Migrant children now detained with their parents in family jails are alleging physical and emotional abuse by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, including being kicked, fed raw meat, and being told “you’re never going to see your parents again,” adding to the avalanche of reports on abusive Border Patrol culture that the Republican-led Congress refuses to get under control.
"The children I've spoken to who describe their experiences while they were separated describe absolute horror," said Cameron Carcelén, who has been volunteering as a translator with advocates who are working with migrant families detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. "The type of abuse that would make any parent sick."
Advocates say the alleged abuse occurred before the children were transferred to Dilley, adding to the trauma they were already going through from being torn from their parents due to the administration’s barbaric “zero tolerance” policy. "They were kicked, repeatedly kicked, over and over” by guards, Carcelén continued, “who also said she heard stories of children being repeatedly woken up throughout the night while kept in custody.”
Other children say guards invoked their parents to further torment them, according to Catherine Powers, another translator. "There's a guard who said, 'Oh, what's your mom's name? I'll go get her,' and then he'd never come back. Can you imagine?" Attorney Brittany Bonner added that "guards would come and scream and yell and bang on the cages, 'You’re never going to see your parents again.’”
CBP released a statement pushing back on “these unsubstantiated allegations,” claiming that “the alleged incidents do not equate to what we know to be common practice at our facilities.” Weird, because a federal judge just ordered an independent monitor to oversee CBP facilities along the Texas/Mexico border, following other accusations of abuse.
The truth is that the culture of abuse from mass deportation agents far predates the Trump administration, but under Trump, they have full permission to not just disobey the law, but to abuse. Trump administration officials know this—it’s why they stammered, deflected, and refused to answer U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono’s question about whether they’d put their own kids in migrant family jails.
Children belong with their families in safety and out of jails. The only people who belong in them are the ones carrying out this horrific abuse.