After reports of squalid conditions, Border Patrol gives tour of facility housing migrant children

The U.S. Border Patrol gave reporters a tour Wednesday of a West Texas facility where migrant children had reportedly been detained in crowded, unsanitary conditions.

The facility in Clint, about 22 miles east of El Paso, has been under intense scrutiny after reports surfaced last week alleging that hundreds of children were held without adequate water, food and proper sanitation. The allegations came from attorneys who interviewed some of the children and reported that many were sick and wore filthy clothes, and children as young as 10 were having to care for toddlers.

After their stories were published, U.S. Customs and Border Protection moved hundreds of children from the Clint facility to another Border Patrol facility in El Paso — then sent about 100 of them back to the Clint facility.

The agency did not allow reporters to take photographs or record video of the facility, but an NPR reporter who participated in the tour reported that the facility and the 117 children held there appeared clean, and the facility had food, toothbrushes and soap for the children.