DHS Inspector General expected to release report describing Texas border facility as "dangerous"
CBS News has confirmed the Homeland Security Inspector General is expected to release the results of an investigation next week that describes conditions at a Border Patrol in Clint, Texas, that drew outrage from activists as "dangerous."
Attorneys and doctors who inspected the station last week said they found about 250 infants, children and teens locked up for weeks without adequate food, water and sanitation. Authorities moved most of the children to another facility after those reports but Border Patrol returned 100 of them to the station earlier this week.
CBS News' Omar Villafranca took a tour of the Clint, Texas, facility on Wednesday. He said the conditions did not match up with those descriptions but points out this was a controlled, guided tour. Journalists were not allowed to take cameras or cell phones inside and were not allowed to talk with the children.
Villafranca reports seeing a full facility – 117 children total in a building meant to house 106. He was also shown food crates, clothing and toiletry supplies.
On Wednesday, the lawyers who recently toured this facility filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of endangering these children. One 12-year-old boy told the lawyers, "I'm so hungry that I have woken up in the middle of the night with hunger." Another, a 16-year-old girl, told them, "the day after we arrived here, my baby began vomiting and having diarrhea. I asked to see a doctor and they did not take us."
CBP has not returned our request for comment on the suit, but have previously said their facilities are overwhelmed and overcrowded.
The surge of migrants into the U.S. has been overwhelming the Health Department. More than 52,000 unaccompanied minors have been referred to HHS this year, up 60% compared to 2018.