So, the militia leader who made it his mission to ensure border crossers were arrested and detained has now himself been arrested and detained.
Good.
He’s supposed to appear in court today in Las Cruces, so soon enough we’ll know more about “wherever they’re gonna take him,” so to speak. For now—where did they take the hundreds of people his vigilantes held hostage in the desert last week? We know Border Patrol agents took them into custody. Then what?
Last week I read up on the general conditions of immigration detention facilities around the country. But over the last few months, as thousands of families and children from Central America have crossed into the U.S. to seek asylum, Customs and Border Protection has repeatedly warned that their resources are stretched to the breaking point—they don’t have enough facilities to detain everyone they arrest.
One could, at this point, have a serious discussion about whether it’s necessary or appropriate to incarcerate all of these people, even temporarily.
But, of course, that’s not the discussion anyone in power is having. To the contrary, just a few days ago our Attorney General issued an order that will exponentially increase the number of immigrants in detention at any given time by discontinuing the option of release on bond and instead imprisoning people for months as they await their asylum hearings. That change is not only cruel and pointless, but mind-blowingly stupid if his goal is to facilitate CBP’s functioning. It’s almost as if he wants to exacerbate the crisis of cramped, overflowing detention facilities in order to create the visuals and talking points the Trump administration uses to inflame anti-immigrant sentiment and rally political support, or to funnel more money into the for-profit private prison industry.
Ugh.
I’m sure we’ll return to this subject in the weeks ahead.
For now I want to answer the question implied by the militia’s camerawoman the other day: where did Border Patrol take the migrant families after their arrest?
I don’t know about the specific individuals from her video, but here’s what’s been happening to others.
As Border Crossings Rise, Migrants Held in Makeshift Detention Center Under a Texas Bridge
By Tara Law
March 30, 2019
Time Magazine
http://time.com/longform/texas-el-paso-bridge-migrants/
Faced with an unusually high number of incoming migrants, 65% of whom are families with children, the Department of Homeland Security has begun holding those seeking asylum in makeshift detention centers while they await processing.
In El Paso, Texas, one of those detention centers has been installed under the Paso Del Norte Bridge, which spans over the Rio Grande.
“It’s Hell There”: This Is What It’s Like For Immigrants Being Held In A Pen Underneath An El Paso Bridge
US immigration officials are holding hundreds of people in a temporary outdoor detention camp under a Texas bridge, where migrants are surrounded by fencing and sleeping on dirt.
Adolfo Flores
Last updated on March 30, 2019, at 12:30 p.m.
Buzzfeed News
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/border-bridge-migrants-detained-camp-el-paso-texas
The immigrants, held behind a chain-link fence topped with razor wire, said they’ve endured cold and windy nights sleeping on bare, rocky dirt underneath the Paso Del Norte International Bridge that links Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. Most of the immigrants had nothing but thin, mylar blankets. Above, roosting pigeons dropped feces on them. […]
Roger Maier, a spokesperson for CBP, previously said officials set up the enclosure and tent underneath the bridge because of the large number of apprehensions in the area.
“As illegal aliens arrive at the processing facility, they are placed at the ‘tent’ to await their turn to be processed,” Maier said in a statement. “This tent serves only as a transitional shelter and is not a temporary housing facility. It was established within the last month.”
Border pen for migrants under bridge in El Paso now empty after detainees moved
Daniel Borunda,
March 31, 2019
El Paso Times
https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/immigration/2019/03/31/migrants-under-bridge-makeshift-holding-site-empty-paso-del-norte-border-patrol/3325667002/
A chain-link fence pen holding migrants under the Paso Del Norte Bridge was empty Sunday after detainees were transported to U.S. Border Patrol stations.
The temporary outdoor satellite processing facility under one of the international bridges connecting El Paso and Juárez, Mexico, was set up to deal with a large influx of Central American migrants.
The undocumented migrants that were held at the site were taken to a Border Patrol station to be processed, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Sunday.
Border Patrol Holds Hundreds of Migrants in Growing Tent City Away From Prying Eyes
Asylum-seekers are forced to wait days inside surplus Army shelters in a parking lot, with no beds and little food or showers.
Justin Glawe, Justin Hamel
04.15.19 11:18 AM ET
The Daily Beast
https://www.thedailybeast.com/border-patrol-holds-migrants-in-el-paso-tent-city-away-from-prying-eyes
EL PASO, Texas—Hundreds of migrants are being held for days in an emerging tent city at a Border Patrol station in a preview of what the Trump administration is reportedly considering to absorb a surge on the border.
Five U.S. Army tents meant for battlefield hospitals have been repurposed to hold men, women, and children, including infants. Two of the tents were erected over the past week, expanding the facility’s capacity by several hundred people. The tents are tightly surrounded by fences topped with barbed wire, leaving virtually no space for people to roam outside. Inside the tents, according to a congresswoman who was granted access, hundreds languish in fetid conditions. […]
The tents contained no cots and migrants slept on a temporary floor that covered the asphalt parking lot beneath, with babies sometimes sleeping on their parents’ legs to avoid the hard floor. […]
The practice of keeping migrants in tents appears to be part of the Trump administration’s plan for dealing with the surge of Central American asylum-seekers who have overwhelmed the U.S. government at the border in recent months. […]
Last Tuesday [4/9/19], officials from the Defense Department and Homeland Security met at the White House to discuss using military resources to construct and staff new tent cities in El Paso and Donna, Texas, NBC News reported. It’s a favorite idea of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller.
Temporary immigration detention facilities to open in El Paso, Rio Grande Valley
BY JULIÁN AGUILAR
APRIL 18, 2019
Texas Tribune
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/18/texas-host-new-tent-city-migrant-families/
El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley are less than two weeks away from the scheduled opening of temporary detention centers that will each house up to 500 migrants who have crossed the border to seek asylum.
The facilities, commonly referred to as a “tent cities,” are the federal government's response to the ongoing crush of migrants, mainly from Central America, who continue to cross into Texas after traveling through Mexico.
“U.S. Customs & Border Protection urgently needs to provide for additional shelter capacity to accommodate individuals in CBP’s custody throughout the southwest border,” CBP said in a written statement. “The overwhelming number of individuals arriving daily to the U.S. has created an immediate need for additional processing space in El Paso, Texas and Donna, Texas.”