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Nearly three-quarters of Americans say the situation at the border with Mexico is a crisis (74%), up from less than half who felt that way in January (45%), according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
Here are the other key takeaways from the poll:
The steep increase comes most sharply among Democrats, though there are increases across party lines:
Trump’s approval rating stays the same:
There is disagreement across party lines about the cause of the crisis at the border:
About six in 10 Americans (62%) say they disapprove of the treatment migrants are receiving at the border, but there’s a steep partisan divide here as well:
Protesters around the country voiced their thoughts about the conditions at the border.
This is what the protests looked like:
New York City
Minneapolis
Philadelphia
Raleigh
A new inspector general report shows an increase in the number of people apprehended while crossing into the United States on the southwest border.
The report said the number of apprehensions of unaccompanied children, families and single adults all increased from October 2017 through May 2018, compared to October 2018 through May 2019.
According to the report, facilities are struggling to keep up with the number of migrants. Overcrowding is a concern because of the increase of people, specifically at the Rio Grande Valley portion of the border.
Rep. Frederica Wilson toured a facility housing unaccompanied migrant children in Homestead, Florida, today and said she is not prepared to leave facility until she sees the migrant girls being held at there.
Wilson vowed to spend the night.
She said she did not see girls on her tour and wants to make sure the girls are being taken care of and getting the products they need.
Wilson was a member of the congressional delegation that toured the Homestead facility.
A new inspector general report warns of the “urgent” issue that needs to be addressed because of overcrowding witnessed during unannounced inspections in early June.
Investigators found that, according to border patrol custody data, roughly 30% of minors at the inspected facilities in the Rio Grand Valley in Texas were being held longer than the 72 hours permitted, including some children under seven who had been held for more than two weeks awaiting transfer.
The report includes photos of what the inspector general says are “dangerous” conditions. (Read the full report here.)
Pediatricians in El Paso, Texas, said on Tuesday they are walled off from any contact with “whoever is providing the medical care to these individuals” in US Customs and Border Protection facilities.
“That is not medical care. That’s malpractice,” said pediatrician Dr. Carlos Gutierrez, who has helped treat families received by Annunciation House, an organization of temporary residential centers that receives migrants released by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement or border patrol.
Doctors told reporters how they were prevented from establishing “continuity of care,” which can have serious effects. For example, Gutierrez said immigration officials often take medications away from migrants, and doctors outside the facility won’t know patients’ medical histories or what medications they were on.
Dr. Jose Manuel De la Rosa, a pediatrician, said a simple phone call could help doctors prepare to treat any child who starts showing signs of infection or other illness — and hopefully prevent the spread to others.
One doctor suggested that, with periodic overcrowding in some CBP facilities, it’s possible to miss these illnesses altogether. Dr. Blanca Garcia described seeing a boy with a high fever about two months ago who was eventually hospitalized. “How could nobody have noticed that this child was so sick?” she asked. “When you have so many people in custody, I’m sure that it’s easy to miss something like that.
“Unfortunately, that’s how tragedies happen.”
Protesters outside a facility housing unaccompanied migrant children in Homestead, Florida, greeted lawmakers Tuesday with signs saying “Free the Children.”
“They have to use their privilege and power to shut this place down,” said Tina Marie Davidson, a protester wearing a “Be A Hero” T-shirt.
The facility houses more than 2,300 immigrant children, according to Department of Health and Human Services.
The small group protesters say they call their tents across the street from the facility their “Camp.” A protest camp of sorts.
It is the place where protesters said they have gathered daily for the past 142 days. They stand up on ladders and wave their signs at the migrant children. It’s a way, they say, to show the children that Americans think and care about them. The protesters said they have seen politicians come and go but so far nothing has changed.
Fomby said she would tell the delegation touring the facility today to “Fight harder. Don’t forget. Don’t give in.”
The protesters have a phone number scribbled on their arm with black sharpie in case they are arrested, protester Stacy Delerking said. She said protesters have filled out information cards with family contact information and instructions on what to do about their pets and medications in the case of an arrest.
The camp’s phone number is answered by the group’s leader, who is also instructed to call an attorney if a protester is arrested.
Davidson said that the measure was adopted after two demonstrators were handcuffed and questioned in the back of a police car earlier this year.
Demonstrators in Indiana gathered outside Republican Sen. Todd Young’s office and demanded lawmakers close migrant detention facilities.
“We can’t look away,” one demonstrator told the crowd.
About the protests: Advocacy group MoveOn, which is uniting the protests under the #closethecamps hashtag, is encouraging protesters to gather outside the offices of various US senators and representatives to demand they close the detention facilities, withhold funds for detaining and deporting migrants, and “bear witness and reunite families,” a news release says.
A pediatrician who has been providing care to migrants in El Paso, Texas, said she has seen cases of children not receiving basic human needs in border facilities.
Dr. Lisa Ayoub-Rodriguez described treating a young mother and baby at a hospital after they were released from custody.
She said the mother told her that it was difficult to keep her newborn baby warm at the detention center. Ayoub-Rodriguez said the baby’s fingers and toes were still blue when they were released from the facility.
“This is a very simple case of a family of a baby not receiving basic human needs,” she said at a news conference with other doctors Tuesday.
The mother’s milk supply was also drying up because of dehydration and lack of water.
Protesters gathered outside Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s office in Florida following reports of inhumane conditions in migrant detention centers.
They held signs saying “No Cages. No Walls” and “Stop the hate.”
Protesters are calling on members of Congress to close the facilities as well as deny additional funding for detention centers.
Irene Martinez, who organized the demonstration in front of Rubio’s office, is a volunteer for the liberal advocacy group MoveOn, which is planning hundreds of protests around the country today.
She said she thinks “family separation is torture.”
At least 11 migrants have died in US custody in the past 10 months.
Here’s what we know about their deaths:
When a child is taken into custody at the border, they are granted certain rights by US law.
A settlement established by the court case Flores v. Reno details the length of time and conditions under which US officials can detain immigrant children.
The Flores agreement says that these border facilities are meant to be short-term processing centers, and the government should ensure that children are transferred or moved to another location in under 72 hours.
It also establishes that conditions must be “safe and sanitary.”
Here’s what the else the US has to provide under the law:
What the law says about family separation: The law says children who came to the United States without their parents, or if their parents can’t be found, need to be reunited with their closest relatives or a licensed program like foster care, for example. The 72-hour limit applies here.
Learn more:
US Customs and Border Protection officials say they are investigating “disturbing social media activity” after a published report of a closed Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents that reportedly features jokes about migrant deaths, derogatory comments about Latina lawmakers and a lewd meme involving at least one of them.
The posts were “hosted on a private Facebook group that may include a number of CBP employees,” according to Matthew Klein, assistant commissioner of CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility.
The existence of the group “I’m 10-15” was exposed by the investigative reporting group ProPublica. CNN has not been able to independently access and review the Facebook group posts in question.
It is not clear how many group members are or were affiliated with the Border Patrol.
Read more about this report here.
Major protests are scheduled across the country to demand the closure of detention facilities holding migrant children and families.
Here are the key developments in the border crisis leading up to today’s protests:
Democratic Rep. Norma Torres from California gave an emotional plea after visiting a border facility.
She also said she felt unsafe and worried about her staff who waited outside.
“When we walked inside the facility there were CBP agents that were taking photos, selfies, photos with us in the background. None of us had a cellphone to be able to record these actions by these agents, but imagine, this is what they are doing to members of congress in front of their leadership so you can imagine what happens behind closed doors within these ICE cells to children as young as 2 years old,” she said.
Watch the full interview:
Democratic members of Congress are speaking out about the growing humanitarian crisis at the southern border after touring two facilities in Texas on Monday.
They visited the facilities after reports of deteriorating and unsanitary conditions.
The same day, investigative reporting group ProPublica came out with a story that uncovered a closed Facebook group where current and former Border Patrol agents reportedly share jokes about migrant deaths, derogatory comments about Latina lawmakers and a lewd memes.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was one of the Democratic lawmakers who toured a facility Monday.
She claimed she saw migrants drinking out of toilets, which a Border Patrol official flatly denied, and that she felt unsafe during the visit.
“People (are) drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members Congress,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a series of tweets.
But Ocasio-Cortez isn’t the only one speaking out after the tours.
In an interview with CNN, Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán expressed frustration about not getting sufficient answers from officials. “We’re not getting any answers on some of the programming, like (Migrant Protection Protocols),” she said.
Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania tweeted “conditions are far worse than we ever could have imagined” and that “this is a human rights crisis.” She also tweeted that she saw women sleeping in concrete cells with no running water.
The border bill: Last week, the House passed a $4.6 billion Senate bill that will send emergency funding to the border. The vote triggered a strong reaction from progressives who objected to the legislation — including Ocasio-Cortez.
Demonstrators are converging on cities across the United States on Tuesday to demand the closure of detention facilities holding migrant children and families.
Advocacy group MoveOn, which is uniting the protests under the #closethecamps hashtag, is encouraging protesters to gather outside the offices of various US senators and representatives to demand they close the detention facilities, withhold funds for detaining and deporting migrants, and “bear witness and reunite families,” a news release says.
Major protests are scheduled for New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington and San Francisco. MoveOn says there are 185 “mobilizations” planned, including in smaller cities such as Kalispell, Montana; Viroqua, Wisconsin; and Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Why this matters: The protests come a day after a congressional delegation visited some of the facilities and reported migrants being held in inhumane conditions, including being forced to drink water from a toilet bowl — a charge US Border Patrol Chief of Operations Brian Hastings called “completely untrue.”
