Hungry, Scared and Sick: Inside the Immigrant Shelter in Clint, Texas

Center in El Paso has become the epicenter of outrage over Trump's immigration policies

CLINT, Texas - Since the Border Patrol opened its shelter in Clint, Texas, in 2013, residents knew very little about what was going on inside. Agents were getting in and out in pickup trucks, as buses arrived at the gates with children seized at the border four miles away. But inside the shelter, which is now on the frontline of the border crisis with Mexico, officials live their worst nightmares.

Outbreaks of scabies, herpes zoster and chickenpox spread among the hundreds of children who were kept in tight cells, according to the agents. The stench of soiled laundry was so strong that it spread to the staff's clothes. The children were crying constantly.

The little-known facility suddenly became the public face of the chaos on the southern border of the United States after lawyers began reportingwhat they saw happen to some five-month-olds and the filthy, overcrowded conditions in which they were being held.

Border Patrol officials, including Aaron Hull, the principal agent in the El Paso sector, have contested denunciations of degrading conditions within Clint. But senior officials at the agency had known for months that some children had no beds to sleep on, no way to clean themselves, and sometimes they got hungry. His own agents had set the alarm and were forced to accommodate even more newcomers.

The report was based on dozens of interviews with the New York Times and the El Paso Times, with current and former Border Patrol agents and supervisors; lawyers, lawmakers, and advisors who visited the shelter; and an immigrant father whose children were kept there.

According to all reports, the Border Patrol's attempt to continue to make room for new children in Clint was a source of concern to many people who worked there.

Place was designed for one hundred people

Clint's shelter is known for keeping what the agents call UACs, or unaccompanied foreign children - minors who cross the border alone or with relatives who are not their parents.

"I can not count the number of times I've talked to the agents and they've all got a lot of eyes," said a retired agent who worked for 13 years at Clint.

Ms Gonzalez, a Democrat who visited the site last week, said Border Patrol agents said they had repeatedly warned their superiors about overcrowded facilities, but federal officials did not act.

"They said, 'We were triggering all the alarms and no one was listening.' The agents told me that. I truly believe that the upper ranks let Clint's situation get to that point.

The architects designed Clint's shelter as an advanced base type, filled with gas stations, car garages and horse stables - with which agents could make inroads along the border.