water, and sanitation.

Attorneys planned to file the request for a temporary restraining order Wednesday in an effort to force Border Patrol to improve conditions inside their facilities in the El Paso and Rio Grande Valley sectors. The court filing accuses the government of being in violation of the consent decree that established standards for holding children in immigration detention.

In the motion, attorney Peter Schey asks for an emergency order requiring the government to bring Border Patrol facilities into compliance with the Flores settlement agreement and that the judge hold the US in contempt.

The conditions described by immigrants show a pattern and practice of neglect and utter disregard for the health and well-being of children in CBP’s care and custody, Schey said, noting that several children have died in CBP custody.

"These deaths may have been prevented had CBP substantially complied with the terms of the Flores Settlement and promptly transferred children out of its custody," Schey said.

CBP has said they are trying the best they can to deal with the number of immigrant families and children, mostly from Central America, they are processing. The facilities that thousands of immigrants are now being held in were built to hold single adults, not immigrant families.