Over 100 Child Migrants Returned to Overcrowded "Filthy" Texas Facility.
BOLDUAN: You heard it here first yesterday, 100-plus children who had been moved out of a Clint, Texas, government detention facility, well, they were moved back in yesterday. This is a facility that a team of lawyers went in last week to observe the conditions and came out describing horrific circumstances. One quote, "There's a stench," one person said. She also described the conditions as the worst she had seen in any facility in the 12 years she had been monitoring migrant children detained in government custody. The attorney who said that is Elora Mukherjee, the director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School and joins me now. Elora, thank you so much for being here.</s>ELORA MUKHERJEE, DIRECTOR, IMMIGRANTS RIGHTS CLINIC, COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL: Thank you for having me.</s>BOLDUAN: There's actually a lot that's been happening this morning that I want to ask you about. You were there last week. You say after you left that you observed the worst conditions you've seen in your 12-year career in going into these facilities. Then you hear 100-plus of these children are then moved back into this facility. And you think what?</s>MUKHERJEE: I think that choice is inexplicable. I do not understand why this administration is moving children back into Clint given what we uncovered last week. It is also my understanding that today a number of select journalists may have the opportunity to take a tour of Clint. I'm very interested to see what they learn. It is -- it is -- it has been a whirlwind of a few days. The media coverage has sparked an outrage in the American public and internationally about the conditions that we observed last week and that we learned about from the children. We saw children who were dirty, who smelled because they hadn't had an opportunity to bathe, shower, or change their clothes since crossing the border. We saw children who were sick. We saw children who were scared, too scared to ask even for more food when they were hungry. And perhaps the children are being brought back in for this media tour. It's hard to know what's going on.</s>BOLDUAN: I did want to ask you, do you think they could have corrected the problems you saw in basically one day? You were there last week but it would be basically in one day since they were moved out Monday and then back in yesterday.</s>MUKHERJEE: Well, when we arrived last Monday, there were more than 350 children detained in a facility that was designed for just over 100. I do not think it's possible to change all of the problems that we saw in just one day. One of the most serious problems that we observed was that very young children, ages 1-year-old, 2-year-old, 3-year-old, were being cared for by children just slightly older than them, ages 7, 8, 9 years old. The guards would bring in the very young babies and toddlers and say to the older children, you must take care of this child. I don't know how, within one day, that scope of problem can be changed at Clint.</s>BOLDUAN: So one important point here is, at least to this point, journalists are not allowed into these places. You and a team of lawyers, you're allowed in to inspect these facilities only because of a court settlement from years ago. So you're really the only eyes and ears in there. I say that because now Customs and Border Protection, they're disputing what you saw. Let me play for you what just happened, actually, in a Senate hearing with a customs and border protection official being questioned by a Democratic Senator. Watch this.</s>SEN. MAGGIE HASSAN (D-NH): Does CBP have an obligation to provide toothpaste and soap to children in your custody, yes or no?</s>BRIAN HASTINGS, CHIEF, U.S.BORDER PATROL: We're providing that in El Paso, in Clint station.</s>HASSAN: Do you have an obligation to feed, clothe, and clean the children in your custody?</s>HASTINGS: We provide three meals, hot meals a day, and snacks are unlimited to those in our care.</s>HASSAN: You do understand that is in direct contradiction with the news reports that we have been reading and from what lawyers who have been visiting these children and interviewing them are telling us?</s>HASTINGS: And I would ask that you understand that those are the plaintiff's attorneys who have a case against the government.</s>HASSAN: And you should understand that I'm a member of the bar of Massachusetts in New Hampshire, and I hold attorneys to very high standards. And I doubt very strongly that any attorney would be fabricating this information.</s>HASTINGS: I understand, ma'am.</s>BOLDUAN: Elora, what do you say to that?</s>MUKHERJEE: I say that it is shocking to me that CBP officials are testifying before Congress that they are providing basic hygiene products and safe and sanitary conditions at Clint. Last week, just last Tuesday, a DOJ lawyer, a Department of Justice lawyer named Sara Fabian argued before the Ninth Circuit Court after appeals.