Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva is calling for an independent investigation into the Fort Bliss camp for migrant children, following a shocking whistleblower report detailing that a fire and water damage repair company with zero child welfare experience has been in charge of the sprawling tent city. The whistleblowers, both attorneys who volunteered for several weeks in the spring, noted filthy conditions, widespread neglect, and “use of wholly unsuitable contract staff.”

“These allegations are horrific and have no place in our asylum system,” Grijalva said in a statement calling for a probe into the unlicensed tent city, located near El Paso, Texas. “Children do not belong in detention, and I’ve long advocated for the closure of these types of facilities. Those fleeing violence from their home countries should be met with compassion, dignity, and quality care that recognizes their hardships.”

Whistleblowers Laurie Elkin and Justin Mulaire alleged in a report this month that some kids held at the tent city sometimes went weeks without being able to talk to a case manager, “causing unnecessary, additional traumatization.” Other children, “housed in these tents for as long as two months (or more),” appeared to never have their bedding washed. In the girls’ tent, they said it was “not uncommon” for children to have to “plead” for clean underwear. But the report said that “perhaps the single greatest problem observed” by whistleblowers was staff. 

The report said Elkin and Mulaire “learned that the contractor providing direct supervision of the children in the dormitory tents—Servpro—is a fire and water damage repair company.” Most of the staff didn’t appear to know Spanish or any indigenous languages spoken by the children. “[Contractors were often of little help” anyway, the report said, noting that “[m]any of the Servpro staff’s t-shirts bore the Servpro corporate logo found on the internet, with some including the corporate logo: ‘As if it never happened.’”

“In sum, the time our clients spent at Fort Bliss was alarming,” the report concludes. “Each day seemed to bring new examples of deficiencies in the care of the children and resulting risks to their health. Instances of gross mismanagement of the site were pervasive. Having witnessed these things, as well as the despair of children who felt (often accurately) that they were being ignored or forgotten, our clients felt the need to speak out, yet were met with non-responsiveness at best and unlawful deterrence at worst.”

While the population at Fort Bliss has dropped over 40% in recent weeks, it’s so far not included in the list of about half dozen “emergency camps” the Biden administration is set to shut down by next month. “Migrant children need to be reunited with their families in the US as quickly and as safely as possible,” tweeted Families Belong Together, a project of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. “While the shelter closures give us hope that this is happening, conditions in the ones that will remain are still appalling.”

Children themselves had already spoken out about Fort Bliss, in court documents. That should have been enough to trigger outrage. While Biden administration official Symone Sanders said last month that President Biden and Vice President Harris had ordered Health and Human Services Sec. Xavier Becerra to conduct a “thorough investigation” into incidents at Fort Bliss, there was confusion around this, because a White House official then commented that “Mr. Biden did not order a formal investigation,” CBS News reported. “We need an independent investigation to determine exactly what’s going on and end these inhumane practices once and for all,” Grijalva continued in his statement.