An overcrowded fenced area holding families at a Border Patrol station in a still image from video in McAllen, Texas, June 10, 2019. /Reuters Photo
The inspector general for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned on Tuesday about "dangerous overcrowding" in migrant detention facilities in Texas.
The report by the agency watchdog came a day after a group of Democratic lawmakers toured detention centers for undocumented immigrants in the state bordering Mexico and denounced "horrifying" conditions there.
"We encourage the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take immediate steps to alleviate dangerous overcrowding and prolonged detention of children and adults in the Rio Grande Valley," acting DHS Inspector General Jennifer Costello said in a memorandum to acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan.
The report included images taken at several Texas sites, showing dozens of migrants including young children packed shoulder to shoulder into cage-like holding areas or cells.
The acting DHS inspector general said one senior manager at a detention facility described the situation as a "ticking time bomb" and raised security concerns for agency staff and detainees.
Costello said her office had toured five Border Patrol holding facilities in Texas's Rio Grande Valley in early June and observed "serious overcrowding and prolonged detention of unaccompanied alien children, families, and single adults."
A still image from video in McAllen, Texas, June 10, 2019. /Reuters Photo
"Specifically, Border Patrol was holding about 8,000 detainees in custody at the time of our visit, with 3,400 held longer than the 72 hours generally permitted," she said. "Of those 3,400 detainees, Border Patrol held 1,500 for more than 10 days."
"Border Patrol's custody data indicates that 826 (31 percent) of the 2,669 children at these facilities had been held longer than the 72 hours generally permitted," she added.
Children at three of the five Border Patrol facilities had no access to showers and few spare clothes while two facilities had not provided hot meals, only sandwiches.
Most single adults had not had a shower in a month and were being given wet-wipes. Some detainees were suffering from constipation after a diet consisting only of bologna sandwiches.
According to Border Patrol figures, 223,263 people were detained in the Rio Grande Valley sector between October 2018 and May 2019, up 124 percent from the same period a year earlier.
U.S. Democratic presidential hopefuls denounced the conditions depicted by the report.
"No human being deserves to be treated like this," Senator Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter. "This is abuse, it's dehumanization, and it's not who we are as a country."
Some of a group of 51 adult females press against the window of a cell built to hold 40 male juveniles at Front Brown Border Patrol station in a still image from video in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., June 12, 2019. /Reuters Photo
CBP deputy commissioner Robert Perez, appearing on CNN, said the detention centers were "never designed to deal with the volume of migrants coming our way" and the Border Patrol is doing its best to deal with "absolutely over-saturated conditions."
In New York, several hundred people gathered on Tuesday to demonstrate against the Trump administration's treatment of migrants, part of a planned nationwide day of protests by rights groups targeting members of the U.S. Congress.
The demonstrations were fueled by fears the Trump administration is preparing a roundup of immigrants who are in the country illegally. Trump last month delayed the raids by two weeks.
Crackdown on illegal immigration is a centerpiece of Trump's domestic policy agenda and 2020 re-election bid. But his efforts to build a wall on the southern border have been blocked in Congress, and he was forced last year to backtrack after his "zero tolerance" border policy of separating migrant children from their parents provoked widespread outrage.
(With input from Reuters and AFP)