SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A young migrant waits for his turn to take a shower at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley in Donna, Texas on March 30, 2021. (Photo: Dario Lopez-Mills/AFP via Getty Images)
Amid Allegations of Child Endangerment, HHS Inspector General to Probe Fort Bliss Detention Facility
Whistleblowers had sounded alarm about the detention center contractors betraying children’s health and wellbeing.
Aug 02, 2021
The inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that it is launching a review into a Biden administration-run detention center that holds thousands of unaccompanied migrant children in Fort Bliss, Texas following whistleblower allegations of unsafe conditions.
The facility is one of the larger Emergency Intake Sites (EIS) set up to keep children out of Border Patrol custody, but human rights advocates say kids have languished there for too long and in conditions detrimental to their physical and mental well-being.
"This review will analyze interviews and on-site observations regarding case management challenges at Fort Bliss that may have impeded the safe and timely release of children to sponsors," the internal government watchdog stated. "This oversight will help ensure that Fort Bliss and other EISs provide adequate case management services."
Monday's announcement follows multiple whistleblower complaints about Fort Bliss.
In a complaint filed last week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a pair of whistleblowers cited problems including clothing shortages and children being told at an airport they were going back home only to be told it was a mistake and then returned to the facility.
Earlier last month, a separate pair of whistleblowers, in a complaint filed by GAO, cited "numerous instances of gross mismanagement" at Fort Bliss that cause harm to children's "health and wellbeing."
Other problems in the "airplane hangar-sized tents" holding the children included "painfully loud music" from loudspeakers, dirty tents that smelled of sewage, children's distress being "met with indifference or even resistance," and "wholly unsuitable contract staff." Among the specific complaints about staff were individuals who "seemed to view their job more as crowd control than youth care."
MSNBC's "All in With Chris Hayes" on Friday dug into the concerns raised by the whistleblowers and why the facility was lacking necessary oversight:
NBC News correspondent Julia Ainsley told host Chris Hayes that the administration has so far pursued "piecemeal" approaches to addressing the problems rather than "a wholesale investigation to Fort Bliss and of other emergency intake facilities and to get to the bottom of why these contractors got this contract in the first place."
Instead of an IG review, Ainsley said "you would want someone to come in right away and see if someone needs to be immediately removed from caring for these children."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that it is launching a review into a Biden administration-run detention center that holds thousands of unaccompanied migrant children in Fort Bliss, Texas following whistleblower allegations of unsafe conditions.
The facility is one of the larger Emergency Intake Sites (EIS) set up to keep children out of Border Patrol custody, but human rights advocates say kids have languished there for too long and in conditions detrimental to their physical and mental well-being.
"This review will analyze interviews and on-site observations regarding case management challenges at Fort Bliss that may have impeded the safe and timely release of children to sponsors," the internal government watchdog stated. "This oversight will help ensure that Fort Bliss and other EISs provide adequate case management services."
Monday's announcement follows multiple whistleblower complaints about Fort Bliss.
In a complaint filed last week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a pair of whistleblowers cited problems including clothing shortages and children being told at an airport they were going back home only to be told it was a mistake and then returned to the facility.
Earlier last month, a separate pair of whistleblowers, in a complaint filed by GAO, cited "numerous instances of gross mismanagement" at Fort Bliss that cause harm to children's "health and wellbeing."
Other problems in the "airplane hangar-sized tents" holding the children included "painfully loud music" from loudspeakers, dirty tents that smelled of sewage, children's distress being "met with indifference or even resistance," and "wholly unsuitable contract staff." Among the specific complaints about staff were individuals who "seemed to view their job more as crowd control than youth care."
MSNBC's "All in With Chris Hayes" on Friday dug into the concerns raised by the whistleblowers and why the facility was lacking necessary oversight:
NBC News correspondent Julia Ainsley told host Chris Hayes that the administration has so far pursued "piecemeal" approaches to addressing the problems rather than "a wholesale investigation to Fort Bliss and of other emergency intake facilities and to get to the bottom of why these contractors got this contract in the first place."
Instead of an IG review, Ainsley said "you would want someone to come in right away and see if someone needs to be immediately removed from caring for these children."
The inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that it is launching a review into a Biden administration-run detention center that holds thousands of unaccompanied migrant children in Fort Bliss, Texas following whistleblower allegations of unsafe conditions.
The facility is one of the larger Emergency Intake Sites (EIS) set up to keep children out of Border Patrol custody, but human rights advocates say kids have languished there for too long and in conditions detrimental to their physical and mental well-being.
"This review will analyze interviews and on-site observations regarding case management challenges at Fort Bliss that may have impeded the safe and timely release of children to sponsors," the internal government watchdog stated. "This oversight will help ensure that Fort Bliss and other EISs provide adequate case management services."
Monday's announcement follows multiple whistleblower complaints about Fort Bliss.
In a complaint filed last week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a pair of whistleblowers cited problems including clothing shortages and children being told at an airport they were going back home only to be told it was a mistake and then returned to the facility.
Earlier last month, a separate pair of whistleblowers, in a complaint filed by GAO, cited "numerous instances of gross mismanagement" at Fort Bliss that cause harm to children's "health and wellbeing."
Other problems in the "airplane hangar-sized tents" holding the children included "painfully loud music" from loudspeakers, dirty tents that smelled of sewage, children's distress being "met with indifference or even resistance," and "wholly unsuitable contract staff." Among the specific complaints about staff were individuals who "seemed to view their job more as crowd control than youth care."
MSNBC's "All in With Chris Hayes" on Friday dug into the concerns raised by the whistleblowers and why the facility was lacking necessary oversight:
NBC News correspondent Julia Ainsley told host Chris Hayes that the administration has so far pursued "piecemeal" approaches to addressing the problems rather than "a wholesale investigation to Fort Bliss and of other emergency intake facilities and to get to the bottom of why these contractors got this contract in the first place."
Instead of an IG review, Ainsley said "you would want someone to come in right away and see if someone needs to be immediately removed from caring for these children."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.