A federal volunteer at the Biden administration’s largest shelter for unaccompanied migrant children says paramedics were called regularly because some of the children were having panic attacks.
She says they would occur often when other children were released to reunite with their families. The volunteer spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk publicly about what she witnessed at the facility in Donna, Texas. The conditions she described mirror accounts by immigration lawyers who recently visited Fort Bliss Army Base in El Paso, Texas. They highlight the stress of children who cross the U.S.-Mexico border alone and find themselves held at unlicensed mass-scale facilities. The government says it has made improvements to speed reunifications and keep the children safe.