Photos revealed by Texas Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar showed crowds of migrants jostling in a temporary facility set up by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Donna, Texas, according to an Axios report on Monday.
Cuellar shared the pictures with Axios to raise awareness about the situation, noting that while each of the facility's "pods" has a 260-person occupancy, over 400 unaccompanied male minors are held in each "pod" as of Sunday.
According to Cuellar, there are "terrible conditions for the children" in the facility. While Border Patrol agents, according to him, are "doing the best they can under the circumstances" they are "not equipped to care for kids" and "need help from the administration".
"We have to stop kids and families from making the dangerous trek across Mexico to come to the United States. We have to work with Mexico and Central American countries to have them apply for asylum in their countries", Cuellar told Axios.
The Democrat, however, did not tour the Donna facility nor did he take the photos himself. He refused to disclose the author of the pictures, only saying that they were taken over the weekend.
While the Biden administration has not allowed the media into the facilities, the photos give us a unique sneak peek into the conditions of the migrants, revealing those seeking a better life in the US placed closed to each other, lying on mattresses while separated from each other by dividers made of a tarp-like material.
The Biden administration has faced multiple accusations of attempting to downplay what many, including the Texas authorities, have dubbed a humanitarian crisis.
"One location where migrants are housed has no clean running water & has a massive COVID outbreak", Texas Governor Greg Abbott said. "Another location also has a massive COVID outbreak. They were unprepared for open border policies".
This stance, however, is different from that of the Biden White House, with press secretary Jen Psaki insisting that the situation on the US southern border cannot be called a "crisis".
"These photos show what we've long been saying, which is that these border patrol facilities are not places made for children", Psaki argued, when commenting on the photos showing the conditions in the border patrol facilities.
Since taking office, US President Joe Biden has reversed the majority of his predecessor Donald Trump's policies, particularly those concerning migrants. Following the Biden administration undoing Trump's border policies, thousands of migrants flocked to the nation's borders, hoping for a warmer welcome.
Biden's White House has repeatedly stated that "now is not the time" to move to the United States, citing a lack of time to improve the border situation and the raging coronavirus pandemic.
