U.S. border agents are separating migrant children from their parents to avoid overcrowding, inspector finds

Washington — U.S. Border Patrol agents separated migrant children as young as 8 from their parents for several days this summer to avoid overcrowding in a short-term holding facility, an independent federal court monitor said Friday, raising concerns about the physiological impact of such separations.

Dr. Paul Wise, the federal court monitor, said he learned during two visits to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection tent facility in Donna, Texas, last month that migrant boys and girls had been separated from their parents and held away from their families, in a different part of the site, for as many as four days.

Wise, a pediatrician, said Border Patrol officials told him the children and parents were separated for operational reasons, namely to prevent overcrowding in pods housing families. The separated children, Wise added, were kept in pods typically reserved for unaccompanied minors that had more space.