A 17-year-old boy describes harsh conditions at Yuma facility
A 17-year-old boy vividly describes the first 48 hours he spent inside the U.S. Border Patrol station in Yuma as there was no space to lie down, NBC News reports.
According to NBC News, Abner, a Guatemalan boy said he was packed into a cell with other migrant boys and often slept sitting or standing up to give the younger boys space to lie down on the floor.
“I had to stay almost two days like this, standing. I didn’t sleep. And they didn’t treat me well because I would ask for at least food or water or something to cover myself with and they would deny it,” Abner told NBC News in Spanish.
NBC News reports that Abner spent 11 days from May to June in the Yuma border station and described himself filled with hunger and thirst, with extreme temperatures and fear of the guards operating the facility.
Abner remembers when guards refused to give him any food and recall when another boy was punched in the stomach by a guard. “With a punch, they knocked the wind out of him … But I don’t know why,” Abner said, describing what he said happened to the 16-year-old, NBC News reported.
The boy mentioned he and his cellmates were only fed twice a day and that he only drank from the sink cupping his unwashed hands.
The older boys in Abner’s cell learned to protect the younger children, whose cries would anger the guards.”Sometimes, we would give one [hamburger] to the little ones. Because the little ones were the ones that wanted to eat more than others. At least, [the older kids could] stand the hunger a little more,” Abner said.
A Customs and Border Protection official told NBC News that Abner’s claims “are inconsistent with CBP’s records corresponding to the juvenile migrant’s time in custody from May 25 to June 5, 2019.”
After leaving the Yuma station, Abner was held at a facility under the Department of Health and Human Services where he recalls playing soccer and making friends. NBC News reports he is now reunited with his father in Chicago and waiting to hear from his lawyer for the next step in his court case.
