Inspection reveals over-crowding and lost religious property at Yuma migrant processing center
The report also says Yuma agents properly supplied water, food, and bathroom access to migrants despite being at 193% capacity
YUMA, Ariz. (KECY, KYMA) - An inspection of the Yuma Border Patrol Centralized Processing Center in July of 2022 revealed overcrowding, migrants being detained longer than government standards, and the mishandling of migrants' religious property.
These findings were released in a report from the U.S. Office of the Inspector General (OIG) on July 6, 2023.
The OIG said on the day of the unannounced inspection, 1,700 migrants were in custody, 193% over Yuma's capacity.
Despite the overcrowding, their report said Yuma Sector agents properly supplied migrants with water, food, hygiene products, and bathroom access.
But it also added they held migrants too long, keeping them in custody an average of two and a half days longer than standard.
Immigration policy experts said any time being held in overcrowded facilities can be harmful, as just this May, an eight-year-old migrant child died while in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody.
“That is the big fear anytime we see situations like this, and why the Biden Administration needs to take action to make sure migrants aren’t being held for longer than necessary,” Policy Director at the American Immigration Council Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said.
The report also said Yuma Sector agents mishandled migrants’ religious items.
As the Yuma Sector officially acknowledged they discarded multiple turbans.
I asked then-sector chief Chris Clem about those reports in an interview last October.
He said the sector was working to correct issues but was handling migrant property within Border Patrol policy.
“When you're looking at four or five hundred people at a time, we're limited in what people can take. This is a law enforcement setting, this is not a port of entry, these are not people who came in legally," Clem said.
The report concludes that "CBP is currently developing permanent guidance to clarify procedures for handling detainees’ religious items.”
The OIG gave CBP four recommendations to fix issues they found.
CBP said they agree with the recommendations and consider some of them resolved and others still open.
