Bed space in Border Patrol facilities has become scarce, as a record amount of unaccompanied migrant children are in Border Patrol custody. Nearly 170 of the children are younger than 13 years of age, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
The CBP facilities the unaccompanied minor children have been held in are sometimes referred to as “iceboxes”. They are small cells not meant for children, and typically have “concrete or metal benches and no beds”. Almost half of the children have been held in facilities beyond the legal three-day limit. Read more about the devastating problems that have risen as a result of a large increase in the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border.