Over the past few months, news about events at the border has dominated headlines. The treatment of migrants, especially migrant children, is another concern which many Americans regularly articulate. In recent weeks, reports of Border Patrol agents mistreating migrant children have spread across the press.

During an interview with MSNBC on Monday, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler accused the Trump administration of child abuse. Nadler furthermore stated that the agents at the border are purposefully inflicting harm upon migrant children.

Reviewing Accusations against the Trump Administration

The statements from Nadler assert that migrant children are facing unfair treatment at the Southern border and furthermore forced to reside in unclean environments. The House Judiciary Committee chairman moreover championed the prosecution of agents who are involved in the oversight of young migrants.

In Nadler's own words:

"What we saw today was disgusting. When we were at the border a couple of months ago, although they didn’t let us talk to the kids, we saw very disgusting conditions then. This is inhumane and criminal."

He then declared that the Trump administration is inflicting "torture" upon migrants and migrant children at the border for the sake of deterring illegal immigration:

"There ought to be prosecutions of some of the agency heads and some of the people for child abuse. This is clearly child abuse. It violates probably a half dozen laws. It’s just more of the administration determining to torture people in order to be a deterrent for people coming over the border which they no longer admit was the case but admitted it a few months ago."

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1145756459440975872

New Scrutiny Facing Customs and Border Patrol Officials

Various members of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) are facing new scrutiny in light of screenshots from a Facebook group. These screenshots include flippant statements about the deaths of migrants and more.

https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1145741070149586947

https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1145741261757997056

https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1145741351461543936

In light of the aforementioned screenshots, CBP has announced their decision to investigate the Facebook group and agents who served as participants of shared content.

https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1145774022900297728

CBP has also denied claims of mistreating migrants and stated that belittling remarks made by officials in the Facebook group do not represent Border Patrol agents as a whole.

https://twitter.com/CBP/status/1145885534302199814

https://twitter.com/CBP/status/1146072203080937477