6/3/21
Our statement was released to the press today, with sign-ons from partners listed below. Photo by Allan Mestel.
FT. BLISS AND OTHER DETENTION MEGASITES ARE NO PLACE FOR CHILDREN
Ft. Bliss detention facility must be shut down, immediately
NEW TODAY: "Fired Workers Claim Poor Conditions at Ft. Bliss Migrant Shelter,"
El Paso Times, 6/2/21
CONTACT:
Joshua Rubin, Witness at the Border, 917-693-9676, witnessmpp@gmail.com
Camilo Perez Bustillo, Witness at the Border, 937-951-5911, cperezbustillo@gmail.com
Brooklyn, NY, June 2, 2021: Witness at the Border/Testigos en la Frontera, with its many partners, calls for the megasite migrant youth detention facilities--especially at Ft. Bliss--to be shut down immediately. Recent testimonies from staff and volunteers at the site, together with reports from independent observers as reported in the media provide convergent evidence that the tent facility is operating, in effect, as a prison, and not as a shelter for vulnerable youth.
All of this has been done primarily in secrecy and without public transparency and accountability, and echoes the most egregious dimensions of previous migrant youth detention facilities such as Tornillo and Homestead that were ultimately closed because of the outrage generated by equivalent conditions.
Massive resources, that are readily available to our government, must be surged to Ft. Bliss so that the approximately 4,500 migrant children there can identify their family and sponsors and be united with them in a matter of days, not weeks or months. Moreover, all children subjected to megasite detainment are entitled to psychosocial evaluation and support needed to address the consequences of the suffering resulting from their prolonged confinement.
The conditions that are prevalent in the Ft. Bliss facility have been described as “absolutely unacceptable...deeply alarming...dangerous and distressing,” and have included allegations of possible sexual abuse. Children held there have been described as desperate and depressed, and as “languishing for weeks without speaking to a caseworker who can reunite them with a sponsor in the U.S.; that COVID-19, other infectious diseases and lice have grown rampant,” and “that some contract caregivers lack adequate training to work with the children, aged 13 to 17, temporarily housed there. Children are receiving hot meals but are eating a repetitive diet, sources say, and some have inadequate access to showers and clean clothes.”
Meanwhile El Paso Rep. Veronica Escobar has underlined that her top concerns regarding the facility include “the enormous size of the tents; ‘ineffective oversight’ of a large number of subcontractors and vendors; and the slow pace of case management for the children.”
"When I went into the boys’ tent, there are literally hundreds of boys in these very low-to-the-ground bunk beds," Escobar said. "I think having that many people all together in one space is risky to their health and their safety. I think it makes supervision and oversight nearly impossible.” All of this is especially outrageous during a deadly global pandemic. "My other area of deep concern," she said, "is the fact that we have kids who have been in that facility for a significant period of time. I met children who had been there for over 40 days. (All quotes above are from El Paso Times, cited in footnote).
Migrant youth at Ft. Bliss are being subjected to prohibited forms of collective and individual punishment for children who are seeking protection and care, who have taken unimaginable risks to be reunified with their families. It is well documented that unnecessarily prolonged confinement in contexts like these produces irreparable traumas in children. Policies like these thus also amount to potential crimes against humanity which cry out for transparency, justice, and accountability, and resonate in our hearts and consciences. Ft. Bliss and equivalent large scale settings in convention centers, or under CBP or ICE custody, are no place for children.
On April 30, Witness at the Border and our partners walked to the gates of Ft. Bliss because its use as a detention facility for migrant youth reflects the worst of the Biden administration’s inadequate, militarized response to the intensification of regional humanitarian crises in Mexico and Central America. Meanwhile U.S support continues to flow towards corrupt, authoritarian governments in the Mesoamerican region and Haiti.
Ft. Bliss also symbolizes the tragic legacy of abuse of Mexican refugees detained behind barbed wire there 100 years ago, and the ongoing traumas being borne by migrant children, who are deprived of basic freedoms and services while being separated from their families. Many of these children are of indigenous Guatemalan origin, whose communities were the victims of targeted terror during the genocidal violence that was supported by the U.S in the 1980s.
Today, as on April 30th*, we call for full recognition and respect of the right of all children to seek asylum and not be detained in large, institutional settings. All migrants have the right to seek a dignified life, as well as the right to migrate and to seek safety, refuge, asylum, and sanctuary. We will continue to stand up for these rights, together with our partners, on both sides of the border.
SHUT DOWN FT. BLISS MIGRANT DETENTION FACILITY NOW!
#HomesNotDetention #WelcomeWithDignity
*On April 30th, we held a Walk for the Children/Caminata por la Niñez in El Paso to protest the detention of children at Ft. Bliss. This episode of WITNESS RADIO: March for Detained Children, is an effort to recreate that important day and to spread the word, from the borderlands and beyond, about what is being done to children in all our names.
Footnote 1: "Workers describe sprawling tent city, 'deeply alarming' conditions for kids at Fort Bliss Shelter," El Paso Times, 5/27/21
SIGN-ONS to this Statement by Witness at the Border
Adelanto Visitation & Advocacy Network
Advocates for Immigrant Rights
Al Otro Lado
Alianza Sacramento
American Friends Service Committee, Colorado
Baker Interfaith Friends
Beckett Law Firm, P.C.
Biosphere Productions LLC
Border Network for Human Rights
Central American Students Association at Harvard
Children's Defense Fund - Texas
Cleveland Jobs with Justice
Coalition to End Child Detention
D4CC Oregon
Disciples Immigration Legal Counsel
Don't Separate Families
Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance Immigration Justice
Elders Action Network
Every. Last. One.
First Congregational UCC Albuquerque
Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project
Forum on Haitian Migration in the Americas
Free Migration Project
Fuerza Mundial Global
Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project
Grannies Respond / Abuelas Responden, Inc.
Guadalupe Presbyterian Church detention ministry
Indivisible Sacramento
Institute for Women in Migration IMUMI
Instituto para la Geografía de la Paz, Cd. Juárez (MX)
Interfaith Community for Detained Immigrants
International Tribunal of Conscience of Peoples in Movement, Mexico City
La Raza Community Resource Center
Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition
Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention
Mami Chelo Foundation
Miles Immigration Law
Mississippi Center for Justice
National Lawyers Guild, Mesoamerica subcommittee
National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Nicaragua Center for Community ActionNorCal Resist
Northern Illinois Justice for Our Neighbors
Orange County Equality Coalition
Our Lady of Sorrows Social Justice Committee
Partnerships for Trauma Recovery
Prince William Diversity AllianceProject Blueprint
Quixote Center
Refugee Support Network
Reunite Migrant Families
Santa Fe Dreamers Project
Seidlitz EducationSIREN (Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network)
Sisters of Saint Joseph of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, PA
Sisters of st. Joseph of Carondelet, LA
Sisters of St. Joseph. Philadelphia
Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice
Sueños Sin Fronteras de Tejas
Trans Queer Pueblo
Trinity Church of Austin - UMC & UCC
Tsuru for Solidarity