Facilities built to hold around 125 for a few hours are being used to house more than 170 migrants for weeks, without showers. A few days ago I was sent pictures from inside a Southern California border station, from the vantage point of surveillance camera monitors. There was an identifying code on the top of the screen that told me which station the pictures were taken. To protect the identity of the source I cropped out the identifying features.
The anonymous source, who identifies as an on-duty border agent, wrote in an email that the pictures show the crowded conditions. You see people wrapped in silver Mylar-type space blankets and are pushed up against one another - about every inch of floor space is taken. Some men are even leaned up against a wall. In one picture you see a man appearing to openly urinate in a toilet.
In these exclusive pictures you can see a man with a very long, skinny beard walking from the left. I was told by the source that fights often break out between migrants from Latin America and those from the Middle East, so the men are separated and given their own room because of ethnicity. And, because the numbers of Middle Easterners vary, as few as 4 or 5 men could be put in a large room by themselves to prevent violence.
At least 3 charter flights a week are coming from Texas to San Diego filled with illegal immigrants who are then bussed to border stations all around California for initial processing, then bussed back to a main detention center in San Diego until they are either released or appear in court.
Each charter flight costs approximately $6,000 and the flights will continue until pressure is taken off border patrol stations in the Texas Rio Grande Valley sector. Just last month surveillance video captured around 1,000 illegal immigrants cross illegally into Texas through an opening in a fence. In May alone more than 130,000 illegal immigrants were detained at the Texas border.
You may recall months ago I interviewed 2 other unidentified agents from the San Diego sector who also described the conditions as medically dangerous. There have been cases of scabies, lice, flu and even STD’s.
Those unidentified agents told me the average menu for detainees is a bean burrito for breakfast, one for lunch and one for dinner. Sometimes, as a snack they are fed crackers and juice. The agents said there are numerous cases of constipation and dehydration.
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