CBP releases new images of El Paso Border Patrol processing center
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection released new video showing the conditions inside El Paso's Central Processing Center which is where many unaccompanied minors are being held.
The agency's release of the video comes a day after photos of the processing center in Donna, Texas emerged.
In the agency's newest video, you can see migrants wearing masks and sleeping on mats placed on the floor.
The migrants have been given mylar blankets. There are many children in seen in the video released by CBP, but the agency blurred out their faces.
ABC 7 spoke with Representative Tony Gonzales to get his reactions after his visit to that same facility a week ago.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the amount of unaccompanied children that are there and families that are there," Gonzales explained. "It’s just difficult to walk through. The border patrol is doing everything they possibly can. You can tell it’s professionally ran and the last thing they want is to have any issues with any of the migrant in their care but the shear number is what makes it such a dire situation.”
The photos of the Donna facility showed the conditions for dozens of children and adults. They are wearing masks, but crammed together in what appears to be plastic tents.
The videos of the Donna facility show a lot more crowding on children together than the El Paso facility. Border Patrol has not said how many migrants are being held in the facilities.
CBP released the following statement Tuesday morning:
"CBP continues to transfer unaccompanied minors to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as quickly and efficiently as possible after they are apprehended on the Southwest Border. In order to protect the health and safety of our workforce and those in our care we continue to discourage external visitors in our facilities; however, CBP is working to balance the need for public transparency and accountability. Still imagery and video are now available of the Donna Processing Center in Donna, Texas and the Central Processing Center in El Paso, Texas."
ABC-7 has requested to be able to tour the El Paso processing facility ourselves. Our request was denied, as CBP cited Covid-19 safety protocols.
They are not cots, they are mats, and I was told that this was a staged photo, not the way they are really housed.
yeah, i was told the same thing
It seems that CNN got caught staging a border crossing. Of course, it wasn’t reported by ABC/KVIA.
CNN denies participating in a ‘staged event’ after questions arise about its footage of illegal border crossing. Doric was responding to claims that they recorded footage of a staged event and presented it to their viewers as a real border crossing. The video shows a masked figure leading migrants across the Rio Grande in a boat near the city of Hidalgo, Texas.
“The Rio Grande Valley has been ground zero for the latest surge in migration and here you see the operation unfolding right in front of us,” said reporter Ed Lavandera in the CNN report. “After the first raft crosses, the magnitude of this moment reveals itself. Dozens of migrants emerge and walk down to the river’s edge. You can see that this is a serious operation.”
In the CNN footage, the smuggler leading the boat wears fatigues and a black ski mask. Smugglers typically attempt to blend in with the migrants, to avoid more severe punishment should they be caught. Smugglers also don’t normally provide face masks and life vests, nor ferry six boatloads of people across in broad daylight. Migrants also don’t typically line up single file along the shore to cross.
The Guardian also reported that the part of the Rio Grande where CNN filmed was one that was controlled by U.S. Border Patrol and could not be navigated by smugglers.
National Butterfly Center executive director Marianna Treviño Wright said that Lavandera might have known it was staged and recorded it for the ratings.