Federal authorities have recorded daily encounters with more than seven thousand migrants at the US-Mexico border in recent months.
Border guards justified the measure by citing overcrowding in these detention centers. (Photo: AFP)
The separation of migrant families is back in the public eye today following the release of a report accusing the U.S. Border Patrol of separating parents and children in custody.
During this summer’s visits from Dr. Paul Wise, an independent expert, at a border facility in Donna, Texas, found that in certain cases children as young as eight were separated from their parents.
“There were girls separated from their mothers and boys separated from their fathers. “None of the children interviewed have visited their parents since their separation, including the children who were separated for four days,” the document warned.
According to the pediatrician, the minors “did not know any protocol that would have allowed them to request a visit to their parents.”
A CNN report recalled that Wise’s independent monitoring is part of a court-approved settlement agreement based on a 1980s lawsuit against the federal government alleging irregularities in the treatment of minors in the care of federal authorities were provided.
The report highlighted the humanitarian and logistical challenges facing Joe Biden’s administration following an increase in the number of migrant families crossing the United States-Mexico border, the television network said.
Such a surge is putting strain on already overcrowded facilities that are not designed to house people, especially families, for long periods of time, he added.
Border guards justified the measure with the overcrowding of these detention centers.
A Customs and Border Protection spokesman emphasized that in the rare cases where children are separated from a parent in custody, they are reunited and released together and that distancing is only a “last resort.”
The Donald Trump administration (2017-2021) made the “zero tolerance” policy one of its main anti-immigrant weapons, keeping families separated, including parents who were deported without their children.
Official data shows that federal authorities have recorded daily encounters with more than seven thousand migrants at the US-Mexico border in recent months.
The numbers have not been seen since the spring, when a restriction imposed since the Covid-19 pandemic (Title 42) was about to expire.
The news agency said the number of daily encounters paints a grim picture for the fall as Biden intensifies his re-election campaign and Republicans attack him over his border control policies.
