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Lawyers Say Infants, Children at Border Detention Site Face Dangerous Conditions

Migrant families cross the Rio Grande river into the United States to turn themselves in and ask for asylum, near El Paso, Texas on May 31, 2019.

Migrant families cross the Rio Grande river into the United States to turn themselves in and ask for asylum, near El Paso, Texas on May 31, 2019.

Photographer: Christian Torres/AP Photo

Updated on

El Paso, Texas (AP) -- A 2-year-old boy locked in detention wants to be held all the time. A few girls, ages 10 to 15, say they've been doing their best to feed and soothe the clingy toddler who was handed to them by a guard days ago. Lawyers warn that kids are taking care of kids, and there's inadequate food, water and sanitation for the 250 infants, children and teens at the Border Patrol station.

The bleak portrait emerged Thursday after a legal team interviewed 60 children at the facility near El Paso that has become the latest place where attorneys say young migrants are describing neglect and mistreatment at the hands of the U.S. government.