FOX 10 tours Nogales immigration centers where children are held

Posted: Jun 18, 2014 4:43 PM PDTUpdated: Jun 18, 2014 5:01 PM PDTBy Steve Krafft, FOX 10 News - bio



NOGALES, Ariz. - FOX 10 got a look inside a center housing hundreds of children who entered the country illegally.

There were a lot of restrictions on the tour, no phones, no recording by us, just video taken by one news outlet and shared with all the stations. Officials denied interviews with children or agents.

The United States Customs and Border Protection's Nogales Transition Center for Migrant Children is a giant warehouse building, the kind you might see used for a Costco, Sam's Club, or Home Depot.

The place is just for kids, and there were almost 800 inside the center Wednesday.

Children are divided into groups by age; boys and girls are placed in separate areas. All of them are surrounded by chain link fencing topped by razor wire, a holdover from the days this was a facility for adult illegal immigrants.

The facilities are clean, and conditions are humane, but these are very much holding pens. Children get one shower a day along with three meals and a snack.

The US Department of Health Services watches them. There are 40 phones for them to call relatives, and a television is in each holding area.

Every child has a mattress and blanket, but it is crowded. For a facility full of children it was quiet, some children stared at us inquisitively; some slept, a few here, and there were crying.

The children get between 45 to 60 minutes per day to play outside in an improvised recreation area. They were seen playing basketball, soccer, with agents retrieving errant passes and shots that went out of bounds.

CBP did not say how long the children would be in Arizona or where they would go. We did hear that these children have family members in the United States and will be reunited with them.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/25...ldren-are-held