Border crossings

Here is a report from 2014. More than 50,000 unaccompanied migrant kids have been detained in the past eight months — an almost 100 percent increase from the previous fiscal year. At the central bus station in McAllen, Tx, the Border Patrol finished processing Sandoval and dropped her and her child off at the bus terminal. She says agents kept 50 to 60 people in a single holding room for four days. She said it was so crowded they stood most of the time, with their children in their arms. She says there was scarcely room to sit or sleep. "We're a short-term hold [facility]. We're not looking to hold anything more than one to two days, preferably 12 hours," says Cabrera. "And in some cases we're hitting about seven, eight to 10 days holding some people." Unless some significant changes are made this sort of thing will continue.