CAGES AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER ARE CALLED “LA PERRERA” OR “DOG KENNELS”

…Boys under Mylar blankets inside the Processing Center in McAllen, Texas.

The chain-link cages at the border have been stuffed beyond capacity.

The media has finally been allowed to bring cameras into the Processing Center at the border in McAllen Texas.

What they first observed were the dozens of dirt-caked shoes that were sticking out from beneath those silver Mylar blankets, where children were lying on mats, some watching cartoons, while parents were attempting to help their infants go to sleep.  This was inside those chain-link pens of US Border Patrol’s largest holding facility where nearly 1,300 migrants were waiting to either be released, deported or transferred.

This operation was originally set up in a converted warehouse during the 2014 child migrant crisis, and the Central Processing Center had been created since, as an overflow site for families and children.

However, in recent months the center has been stuffed beyond capacity.  The cages are now referred to as “la perrera” or “dog kennelsl”,  by both migrants and border agents alike.  This was what brought on the focus of public anger when sneaked out photographs of children behind the chain link fences circulated last year and brought accusations of migrant “kids in cages.” 

The Department of Homeland Security had previously limited media access and photography inside Border Patrol facilities.  They have cited the privacy rights of migrants in its custody. But those restrictions made it difficult for the agency to convince the public that there was a US border in crisis.  However, the Trump administration finally allowed more video cameras and photographers inside its facilities, and the images of detained children often generate anger and total disgust with the government under Trump. 

The number of people in custody changes daily, sometimes hourly, at these processing centers.  That is as hundreds of thousands of adults and children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala continue arriving at the US-Mexico border despite the scorching summer weather.  Movement is constant inside the rancid, though they are much improved facilities, with busloads of immigrants being moved in and out of this border city.

Arrests along the Southern border have dropped 43% since last May, when US agents took 144,000 migrants into custody, the busiest month in a dozen years. But border-crossings are still at twice the level they were last year, and the tip of South Texas remains the busiest corridor.  Nearly 37,000 people were apprehended in the Rio Grande Valley sector just last month.

“We want to give folks a sense of what is going on down here,” said Border Patrol agent Marcelino “Alex” Medina.

Inside the cavernous pair of warehouses in Southwestern McAllen, migrants are medically screened for common ailments and contagious diseases such as scabies, lice or chickenpox. Those needing medical help beyond basic services are sent to local hospitals, agents said.

Boys were resting under those Mylar blankets when the media arrived. Some of these minors had arrive unaccompanied and they are held in the facility until they can be transferred to a shelter.

Workers have access to face masks and gloves when entering one of two large containment areas, although the center is not immune from contagious diseases; the processing center had an outbreak of an influenza-like illness in late May that led Border Patrol to stop admitting people until the infections died down.

Once medically cleared, migrants are sent into the holding pens. The center has seen tens of thousands of children and families since 2014.

“Children are held on average of about 26 hours in custody,” said Oscar Escamilla, acting deputy Border Patrol agent-in-charge, who led a brief tour of the press through the center. There were fewer than 100 unaccompanied children in Customs and Border Protection custody at the time of the tour.  That was far from the peak a few months ago, when children were backed up in the immigration system and were crowded into the agency’s facilities, sometimes for weeks.

During the tour, the Trump administration said that the journalists were not allowed to talk to the migrants in custody, and most of the migrants shied away from the cameras.  Many retreated deeper within their pens and turned away.

Parents with children are held in separate enclosures, where dozens of men and women were sitting on metal benches or laid across gym mats on the concrete floor. Escamilla said migrants receive “shower wipes” which were just a type of “wet wipe” when they first arrive.  They were permitted to take a shower within the next 72 hours.

Tired men bounced little boys on their knees, children munched on apples and others hid beneath blankets in the cell adjacent to a play area with a plastic playpen with just a few toys.  In one corner sat shelving units filled with clothes, baby formula, toothbrushes and diapers.

Acting deputy Border Patrol agent-in-charge Oscar Escamilla speaks to members of the media.

Inside each section of cells, a guard will monitor camera footage and will keep watch from a small tower elevated about eight feet from the ground. Escamilla said the agency chose chain-link fencing because it allows more visibility for agents and can help cut down on staffing needs.

Migrants can move freely within their respective holding pens, but unaccompanied minors and girls over the age of 10 and small children are assigned separate fenced-in areas. Between each holding area is a sanitation station containing about a dozen portable toilets and sinks that are cleaned twice a day.

There was no escaping the foul stench of days of accumulated dirt, sweat and waste, even with a far smaller number of detainees than when US lawmakers visited the center in June and reported rampant overcrowding and horrible conditions.

If our “do nothing” US Congress just had the nerve to work together to do something about real comprehensive immigration reform, this issue could be handled in a much more humane way.

But with such a divided country under Donald Trump, the broken border and immigration issue will just continue as it is today.

This is apparently what Trump meant for this country when he came down his gold escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for US President in 2016.

Copyright G. Ater 2019