Despite pledges of “transparency,” the Biden administration has prevented the public from seeing any photos or videos from inside federal facilities where migrant children and families are being held in overcrowded rooms for longer-than-permissible periods — all amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Journalists and immigration attorneys have complained for weeks about being barred from the facilities that now house thousands of illegal migrants. And while White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the Biden administration supports “transparency,” she stopped short of saying when access would be allowed and deferred to the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.
“DHS oversees some of the facilities. HHS oversees some of the facilities,” said Psaki. “I know that they’re working through how to provide access in a way that is — abides by COVID protocols and also protects the privacy of people who are being — who are staying in those facilities.”
Reporters have not been allowed inside buildings and tents where thousands of families and children have passed through after being apprehended on the border then transferred to other agency facilities for longer-term holding. The media were also not permitted into federal facilities prior to the Biden administration except for in rare circumstances in which the facility invited reporters for a tour. Any person visiting such a facility, including lawmakers and media, must lock up his or her phone, camera, and any other recording devices in lockers before entering areas where people are held.
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“In an effort to protect detainee privacy, we do limit the amount of filming inside facilities,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Danielle Bennett wrote in an email.
ICE referred the Washington Examiner to a video of the South Texas Family Residential Center, one of two facilities in the country where it holds families.
A spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection, the agency that oversees the Border Patrol, did not reveal if a specific policy or law prohibits taking pictures or filming inside facilities but said that it was “based on privacy concerns of those in our facilities.”
The Labor Department agency the Immigration and Naturalization Service produced a document in 2000 that outlined holding conditions. INS later became ICE, CBP, and Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“Detainees have the right not to be photographed (still, movie, or video), and not to have their voices recorded by the media,” the document states. “If the presence of video, film, or audio equipment or personnel would likely cause a disruption within the facility, the District Director may limit or prohibit such equipment or personnel. For example, the District Director might limit the equipment to hand-held cameras or recorders.”
In 2018, amid controversy over the Trump administration’s family separation policy, images went viral showing children in Border Patrol processing centers in Arizona and Texas held in fenced-in rooms and sleeping on mats. Although the photos led to harsh criticism of Trump, they had been published by the Associated Press in 2014, while Barack Obama was president.
The lack of images and video from the facilities helped generate enormous interest in leaked audio recordings of migrant children who had just been taken from their parents published by ProPublica in 2018. Congressional Democrats played the audio during hearings on Capitol Hill. The publication has not indicated how it got the recordings.
In February, more than 100,000 people were encountered attempting to enter the United States from Mexico, nearly all between ports of entry where vehicles and pedestrians are supposed to be inspected before admission into the country. That figure is up from 78,000 encountered in January.
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February saw a 61% increase in the number of children taken into custody, as well as a 164% increase in the number of families. Approximately 9,500 unaccompanied children and 20,000 families were encountered. Children and adults are to be turned over within three days to other federal agencies for longer-term holding, but Border Patrol is overwhelmed taking people into custody, and agencies are significantly over capacity and unable to accept transfers at some locations, prompting concern over what is going on inside facilities.
HHS’s Administration for Children and Families did not respond to a request for comment.
