US Asylum – Kids Tell of Abandon, Filth, and Terror in US Asylum Camps

The United States asylum has a vast system of detention sites scattered all over the country that holds more than 20,000 migrant children. After a thorough investigation, the BBC discovered allegations of cold temperatures, sickness, neglect, lice, and filth, through a series of formal talks with children and staff.

Midnight struck on the Rio Grande – the magnificent river that forms the border between Texas and Mexico – and lights reflecting on the Mexican side. Voices could be heard in the darkness. Figures emerged, entered into a small balsa, and began to cross the river.

As the balsa emerged on the US side, the faces of the migrants became pronounced. More than half of them were children. Between March and April, over 36,000 children crossed into the US accompanied by no adults. This huge number was a record-breaker in recent years.

Many children who set out alone embark on these journeys hoping to reunite with a parent or relative already in the US. A lot of them, over 80% have a family member present in the country, the US government says.

President Joe Biden has made things easier by opening the border to children without company seeking asylum, relaxing former President Trump’s policy of turning migrants away due to Covid-19 to an extent.

The children shuffled up the banks, exhausted. Two young cousins held hands. One other youth, Jordy, 17, said he had fled Guatemala because he was terrified of notorious violent gangs operating there. But tonight, he was really scared about what might await him in migrant detention centers in the US. He said he had heard different stories about them.

“They will put us in an icebox and ask us questions,” he said.

The so-called “iceboxes,” popular amongst the migrants, are freezing rooms or cubicles in US Border Patrol migrant processing facilities.

Jordy was told to join a queue with other children. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) guards were seizing the children’s shoelaces and belts, a process usually reserved for actual prisoners to prevent them from trying to harm themselves or taking their own lives.

Jordy and the other children then sped away, taken by a bus into the night. They were to join the other over 20,000 migrant children in US detention; they were being held in a series of extensive camps around the country, close to 13 newly built.