Ursula is the colloquial name for the Central Processing Center, the largest

U.S. Customs and Border Protection United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is the country's primary border control organization, charged with regulating and facilit ...

detention center for undocumented immigrants. The facility is a retrofitted warehouse that can hold more than 1,000 people. It was opened in 2014 on W. Ursula Avenue in

McAllen, Texas McAllen is the largest city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States, and the 22nd-most populous city in Texas. It is located at the southern tip of the state in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexico–United States border. The city limits extend ...

. In June 2018, it gained notoriety for the practice of keeping children in large

cage A cage is an enclosure often made of mesh, bars, or wires, used to confine, contain or protect something or someone. A cage can serve many purposes, including keeping an animal or person in captivity, capturing an animal or person, and displayin ...

s made of

chain-link fencing A chain-link fence (also referred to as wire netting, wire-mesh fence, chain-wire fence, cyclone fence, hurricane fence, or diamond-mesh fence) is a type of woven fence usually made from galvanized or linear low-density polyethylene-coated st ...

About

The center, better known as "Ursula," is the largest immigration processing and detention center run by the

Border Patrol A border guard of a country is a national security agency that performs border security. Some of the national border guard agencies also perform coast guard (as in Germany, Italy or Ukraine) and rescue service duties. Name and uniform In dif ...

and the Customs and Border Protection Agency. The detention and processing center was opened in 2014 at 3700 W. Ursula Avenue in McAllen, Texas. The facility is made from a former

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...

which was leased by the federal government and modified to be able to hold 1,000 children. Children are kept in cages made of

inside of the 77,000 square-foot warehouse. Minors who arrive at the

Mexico–United States border The Mexico–United States border ( es, frontera Estados Unidos–México) is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traver ...

unaccompanied or who have been separated from their families are supposed to only stay in this type of processing center for under 72 hours. After processing, minors are sent to facilities run by the

Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is " ...

. The facility also houses adults and individuals are separated based on how they crossed into the United States. Filming or photography is not allowed inside of the facility. During the weekend of June 16, 2018, reporters were allowed to tour the facility (without cameras).

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

reported in June 2019 that Dolly Lucio Sevier, a board-certified doctor, visited Ursula after a flu outbreak at the facility that resulted in five infants requiring to enter a

neonatal intensive care unit A neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), also known as an intensive care nursery (ICN), is an intensive care unit (ICU) specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants. Neonatal refers to the first 28 days of life. Neonatal care, as kn ...

. Sevier wrote that a medical declaration that the "conditions within which

he migrant minors He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' i ...

are held could be compared to torture facilities ... extreme cold temperatures, lights on 24 hours a day, no adequate access to medical care, basic sanitation, water, or adequate food." All of the 39 children she assessed showed signs of

trauma Trauma most often refers to: * Major trauma, in physical medicine, severe physical injury caused by an external source * Psychological trauma, a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event *Traumatic i ...

References

External links

* *ANNE FLAHERTY and CALVIN WOODWARD
AP FACT CHECK: 2014 photo wrongly used to hit Trump policies
- May 30, 2018 {{coord, 26.1590, N, 98.2703, W, region:US-TX_type:landmark, display=title Adoption, fostering, orphan care and displacement Articles containing video clips Immigration detention centers and prisons in the United States Immigration to the United States McAllen, Texas 2018 in American politics Trump administration controversies 2014 establishments in Texas United States Border Patrol

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References

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