Shadow Immigration System: Migrant Children Detained In Hotels By Private Contractors
It was late at night when two teenage cousins from Honduras arrived in a hotel parking lot somewhere in the U.S., escorted by armed men in civilian clothes.
The young men crossed the border illegally into Texas last month and turned themselves in to the Border Patrol. After spending the night in detention, they say they were loaded into a van by the men who were not in uniforms and driven three hours to the hotel.
"We went in through a side door. No one was there. We didn't have to sign in or anything. We couldn't see the name of the hotel," Jorge, who is 16, says in Spanish. His cousin, Ricardo, is 13.
Both young men are now in the custody of Ricardo's father, who asked that we not use their last names because they are still in immigration proceedings. They fled Honduras together after gang members threatened their family there.
