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Broken Border

No toothbrushes or showers, kids coughing all night: Migrants describe conditions inside border facilities

The Tribune interviewed more than a dozen migrants after their release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities. The conditions they described ranged from livable to horrible.

A group of migrants secure their bus tickets at the McAllen Bus Station in McAllen on June 28, 2019.

Broken Border

A surge of migrants arriving at the Texas-Mexico border has pushed the country's immigration system to the breaking point as new policies aimed at both undocumented immigrants and legal asylum seekers have contributed to a humanitarian crisis. The Texas Tribune is maintaining its in-depth reporting on this national issue.

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This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

The U.S. Border Patrol Central Processing Center, colloquially known as Ursula, in McAllen on June 28, 2019.
The U.S. Border Patrol Central Processing Center on Military Highway in McAllen on June 28, 2019.
Large group of mostly African migrants outside a makeshift center in downtown San Antonio on June 26, 2019. The migrants are given food and a bag with basic hygiene products, then escorted to a nearby shelter to sleep for the night.
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Alfredo, Merlin and their daughter Yarely at the McAllen Bus Station on June 26, 2019.
A group of migrants exit an immigration bus at the McAllen Central Station in downtown McAllen on June 25, 2019.
A young boy is escorted off of an immigration bus by a woman at the McAllen Central Station in downtown McAllen on June 25, 2019.

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