“The administration has every opportunity to ensure it is not repeated by moving to close these emergency facilities as quickly as possible and immediately implementing long-overdue reforms so that such emergency facilities are never needed. Bliss should never have happened,” said Denise Bell, researcher for Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International USA. “The Biden administration must immediately make the humane treatment of immigrant children a priority.” The allegations in the Government Accountability Project’s report highlight the egregious abuse and trauma inflicted upon the children held at Fort Bliss,” said David Inoue, Executive Director for the Japanese American Citizens League. “We must agree as a nation that the mass incarceration of children is immoral and should never be considered a viable option. Bliss, to ensure that children are never held in these types of inappropriate conditions, and to focus efforts on much-needed reforms and improvements to the model of care for unaccompanied children.” WRC renews its call to HHS and the Biden administration to immediately close the emergency intake site at Ft. Bliss site are consistent with what WRC and partner organizations have independently heard and advocated against. “Unfortunately, allegations of poor treatment, unhygienic and overcrowded living conditions, inadequate medical attention, prolonged stays of children, and inexperienced staff at these emergency facilities and particularly at the Ft. “WRC is very concerned about the serious allegations in the whistleblowers’ complaints, as reported by the Government Accountability Project and NBC, and urges Congress to investigate these complaints thoroughly and immediately,” said Leah Chavla, senior policy advisor at the Women’s Refugee Commission.

#WelcomeWithDignity campaign members–many of whom visited the center in question–responded: Eyewitnesses described a fire and water damage repair company with no experience of youth care being charged with the direct supervision of children, failures in case management and oversight, and thousands of children housed in dormitory tents. Today, the #WelcomeWithDignity responded to the Government Accountability Project’s press release on whistleblower allegations of abuse at Fort Bliss.

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