The Truth About Border Patrol’s Detention Facility: Children in “Wire-Mesh, Chain Linked Cages”

-blogged by @theRealAlexisDanielle

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Media officials were allowed into the country’s largest processing detention center in McAllen, Texas, Sunday evening. The sight was much like that of a concentration camp.

No images were allowed to be taken, however, chain link fences enclosing over 1000 immigrants and mattresses plotted on the floor can be seen in images released by the agency.
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The center, known as Ursula, is the “epicenter” of the Trump Administration’s “Zero Tolerance” immigration policy. The policy is solely responsible for separating thousands of migrant children from their parents.
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While the facility has existed for years, Trump Administration has confirmed that its new policy, which went into effect in May, directly intends to separate families as a byproduct of prosecuting anyone who crosses the border illegally.
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Here’s how it works: Immigrants who attempt to cross into US territory, most often in search of a better life, will be captured by border patrol and placed into a camp-like facility. Every single adult will enter into a process of prosecution, and subsequently, their children will be held in these camps until they are filtered into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley detailed his second visit to the facility to CNN, describing children housed in “wire-mesh, chain linked cages that are about 30×30”.
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Merkley went on to say that while there were “a lot” of children in each cage, there could possibly be more.
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“I was told that buses full (of children) were taken away before I arrived. That was one of my concerns, that essentially when you have to give lengthy notice, you end up a little bit of a show rather than seeing what’s really going on in these centers.”
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While there are laws limiting how long immigrants can be held inside of the facilities, it is reported that due to backlogging in processing, people are being held for much longer.