DHS Closes Roads And Blocks Visits To Illegal Immigrant Holding Areas, Border Patrol Says

DHS agents ordered public roads closed to journalists and an illegal immigrant holding facility “cleared out” prior to a visit by a Congressional delegation, according to U.S. Border Patrol union official. The Department of Homeland Security has left many lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle feeling like they are being stonewalled when requesting access to bases and federal facilities housing thousands of illegal immigrants from Central America and Mexico.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, President Obama has asked Congress to approve $3.7 billion to cover the expense of housing, feeding, processing, transporting, and giving medical care and legal aid for deportation proceedings to the thousands of illegal immigrants walking across the Mexican border and surrendering to Border Patrol agents. The agents themselves are reportedly feeling overwhelmed and are now spending the bulk of their time not protecting the border but doing paperwork and changing diapers.

A tour was scheduled for members of Congress after weeks of delay, but the elected officials who hold the purse strings have been barred from speaking with the illegal immigrants, Border Patrol agents, or medical staff while at the federal holding facilities. Leaks relating to the health of the illegal migrant children claim that many have lice, and several have Swine flu, and even tuberculosis.

Journalists have reportedly been stopped along public roads near the Rio Grande River by DHS agents. The area is where the vast majority of the illegal immigrant children and groups of adults are crossing into the United States. Border Patrol agents have reportedly been ordered to clean up the illegal immigrant holding facilities before the Congressmen and women come to visit, unannounced visits by the lawmakers are strictly prohibited. If the reports from the agents are accurate, the illegal migrants were moved out of “unauthorized holding cells” in sally port areas. Border Patrol Agent Chris Cabrera told The Blaze that his supervisors “cleared” more than 200 illegal immigrants from a sally port in a garage last week before a bipartisan group of lawmaker was scheduled to visit.

Agent Cabrera, who is also the National Border Patrol Council Local 3077 Vice President, had this to say about the illegal immigrant detention facilities:

“They don’t want people to know what’s going on here, or for that matter, anywhere, when it comes to the surge of illegal aliens and when Congress went to visit, the place was cleared out. The night before the group of lawmakers arrived the senior supervisors loaded up a couple hundred people being held in the sally port and shipped them out to Laredo. If everything is so fine and dandy, why not let he lawmakers in just the way it is? How are we supposed to get any help out here if we’re hiding the facts from the people who are supposed to be here to help us?”

When asked about plans to deport the illegal immigrant children during Meet the Press on NBC, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said:

“The law requires that, when DHS identifies somebody as a child, as an unaccompanied child, we turn them over to The Department of Health and Human Services. But there is a deportation proceeding that is commenced against the child. Now, that proceeding can take some time. And so we’re looking at options, added flexibility, to deal with the children in particular, but in a humanitarian and fair way. “

Some of the minors in the holding facilities were allegedly caught drawing drug gang related insignia on the walls of the federal facility. Boys as young as 10 and 12 have allegedly been recruited by the teens to join the drug cartel gangs upon their release.

About 50,000 unaccompanied children illegally crossed into America so far this year, about 90,0000 more are anticipated before the end of 2014.

[Image Via: Sarah A. Carter/The Blaze]