US watchdog reveals grim details of migrant detention – RT World News

The largest U.S. Border Patrol detention center has detained nearly 90 percent of people crossing borders illegally for far longer — some up to ten times longer — than is allowed under current government policy, said said the Department of Homeland Security in a report released this week.

The DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted unannounced visits to seven facilities in the El Paso District, Texas, and found that Border Patrol treated migrants well, but detained them for more than 72 hours .

OIG inspectors visited seven Border Patrol facilities in October 2021 – at the start of the federal fiscal year – to verify compliance with the Transport, Escort, Detention and Search Protocols Standard (TEDS ). These require migrants to be processed and deported within three days of capture, « if appropriate and operationally feasible ».

Inspections and subsequent analysis “found that Border Patrol held 493 migrants in custody longer than specified in TEDS standards, which generally limit detention in these facilities to 72 hours,” says the OIG report.

“Despite extended detention periods, none of the establishments we inspected were overcrowded,” the report noted, while Border Patrol took « coherent measures » provide « access to medical care, showers, a change of clothes, blankets and mats, food and snacks. »

The report focused on the El Paso CPC, a facility built in 2019 in response to reports of « kids in cages » criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of illegal migration. At the time of the OIG’s visit, 569 migrants were detained in the facility, of which 493, or 87%, had been there for more than 72 hours. Of these, 23 had been detained for 30 days or more – ten times the TEDS limit.

Inspectors also found “Inconsistent implementation of standards relating to the separation of minors from adults or unrelated legal guardians and the provision of interpretation to detainees.

One of the reasons so many people were detained beyond the three-day limit was that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not have enough pilots, forcing the cancellation of three airline flights. planned deportations to Ecuador between October 19 and October 29, the OIG noted. . Migrants who were to be deported were instead told to appear in immigration court and released in the United States.

Customs and Border Patrol recorded more than two million « met » at the U.S. southern border between October 2021 and June 2022. Given that some of the encounters are duplicates – migrants who were turned away but are attempting to cross again – the OIG report lists the actual number of individuals who crossed the border illegally during this period as 1,634, including 104 in June. The total number for fiscal year 2021 was 1,659,206.

The number of illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border increased after Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2020, with the new president promising to reform the immigration and asylum process to make it more « humane » and « fair. » On Monday, the Biden administration ended its predecessor’s policy of sending asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, making more than 5,000 migrants eligible to enter the United States and stay until their claims are finalized. be judged – a process that can take several years.