Biden Admin Lets Reporters Into Border Detention Facility, What They Find Is Horrifying
This is precisely why the Biden administration didn’t want to allow media coverage of border facilities.
CBS News reporter Nicole Sganga tweeted photos of a border facility in Donna, Texas, on Tuesday — exposing the truly horrifying conditions migrant children are living under.
“The facility is at 1700% pandemic capacity,” Sganga wrote.
THREAD — Reporters toured the temporary border facility in Donna, TX today.
The Biden admin allowed pooled coverage for the first time.
We saw a “pod” designed for 32 migrant children under CDC guidelines now holding 615.
The facility is at 1700% pandemic capacity.
?:TV Pool pic.twitter.com/cJTPUAxXmc
— Nicole Sganga (@NicoleSganga) March 30, 2021
The Donna facility exemplifies the true crisis at the border, with over 13,000 unaccompanied migrant children reportedly in the custody of United States border security agencies.
The pool coverage comes just one week following White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s public grilling on whether the administration would allow the media to tour facilities like the one in Donna.
Surprisingly, Psaki maintained the idea of her March 24 statement, in which she said the administration was “also open to providing access there.”
However, while the Biden administration has just barely been able to uphold its promise of transparency, it’s utterly failed in creating the “fair and humane” system it promised during the 2020 presidential campaign.
Sganga continued to report in her Twitter thread that children between 4 months and 9 years of age are being held in recreational areas, because “there’s no just room for them in the dormitory areas.”
Unaccompanied migrant children ages 4 months – 9 years old are now being held in the recreational area around the clock because there’s no just room for them in the dormitory areas. pic.twitter.com/AlUqJbcmEa
— Nicole Sganga (@NicoleSganga) March 30, 2021
Even worse, as outwardly cautious about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as it presents itself to be, the administration continues to pack COVID-positive immigrants like sardines in already-jammed facilities — waiting to be released as if they were part of a living biological time bomb.
Sganga and her group of reporters counted “more than 50,” mostly asymptomatic, COVID-positive illegal immigrants who happened to be children, meaning the Department of Homeland Security is mandated to release those immigrants into the United States interior.
The outdoor recreational area is being used to stage COVID testing before unaccompanied migrant children are transferred to HHS facilities.
We counted more than 50 COVID positive (and largely asymptomatic) kids waiting for their quarantined bus right next to a soccer game. pic.twitter.com/QYRe5ncF46
— Nicole Sganga (@NicoleSganga) March 30, 2021
The Donna facility is also reportedly holding children beyond the legal limit of 72 hours, according to Sganga. Instead of just three days, the CBS reporter alleged the facility has held some children for more than 15 days.
At least 39 unaccompanied migrant children have been in the temporary processing facility for more than 15 DAYS, Acting Executive Officer for RGV Operational Programs Division, Oscar Escamilla, told reporters.
The legal limit is 72 hours. pic.twitter.com/UUe3HQHYjE
— Nicole Sganga (@NicoleSganga) March 30, 2021
Sganga also made mention of the cost of the Donna facility’s maintenance.
According to the reporter, the facility cost $6.1 million to prop up alone, and with its current capacity, will cost at least $16 million per month to maintain.
It cost $6.1 million to stand up the processing facility in Donna, TX, according to Acting Executive Officer, Oscar Escamilla.
It should cost $6 million per month for @CBP to run the facility at its 250-person capacity.
It’s so overcrowded that it costs $16 million per month.
— Nicole Sganga (@NicoleSganga) March 30, 2021
This is not humane. This is horrifying.
The Biden administration doesn’t actually want to humanely send immigrants anywhere, whether back to Mexico or into the U.S. interior. Instead, it’s concerned with appearing woke while doing the least possible amount of work.
President Joe Biden has decided to store children like packages in human warehouses along the border while waiting to release COVID-positive patients into vulnerable American communities.
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