Trump officials knew about horrible detention camp conditions since May but did nothing

The Trump team has known about the unsanitary and unsafe conditions at a border detention camp in El Paso, Texas, for months, yet did nothing to fix them, according to a report from NBC News.

NBC News reported that an internal watchdog within the Department of Homeland Security wrote a report back in May warning of overcrowding that was leading to unsanitary conditions. The conditions were so bad, according to the report, that border agents feared unrest from the immigrants being detained in horrible conditions in the camps.

“With limited access to showers and clean clothing, detainees were wearing soiled clothing for days or weeks,” the watchdog wrote in the report, according to NBC News.

The report also detailed incidents where children were not given anything soft to sleep on, nor were they given clean clothing.

This all comes after Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan called the reports of terrible conditions for immigrants in El Paso “unsubstantiated.”

Reports trickling out of the camps where immigrants — including children — have been detained at the border have led to an outcry in recent weeks.

Lawyers working in the El Paso sector where immigrants are being detained in camps interviewed some of the children there, leading to horrifying stories of kids reporting severe hunger, freezing temperatures, and lack of access to showers or other personal hygiene products.

The conditions have been so bad that one doctor who visited one of the detention camps compared it to a “torture facility.”

Aside from simply denying the facts of the poor conditions in the camps, one Department of Justice lawyer defended the Trump administration’s treatment of kids at the border by claiming that it’s not necessary to provide soap, toothbrushes, or a proper place to sleep at the camps.

According to the DHS internal report, the conditions for immigrants have been so bad that Customs and Border Patrol agents are fleeing their jobs.

“The current situation where immigrants are simply giving themselves up to the border patrol [and border patrol must detain] is causing low morale and high anxiety,” the report said. “They are seeing more drinking, domestic violence and financial problems among their agents.”

Ultimately, DHS officials have been notified of the conditions, and still did nothing.

That’s incompetent at best and evil and immoral at worst.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.