AZ lawmaker speaks on alleged abuse at Yuma CBP processing center
Representative Raul Grijalva released a statement Wednesday after the alleged abuse that took place at the Yuma Customs and Border Protection processing center after NBC News reported numerous instances of physical and sexual abuse.
” The situations described by these children are unconscionable and should shake every American to their core. Sexual abuse, retaliation, and any form of child abuse should never be commonplace, yet the culture of corruption and systemic abuse within all facilities holding asylum-seeking children and their families has made this a disgusting reality. The time has long since passed for the Trump Administration to end their cruel immigration policies, stop separating families, and utilize alternatives to detention that will remove children from these harmful facilities, ” Rep. Grijalva said.
” The Trump administration must end its intentional delays and worsen of the humanitarian situation. Every last individual abusing children–or complicit by turning a blind eye–needs to be fired and criminally prosecuted for their disgusting behavior, and Members of Congress must be allowed immediate access to these facilities to conduct urgent oversight. ”
NBC News obtained dozens of accounts by these children collected by government case managers.
NBC News said one of the accounts was from a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala. The boy said that he was held in Yuma and that he and others in his cell complained about the taste of the water and food they were given. He also said that the Customs and Border Protection ( CBP ) agents took the mats out of their cell in retaliation, forcing them to sleep on the concrete.
