By Julia Ainsley and Didi Martinez - NBC News
WASHINGTON - New audio from inside a U.S. Government shelter for unaccompanied migrant children in Fort Bliss, Texas, reveals allegations of sexual misconduct by staff toward some minors, as well as an acknowledgment that the children are were running out of clean clothes and shoes and the reluctance of officials to make public the scope of the COVID-19 outbreak at the facility.
"We have already inappropriately surprised staff with minors. Is that okay with you?"
said a federal contractor who conducted a training session with staff inside Fort Bliss in May.
[The Government will house migrant children in two military bases in Texas before the overflow of the shelters for minors]
The crowd yells in response, "No!"
"I hope not," she says.
"If they are caught, especially if it is a staff member, you must separate the minor from that person immediately," says the contractor, without explaining that supervisors must be informed of the incident.
The temporary facility at Fort Bliss housed nearly 5,000 migrant children this spring as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) struggled to take in the minors who were crowding Border Patrol stations.
At the time of the training session in which the audio was recorded, the facility housed some 3,000 minors.
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In the same session, the contractor says children have complained that staff jumped on their beds to wake them up, according to the audio.
"I know there have been a lot of complaints from minors about being awakened by staff members in the morning," says the contractor.
"We have some staff members who are picking up and shaking the bed to wake the child. Or they are bouncing them off the bed. They think they are playing,
but that constitutes child abuse. I need you to know that," he
explains.
["Arms crossed and not knowing Spanish." They denounce inexperience of workers in a shelter for migrant minors in Texas]
A few minutes later, he acknowledges that there is a shortage of clean clothes and shoes for the minors.
"We are aware of the shortage of underwear, socks and shoes. Management knows this and we are working to get more for minors," he says.
In a statement, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said
the agency takes "all allegations of wrongdoing seriously."
Fort Bliss houses temporary migrant housing in Texas, in a June 2018 image.Joe Raedle / Getty Images file
"Every emergency intake site we've launched, we started it from scratch," Becerra said.
"We are constantly working to improve the conditions and services necessary to care for children in these challenging shelter settings."
The federal contractor's comment confirms recent allegations by several whistleblowers that evidenced difficulties in getting clean clothes for children at the shelter.
[Panic attacks and self-harm: this is the despair experienced by migrant children in the emergency shelters of the Biden Administration]
Arthur Pearlstein and Lauren Reinhold, two federal workers who were at Fort Bliss in April, May and June, said in a report released by the Government Accountability Project that when they raised their concerns with federal workers and contractors in charge, they were he said wait.
"There were a lot of them (kids) who complained that they had no underwear or just a piece with nothing else to change into," Pearlstein told our sister network NBC News.
"I asked some Administration officials: 'Can't a federal employee who has a shopping card just go to Walmart or Costco?'"
According to Pearlstein, the response he received was: "'No, the contractor must wait.'"
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In another meeting with Fort Bliss employees, a doctor with the United States Public Health Service declined to provide information on COVID-19 rates, according to audio obtained by NBC News.
"I can't give you daily numbers, breakdowns, charts and the like," he said.
"Assume everyone has COVID and act appropriately ... sorry, not a great answer," the doctor would have said.
[Thousands of migrant minors are crammed into "emergency" shelters with little supervision and little care]
The doctor also acknowledged that there are reports of sexual activity at the shelter, though he did not say whether staff had been involved with the minors.
In the audio, an employee is heard asking, "There is a concern that children will have sex with each other and possible sexual assault. Anything to say about that?"
"That has been on our radar since day one," the doctor replied.
"That is a situation that you will always have to deal with
. There are processes to report, intervene and do interviews about the allegations," he said.
The doctor added: "Being separated by gender has been fantastic, right? Ok, it's better than how it was in the first week, when we had boys and girls, in the first week, and there were no barriers. Imagine that."
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In response to previous NBC News reports on the allegations Pearlstein and Reinhold detailed in their complaint, an HHS spokesperson said:
"The care and well-being of the children in our custody remains a priority for HHS.
Children in the emergency intake site at Fort Bliss meet weekly with a case manager and we have about 60 behavioral and mental health counselors working with children on site. Our policy remains to promptly inform appropriate authorities of any suspected infringement".
According to Pearlstein, the Fort Bliss facility now has far fewer children, alleviating some of the concerns about overcrowding.
[An IRS mistake leaves families with an immigrant spouse without a child support check]
But he and Reinhold are still concerned that the government is not being transparent about what is happening inside.
"They told us not to share virtually anything we witnessed there. They told us not to be on social media, to limit our conversations about the site with close friends and family, and to definitely not speak to the media," Reinhold said.