McALLEN, Texas — The US is still separating some migrant children from their parents while detaining them after crossing the border, despite broad improvements in Texas detention centers, according to a court-ordered monitor’s final report.
The increased scrutiny of Border Patrol holding facilities in Texas is part of a broader approach court-appointed supervisionwhich one President-elect Donald Trump and its allies have voiced criticism.
The report, released Friday under a monitoring agreement set to begin in 2022, provides a final look at conditions inside the facilities ahead of Trump’s return to office. The report noted improvements in sanitation, food and medical care, but found that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents routinely separated children from adult family members while in custody.
Unlike divorces that occurred under Trump’s zero tolerance policy at the borders During his first term, the cases cited in the report were temporary and did not include adults being sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention while facing criminal charges and children being sent to shelters for minors.
At a facility in Donna, Texas, officers continued to “routinely separate children from parents or trusted adults” in September, the report said. In November, the monitor called regular visits from family at the same facility “encouraging.” Employees at the facility said they were able to arrange visits because it was no longer overcrowded.
CBP said they have issued new guidance on family unity and provided more training on detention policies, guidelines and regulations.
“Over the past two years, CBP has taken extensive action to significantly expand and improve its support efforts both in scope and scale for individuals in custody, especially vulnerable populations such as children,” the agency said in a statement.
Advocates sued the Trump administration in 2019, citing reports from children in federal custody that described overcrowding at CBP facilities in Texas, as well as unsafe and unsanitary conditions. That year, almost 70,000 migrant children ended up in federal custody, enough to exceed the capacity of a typical NFL stadium.
A 2022 court agreement created a temporary monitoring system that required CBP to provide adequate medical care and supervision. It also required keeping families together or allowing contact for those in custody separately.
Last week’s report noted that medical care improved by 2024, but there was also hesitancy to send sick children to a medical facility. In 2023, when CBP was struggling with overcrowding, an 8 year old girl with heart problems, died while in custody in the Rio Grande Valley.
The monitoring agreement ends on January 29, 2025, just over a week into Trump’s second administration. Leecia Welch, the deputy litigation director at the Rights of the Child, who represents children in CBP custody under the Flores Settlementexpressed concern about what will happen to children without the agreement’s supervision.
“The report highlights the critical role that independent regulators play in protecting children and shows that CBP is far from meeting its obligations — let alone ready for self-policing,” Welch said in a written statement.
The court’s broader oversight of facilities began in 1997 under what is called the Flores settlement, after Jenny Flores, a girl from El Salvador who sued the U.S. government in the 1980s. It was partially lifted in June when the Justice Department argued that new safeguards would in some respects exceed the standards of the Flores settlement.