Detained border crossers sent to ‘the freezers’


Detained migrants describe overcrowded holding cells along the U.S.-Mexico border that are so cold they become ill. The holding cells have become notorious among migrants, who call them las hieleras, or the freezers. In addition to the cold, migrants described half-frozen sandwiches for meals, fluorescent lights on 24 hours a day, a lack of diapers for infants and sanitary products for women, and conditions so crowded that there wasn’t always room to lie down. CIR was the first to report on las hieleras.

Read the full story at Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

eight migrant men sitting in a concrete and cinderblock holding cell, some wearing space blankets
Photograph by Peter O’Dowd/Fronteras