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Border Patrol Unnecessarily Holding Newborn U.S. Citizens in Custody

Plus: Lawyers trying to reunite separated families, more Nicaraguans heading to the U.S., migrant children depressed in camps

This summary was featured in Documented’s Early Arrival newsletter. You can subscribe to receive it in your inbox three times per week here.

The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security reviewed the agency’s treatment of pregnant women and births after a Guatemalan woman filed a complaint last year about her experience in the Chula Vista border station. The woman said in her complaint she was denied medical care when she was apprehended in February 2020 by Border Patrol. She was taken to the station and gave birth shortly after while standing and holding onto a trash can for support. The report also found multiple women who gave birth in custody and had to stay several nights before being released. The San Diego Union-Tribune 

In other national immigration news…

Lawyer Trying to Reunite Guatemalan Family Separated in the U.S.

Eriberto Pop, a human rights lawyer for Alta Verapaz, spent eight hours in a car and several hours on a motorcycle trying to reunite a family in Guatemala that was separated in the U.S. Pop is one of a handful of searchers trying to locate parents who were deported alone or far away in Central America. There are roughly 275 parents still missing their children after being separated by the Trump administration. The searchers lack information on the deported parents, making it more difficult to locate them. The Biden administration agreed to reunite the families through its Family Reunification Task Force, but has left the work of locating the parents to small organizations. Independent 

Influx of Nicaraguans Heading to the U.S.

Alan Reyes Picado left Nicaragua after government officials harassed him, threw him in jail and left him naked in a dumpster. He was detained for two months after crossing the border, and now lives in San Francisco and hopes to get a work permit. Reyes Picado is one of thousands of Nicaraguans who encountered U.S. border officers over the past few months. According to Customs and Border Protection data, there has been a huge increase in arrivals from Nicaragua. Nicaraguans have been stopped about 7,425 times in June compared to 534 times in January. And in the whole 2020 fiscal year, U.S. officials have stopped Nicaraguans over 19,300 times, the highest number of encounters on record. The Associated Press 

Whistleblowers Claim Migrant Children are Depressed in Texas’ Tent Camp

A whistleblower complaint sent to Congress and government watchdogs claims unaccompanied migrant children housed at Fort Bliss Army base in Texas are facing filthy conditions and don’t have access to adequate mental health services. Two civil servants in the federal government who volunteered to work at the tent site said agitated migrant children, with some having suicidal thoughts, were referred to staff that weren’t qualified to evaluate their trauma and mental health needs. The overcrowded facility has also led to a backload of waste and dirty clothes. CBS News 

Asylum Seekers Sent Back Share Their Experiences

The U.S. media has recently shown many immigrant families facing the most stressful moments of their lives, whether it was their attempts to cross the southern border or family separations through detention. These events have mainly been caused by the Trump-era public health order Title 42, which continues to turn away immigrants back to Mexico without allowing them to seek asylum. Beyond Migrant, by Hailey Sadler, is a series of portraits of families who were sent to Mexico after trying to seek asylum. The series, which shares the stories of 15 families, was shot against a uniform black backdrop in Mexicali, Mexico, to help viewers engage with the subjects’ stories. BuzzFeed News

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