6/22/18
The white buses and vans swing off the highway and slow but do not stop as they trundle through the dusty, sunbaked streets of Tornillo. They have no markings, no sirens and you cannot discern the passengers, only silhouettes. They pass the cotton and alfalfa fields and bleached trailer homes of Aguilera road and vanish into a US border post ringed by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. When the vehicles emerge and return to El Paso they are empty. No one in this Texas desert hamlet sees or hears the several hundred children – migrants separated from their parents – who now inhabit a tent city which every day swallows new arrivals. Donald Trump’s immigration policy may be in chaos but this detention camp a stone’s throw from Mexico was built quickly and with a certain skill. It is all but invisible except by air. Some residents were outraged, saying infamy was being visited on their town. “It’s hard to believe it’s actually happening,” said Kathleen Bretz, 23, a mother of two boys. “It’s like we’re stepping back a hundred years with people put in this little camp, locking them up like animals. It’s twisted and shameful. It’s not right.” Claudia Eliaz, 35, a mother of three, said there was no justification for breaking up families. “It’s just horrible. And that it’s happening here in Tornillo …” Her voice trailed off.
Aerial images show federal authorities anticipated the consequences of the president’s “zero-tolerance” policy for illegal border crossings. Behind fences and tall mounds of dirt workers erected about 20 large tents on a parched field owned by the Department of Homeland Security. Each tent has bunk beds and capacity for 20 people. There is a medical clinic, a reception center and reportedly a cinema, all under canvas. Armed guards with body armor stand vigil around the perimeter. It added up, said Berta Ortiz, 48, a Tornillo resident, to disgrace. “This is bad for the children and bad for the town. We’re associated with this.” “There’s no indication about what will happen to those families that are already separated,” said Melissa Lopez, an immigration attorney who has been contracted to provide legal services to the Tornillo detainees. “We don’t know how long the children will be there.” Adolfo Lopez, another attorney who represents detained parents, said he operated in an information vacuum. “I had to tell parents I don’t know when you’re going to see your children again. They were devastated. It was something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.” The sheriff of El Paso has barred deputies from working off-duty at the camp lest it damage his force’s community relations.
