U.S. border officials released the first photos and videos from inside two large facilities where migrant families and unaccompanied children are held by the Border Patrol.
The release of images comes after complaints among the media and lawmakers about the Biden administration’s lack of transparency regarding the surge at the southern border that is seeing thousands of migrants taken into custody weekly.
Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency that oversees Border Patrol, published images from inside its two largest facilities: one in El Paso, Texas, and the other in Donna, Texas. The photos were taken on March 17 and 19.
“In order to protect the health and safety of our workforce and those in our care we continue to discourage external visitors in our facilities; however, CBP is working to balance the need for public transparency and accountability,” CBP said in a statement on Tuesday.
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The Central Processing Center in El Paso is a permanent facility where up to 1,040 children and families encountered on the border in New Mexico and West Texas are taken and temporarily held. It is the same facility that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and senators visited last week.
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Other photos and video were shot inside a temporary holding center in Donna, where the same groups of people are detained after they have been initially taken into custody on the border and waiting for openings at either Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Department of Health and Human Services facilities. The Donna facility comprises several tents because the Rio Grande Valley’s large processing center is being renovated due to the fenced-in rooms that critics have referred to as “cages.”
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