From: "De Marrais, Jeanne-Aimee" <JDeMarrais@savechildren.org>
To: "Shriver, Mark" <mshriver@savechildren.org>
Subject: FW: Update on site visit to the new McAllen detention site

Read the description of my visit to the detention site below.    The US government is warehousing the kids in chain linked cages.  Outrageous!!!

I can hear your Mother and Father – and my Mother too! echoing the words of the NYTimes editorial:     “This is not the best face of a great nation. This is the underside of a great stone, which when lifted sends creepy things slithering in all directions. We are better than this. We are more compassionate than this. We are more honorable than this.”



Jeanne-Aimée


____________________________
Jeanne-Aimée De Marrais
Senior Director, US Emergencies
Save the Children
CT tel: (203) 221-4000 /Cell: (203) 919-2219

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From: De Marrais, Jeanne-Aimee
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2014 9:16 PM
To: Carrazana, Carlos; Miles, Carolyn; Spangler, Kathy; Klosson, Michael; Laprade, Robert; Fritzler, Sarita; Wells, Steve; Bland, Richard
Cc: Kessler, Mark; Kifle, Meseret; Myers, Diana; Krift, Tom; Romero, Bernice
Subject: Update on site visit to the new McAllen detention site

Dear all,

PLEASE DON’T FORWARD THIS.  I will revise it for more widespread sharing.

Thanks to Carlos’ quick work, I was able to visit the new McAllen “overflow” detention site for children today.   When I arrived back in McAllen, I immediately met with the lead CBP agent in charge of the “overflow” site and he took me on a tour.  The Agent was very welcoming and expressed a lot of support for our work and for having Save the Children support at the site.

With that said, I have very serious concerns about the site.  I provide the following details without a lot of editorial comments  ----- but as one columnist wrote in the New York Times ….. “Tears for the Border Children”  ….. “This is not the best face of a great nation. This is the underside of a great stone, which when lifted sends creepy things slithering in all directions. We are better than this. We are more compassionate than this. We are more honorable than this.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/17/opinion/tears-for-the-border-children.html?emc=eta1&_r=0


+++++
McAllen Overflow Site Visit Notes

The first of the children may arrive tonight or tomorrow.  They are having problems with their IT on site and cannot receive any children until their IT works because they have to track and document every movement of children and every service they receive.

The site is a one story industrial warehouse – I found these photos online of the ad for the sale of the actual building.  http://www.loopnet.com/Property-Record/3700-W-Ursula-Avenue-Mcallen-TX-78503/PZy30k-6Q/Photos/.


·        The children will be detained in the massive inside open space.  The space has been divided by 12’ high chain linked fence into four pods (a pod is a subgrouping of four to five “cages”, each holding approximately 50 children.  Right now they don’t have barbed-wire at the top (unlike Nogales).  In the middle of each pod is a raised podium where the border guards stand and keep watch.


·        I tried to quietly take a couple of photos of the cages – they are not very clear, but hopefully it will give you a sense of what they are like.


·        The site will house 1,000 children.  The children will be there for at least 4 days before being moved to other locations.


·        Each child will have a sleeping mat (green plastic covered, about 3-4” thick foam).  They will be given a blanket (fabric blanket or space blanket.)  There are a few metal benches cemented into the floor in each cell.


·        They do not have an eating area, so the children will be fed in the “cages”.  One thing we heard in Nogales is that they don’t give the children plates or silverware, the children have to hold the food in the their hands and this is really hard for the younger children.


·        Toilets:  each pod has a small area of caged-in porta-potties.  You have to access them through a locked gate – so the children will have to likely request access each time they need to go to the bathroom.  This is a concern.



·        A common space:  There is one space, in between the cages, that is not yet allocated.  When I asked the Agent if we could use it as an area for children’s activities, he responded positively and is going to ask his boss about it.  I described setting up arts and crafts, a reading area, a games area, etc. and he said that within reason, it all sounded ok to him – but again, his boss has to also sign off.


·        Outdoor space:  The workmen were there putting woodchips over a play yard area – I offered that we could build a playground, get sunshades, toys, etc. – he said yes to the sun shades and said he’d check if a playground would be possible.  The playground was the only thing that I suggested that he  wasn’t optimistic about.


·        The Agent walked me through the entire process:

o   The children will arrive by bus or van.

o   They first will receive a full medical screening and vaccinations (the agent noted that it takes at least 3 days for some of the medical tests to come back, so the kids must remain on site for at least three days after they get screened).



Note from the site visit to Nogales – the girls also get a pregnancy test while they are screened, and some of the girls who were raped in transit find out that they are pregnant while they are in the detention sites.  The FEMA Corps volunteers said that it was devastating to see how upset some of the young girls are, but there is nothing that they could do to support them.  We will closely monitor this situation at the McAllen site and try to ensure that there are bi-lingual female medical and mental health support personnel available.

o   The children then go to a shower trailer.  The showers are maintained/operated by a company called XXXXX.  CBP and FEMA Corps do not work with the kids in the shower area.

o   The children receive clean clothes and then are taken to the age and gender appropriate cell/cage.

o   The agent doesn’t know what the schedule will be for the children during the day.

o   He said that most of the care for the children will be provided by volunteers --- like FEMA Corps.

o   The Agent noted that he spoke to Sr. Norma yesterday and she will be permitted to send two people in, two times a day to do spiritual care.

I also specifically requested permission to have Save the Children staff inside the facility to lead the programs and help set-up and train the FEMA Corps young people during the initial weeks of the site.  The Agent said that he’d welcome it, but that he was going to call his boss and make sure that it’s ok to proceed.

As a follow-up to my visit, Carlos called the Agent to thank him for allowing us to have access --- and to again offer the various types of support that we can give to the site.  I will follow-up on Monday with another call and email to him.

The Agent promised to get back to us by early next week.

Please let me know any questions.  Again, I will refine this for more general consumption.


Jeanne-Aimée




____________________________
Jeanne-Aimée De Marrais
Senior Director, US Emergencies
Save the Children
CT tel: (203) 221-4000 /Cell: (203) 919-2219

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