The Biden administration is still blocking reporters from seeing its migrant detention facilities along the southern border, despite recent claims that the ban had been lifted.
Reporters were blocked from viewing a newly opened processing facility in El Paso, Texas on Thursday, even though the Department of Homeland Security allowed the press to enter some of the other facilities just four days prior, according to the Washington Examiner.
The new facility will serve as a temporary housing space for migrants seeking asylum in the U.S., according to DHS. It’s located on five acres next to Border Patrol’s Eagle Pass South Station, and is supposed to include areas for eating, sleeping and personal hygiene, officials said.
Leaked pictures of the facility, however, show hundreds of children lying on the concrete floors in crammed corners.
“We saw hundreds of children—many around my three daughters’ ages!—smashed together & lying on the floor under tin foil. No adults in sight,” wrote Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who visited the facility on Thursday.
Only Banks and the other GOP lawmakers present were allowed to enter the facility.
“My sense is the Biden administration has told [border officials] not to allow media to come, but they know that they can’t prevent members of Congress from taking photos and gathering photos and sharing information,” Banks explained.
The Biden administration has been blocking the media’s access to border facilities for months despite its commitment to “transparency.”
Last month, administration officials allowed a camera crew to visit one Texas border facility for the first time ever, but continued to deny press access to the detention facilities that were over their capacities.
The camera crew accompanied White House officials and other members of Congress to tour one of the facilities holding unaccompanied minors. Reporters were not allowed to speak to any of the minors, according to ABC News.
