Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Images of a detention center for immigrant children show the conditions in which nearly 1,500 boys are sheltered in Brownsville, Texas. Murals of presidential quotes could be seen inside, some of which feature quotes in both English and Spanish – including one of President Donald Trump saying, “Sometimes losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.” Children are allowed to leave the complex for only two hours each day. Many apparently have spent time inside watching the Disney animated film “Moana” and learning about US history. Images of a detention center for immigrant children show the conditions in which nearly 1,500 boys are being sheltered in Brownsville, Texas. A small group of reporters from outlets including MSNBC and The Washington Post were allowed to tour the facility on Wednesday. MSNBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff reported his observations and some pictures of the facility in a lengthy Twitter thread that evening. The Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services shared the photos with Business Insider on Thursday. Casa Padre, which used to be a Walmart, is operated by Southwest Key, a firm that runs more than a dozen shelters in Texas housing unaccompanied immigrant children, the San Antonio Express-News reports. The organisation is contracted by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of HHS that manages minors suspected of crossing the US border illegally and oversees their transfer to family custody or foster care. While some children cross the border illegally without family members, the Trump administration has also implemented what it calls a “zero-tolerance” policy with regard to illegal border crossings by immigrant families. The policy calls for adults to be criminally prosecuted, causing them to lose custody of the children accompanying them. The policy has been deeply controversial and emotionally fraught. Miguel Nogueras, an assistant federal public defender, told CNN that roughly 500 children had been separated from their parents since May. Here are some photos of Casa Padre: Inside the facility, called Casa Padre, are painted murals of presidents that feature quotes, including one in English and Spanish of Trump saying, “Sometimes losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.” Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Nearly every room in the facility houses five children, even though rooms were constructed to house four. Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Source: MSNBC The average amount of time children spend at the facility is 49 days. Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Source: The Washington Post Casa Padre is licensed to house only older children, aged 10 to 17. Shelter staff estimated that 10% of the children currently housed at Casa Padre were separated from their parents at the border — the remaining likely arrived in the US unaccompanied. Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Children were allowed to leave the complex for only two hours each day. Apart from that, they remain indoors, spending time on activities like watching the Disney animated film “Moana” and learning about US history. Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Source: MSNBC Their artwork and drawings can be seen scattered throughout the facility, placed atop shelves and hanging above beds. Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services The children are served food by shelter employees out of the part of the building that used to be a McDonald’s. Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Source: The Washington Post They reportedly eat meals such as chicken, vegetables, fruit cups, burgers, and fries. Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Source: The Washington Post “This place is called a shelter, but effectively these kids are incarcerated,” Soboroff said on MSNBC, pointing to photos he took during a tour supervised by HSS. Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Source: MSNBC Unidentified children can be seen in the photos with barcodes attached to their wrists — here’s one boy having his scanned as he stands in line with a tray of food. Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services One of the first things a shelter employee reportedly asked the visiting journalists to do was to smile at the kids because they would otherwise feel like animals locked up in a cage. Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Source: MSNBC To accommodate the growing influx of children, Southwest Key is retrofitting some of its facilities with smaller rooms and appliances, such as bathrooms and sinks, the founder and executive Juan Sanchez said. Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Source: The Washington Post “We’re trying to do the best that we can taking care of these children. Our goal ultimately is to reunite kids with their families,” Sanchez said. “We’re not a detention center … What we operate are shelters that take care of kids. It’s a big, big difference.” Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services Business Insider Emails & Alerts Site highlights each day to your inbox. Email Address Join Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.<doc-sep>McALLEN, Texas — Hundreds of young migrants are being kept behind metal wire — the type you’d see on a neighborhood batting cage or a dog kennel — inside the country’s largest immigration processing center. A Department of Homeland Security official called the facility, known as Ursula, the “epicenter” of the Trump administration’s policy that has separated thousands of children from their parents. A total of 1,174 children have been taken away from their mothers and fathers in the Border Patrol’s South Texas Rio Grande Valley sector, with many brought to the Central Processing Station in McAllen, Texas, since the policy was announced on May 7, according to Manuel Padilla, the Border Patrol sector chief. NBC News was part of a group that went behind Ursula's highly secured doors Sunday to see firsthand what migrants go through before separations occur. The facility has spanned multiple presidential administrations but a new "zero tolerance" policy — which Trump's own top staff and Cabinet officials have explicitly said is causing children to be taken from their parents as part of an effort to deter border crossings — has turned the spotlight on it. From Ursula, children will be sent to separate facilities run by the Department of Health and Human Services while their parents are sent to a detention center to await prosecution before a federal judge. U.S. policy dictates that no one of any age should be kept in one of these processing centers longer than 72 hours. But because of the backlog at HHS centers for children, hundreds of minors are forced to stay past that limit. As of Monday, the HHS had 11,785 minors in its custody, a department official told NBC News. That number includes "all minors at all shelters and facilities in the unaccompanied alien children program," the official said. Cameras were not permitted on the Father's Day tour, but the Border Patrol provided handout images of the stark situation: 1,129 migrants were detained in the 77,000-square-foot facility, nearly all of them behind the metal wire. Mylar blankets, the type marathon runners wrap themselves in after finishing a race, covered the bodies of migrants throughout as they lay on mattresses atop concrete floors. Migrants rest under mylar blankets at the Border Patrol's Central Processing Station in McAllen, Texas, on Sunday. This photo has been manipulated by authorities to protect identities. U.S. Customs and Border Protection In the 55,000-square-feet of the facility dedicated to families and unaccompanied minors, detainees were sorted based on age, gender and family status into what the Border Patrol called four pods: one for girls 17 and under, another for boys 17 and under, mothers with children and fathers with children. Agents are overwhelmed. John Lopez, the deputy patrol agent in charge, told NBC News they lack manpower and the system is strained — and here, they’re only separating less than half of the families so far. Parents who are separated from their children aren’t taken away until they are brought into processing to leave the facility — only at that moment do they find out if they’ll be prosecuted, instead of taken to an ICE detention center with their children. They receive what is called a “tear sheet” informing them of their fate and how they might find their children again. For some, agents said, processing comes not with one of the 10 permanent processing agents but with virtual ones — video chats with agents in El Paso, En Centro or Corpus Christi — an effort to provide support for a system they say is understaffed. Only four social workers were on hand to care for the hundreds of children, a backup system when Border Patrol agents are not prepared or qualified to deal with the challenges that come with caring for a child. Some children who arrived with parents now find themselves alone in the facility before they are picked up and taken into the custody of the HHS, which cares for unaccompanied migrant children. Others arrived on their own. Padilla, the Border Patrol chief, said agents in the Rio Grande Valley have allowed families with children under 5 to stay together in most cases. An advocate who spent several hours in the facility Friday told The Associated Press she was deeply troubled by what she found. Michelle Brané, director of migrant rights at the Women’s Refugee Commission, met with a 16-year-old girl who had been taking care of a young girl for three days. “She had to teach other kids in the cell to change her diaper,” the AP quoted Brané as saying. “She was so traumatized that she wasn’t talking. She was just curled up in a little ball." A total of 1,129 migrants were detained in the 77,000-square-foot facility known as Ursula on Sunday. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Trump has repeatedly blamed Democrats opposed to his immigration reform proposal, falsely crediting an anti-trafficking law that passed unanimously in 2008 under President George W. Bush for the separations. The detention of children apart from their parents is a result of the policy mandated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and there is no law that requires family separation. As such, congressional action is not necessary to stop it. Sessions has said the intent is to eventually prosecute everyone who crosses the border illegally. Last week, Sessions gave a full-throated defense of the policy leading to family separations, saying having children does not give migrants immunity from prosecution and citing the Bible as justification. "Noncitizens who cross our borders unlawfully, between our ports of entry, with children are not an exception," the attorney general said. "They are the ones who broke the law, they are the ones who endangered their own children on their trek." Jacob Soboroff reported from McAllen, Texas, and Julia Ainsley from Washington.<doc-sep>A Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine was arrested Friday morning near an immigration and customs detention center in McAllen, Texas, after blocking an entrance to the facility with a truck and refusing a police request to leave. Zak Ringelstein, a Yarmouth educator vying to unseat independent U.S. Sen. Angus King, traveled to Texas and attempted to access the facility for a tour and to deliver a truckload of toys, bedding and water to children being held inside the facility after being detained for illegally crossing the U.S. border with their parents. The McAllen border facility is the same one first lady Melania Trump visited Thursday amid an uproar over President Donald Trump’s recently enforced policy of separating parents and children who cross the border illegally. He signed an executive order this week ending new family separations, but it didn’t change his administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy on immigration. Ringelstein’s protest and arrest were broadcast live on his campaign’s Facebook page Friday morning. After lengthy conversations with officials from the facility, Ringelstein and another man who joined him were handcuffed and taken away. A McAllen police spokesman confirmed a Ringelstein’s campaign tweet that he was being held on suspicion of criminal trespass — a misdemeanor charge in Texas punishable by up to six months in jail and a maximum $2,000 fine. Ringlestein’s campaign tweeted Saturday morning that he had been released from jail. Terms of his release were not immediately available. This is the second time in recent weeks that Ringelstein has been charged during a protest. In May, he and a number of other people were arrested at the Blaine House in Augusta for protesting and refusing to disperse. They were charged with trespassing and refusing to leave. Ringelstein and another man who had been protesting at the Texas facility and later joined the Maine candidate were confronted by several Border Patrol officers, but they were eventually handcuffed and taken away by local police. For a roundup of Maine political news, click here for the Daily Brief. Click here to get Maine’s only newsletter on state politics via email on weekday mornings. Follow the Bangor Daily News on Facebook for the latest Maine news.<doc-sep>Melania Trump flew to Texas today to tour a child detention facility. Photos from the Upbring New Hope Children’s Center suggest that the first lady is touring a newly renovated school—a far cry from recent images of children sleeping under mylar blankets, being led through tent cities and screaming for their separately detained parents. It’s not clear why the first lady visited the detention center, or what the visit was intended to achieve, other than a photo op. A spokeswoman told CNN that she hoped to gain “a realistic view of what’s happening.” She had condemned the Trump administration’s child separation policy earlier this week, and reportedly lobbied husband Donald Trump to end it. The president’s eventual capitulation to widespread popular outrage came too late, though: More than 2,300 children, however, have already been taken from their parents and sent to camps and centers as far-flung as Michigan. According to his executive order, immigrant families illegally crossing the border will now be imprisoned together. No clear plan has yet been proposed by the government to reunite the parents and children who have been separated. In the meantime, defense contractors, wealthy organizations, and commercial airlines continue to facilitate the children’s detention. During her trip, Mrs. Trump viewed the flags of various central American countries hanging on the wall, met with some children, and sat for a roundtable discussion with local officials. However, photos from her trip do not mesh with the rows of cages in cavernous detention facilities shown in government handout photos, nor with the accounts and audio of children crying for their parents. Instead, these pictures offer only the most sanitized, distant view of the crisis of child detention: an empty bed room, arts and crafts projects of unknown authorship hanging on walls. The children themselves are tellingly absent from the frame. Reuters/Kevin Lamarque - US first lady Melania Trump visits a room as Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar (R) looks on during a tour of the Lutheran Social Services of the South “Upbring New Hope Children’s Center” near the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas. Reuters/Kevin Lamarque U.S. first lady Melania Trump tours the Lutheran Social Services of the South “Upbring New Hope Children’s Center.” Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Flag from central American countries hang from the walls at the center for migrant children. Reuters/Kevin Lamarque U.S. first lady Melania Trump listens during a roundtable meeting. Read more: All the things you can do to help end family separations at the border<doc-sep>
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Monday released footage of an immigration detention center in McAllen, Texas, where children have been separated from their parents as part of the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy at the border. The footage was released a day after members of the media and several Democratic lawmakers were taken on a tour of the processing facility near the U.S.-Mexico border. Reporters were not allowed to bring cameras into the facility or interview anyone. ADVERTISEMENT The video shows dozens of children standing or sitting in cages made from metal fencing inside the old 55,000-square foot warehouse, which has been converted into a holding facility. Some people were shown lying down, using foil-like sheets as blankets. Border Patrol said nearly 200 people in the facility were unaccompanied minors while 500 were "family units" of parents and children, according to CBS News. Many of the adults who have crossed the border illegally could be charged and jailed, splitting them up from their children. BREAKING: Border Patrol @CBP just gave us this video of the detention facility we toured yesterday in McAllen, Texas. We weren't allowed to bring in cameras, or interview anyone. To be clear: this is government handout video. pic.twitter.com/Zjy80qIZFZ — David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) June 18, 2018 The video comes as many Democratic and Republican lawmakers voice outrage over the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy that was announced in April, where adults apprehended outside an official port of entry are prosecuted away from their children. Rep. David Cicilline David CicillineMedia safe harbor bill won't actually help local news Cheney calls Greene's comments on House mask policy 'evil lunacy' Greene under fire for comparing mask policy to the Holocaust MORE (D-R.I.) tweeted on Sunday that officials told him 1,147 children have been separated from parents at the facility in McAllen. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Kirstjen Michele NielsenLeft-leaning group to track which companies hire former top Trump aides Rosenstein: Zero tolerance immigration policy 'never should have been proposed or implemented' House Republican condemns anti-Trump celebrities during impeachment hearing MORE has defended Trump's policy at the U.S.-Mexico border, and on Monday argued that illegal actions have consequences. She also argued that Americans should not believe the media in regards to their coverage of the policy, while President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE has also doubled-down on the policy. The Associated Press reported on Friday that about 2,000 children were separated from their parents from mid-April to the end of May.