The Department of Homeland Security is coming under fire for allegedly failing to hang enough children’s decorations in the facilities where “migrant” kids are held.
Using the modern therapeutic lingo, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is obliged under its own rules to give “trauma-informed care” to minors who come to the country illegally. This apparently includes basics like medicine and food, but also entertainment, toys, and televisions.
As part of a court audit, the CBP head of juvenile services investigated 22 holding facilities at the border and gave them generally good marks, except for on interior design. Henry Moak, Jr., chief accountability officer for CBP, wrote in his report that 14 of the buildings lacked the “child-friendly decoration” required by the agency’s “Trauma-Informed Care Memorandum.”
The report was submitted last month to judge Dolly M. Gee.
Moak said the situation improved as he got closer to the end of his inspection cycle. For example, some of the buildings added decorative posters and chalkboards to areas frequented by children.
CBP told media that it goes for what it calls “internationally recognized” pictures or depictions of children’s characters, and also tries to add maps of the United States to orient the children to where they come from and where they have ended up.
A spokesman told a reporter that the agency has done work to make sure children and “family units” get “the best possible care” and spend as little time as possible in the custody of the agency.
CBP was not able to confirm how many of the 14 facilities that failed the decorations test have rectified the situation.
Children who arrive across the border have often had grueling trips that can be described as genuinely traumatizing. It is frightening for a child to be uprooted from the home he’s known and taken to a foreign land. Sadly, some of them end up in the U.S. alone with no family.
