Aerial footage of the Donna Border Detention Center reveals crowded parking lots and detainees playing soccer.
The Donna Border Detention Center holds thousands of unaccompanied minors, and its facilities are stretched beyond capacity. Other leaked footage of the facility shows thousands of unaccompanied minors in detention pods, even as the Biden administration has downplayed the crisis at the border.
Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar and Project Veritas also shared footage of the facility earlier this week. Cuellar, who toured the facility, told Axios that the pods that house unaccompanied minors are filled well beyond capacity. One held 400 detainees, despite having a capacity of only 260.
Customs and Border Patrol, which runs processing centers in Donna and El Paso, released photos and videos of the facilities on March 22. That footage showed migrants huddled together inside pods, without COVID-19 precautions. (RELATED: Border Patrol Holding Thousands Of Migrants Children Past The Legal Limit, Some Detained Longer Than 10 Days)
The Biden administration has downplayed the illegal immigration issue. Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have stressed that the administration is considering “a variety of actions” on the southern border, and can manage the situation. Psaki only called illegal immigration a crisis for the first time on March 18. (DHS Secretary Refuses To Say Whether Or Not Illegal Immigrants With COVID-19 Were Released Into The Country)
In his first official press conference, President Joe Biden rejected the idea that he bore responsibility for the immigration crisis, claiming that the 2021 migrant surge is similar to that faced by the Trump administration, even as Border Patrol agents captured a record number of illegal immigrants in February.
“I’d like to think it’s happening because I’m a nice guy, but it’s not–because it’s what happens every year,” Biden said.