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A South Texas federal detention center for pregnant minors is raising concerns over allegations of lack of access to adequate health care, according to San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro.
Castro, a Democrat, said he toured the Office of Refugee Resettlement facility (ORR) in San Benito, Texas earlier in the day along with fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez.
The shelter is run for ORR by Urban Strategies, a for-profit contractor. Recent reporting by The Texas Newsroom and The California Newsroom identified the San Benito site as the single South Texas shelter where the Trump administration has been sending pregnant unaccompanied minors.
Castro said the facility was housing both pregnant teens, other girls in federal custody, teens who recently gave birth and their newborn infants.
"There are three pregnant girls there right now, and also three girls who have had children," he said. "So there were three infants there." He added that the youngest child at the shelter was 5 years old and described seeing one baby asleep in a crib and another being held by "a mom that looked to be about 13 or 14 years old."
Castro said the conditions and length of detention were especially troubling. "These are girls, some of whom have been sexually assaulted," he said. "They're away from their families, separated from their families."
He said the average stay at the facility is more than six months and that the longest stay has reached 400 days. Those figures could not be independently verified Tuesday, but they reflect the broader criticism from advocates and former officials who say pregnant minors are being kept in a setting that may not be equipped for their needs.
Castro said part of his congressional inspection was focused on the availability and quality of medical for the pregnant teens. He said he was told by staff there is no on-site doctor and no obstetric specialist at the shelter.
"There's no OBGYN. There's no doctor that specializes in teenage pregnancies," he said. He said emergencies are handled at a larger hospital in Harlingen, while routine pregnancy care is contracted out to providers elsewhere in the Rio Grande Valley.
Castro said that arrangement is concerning in a region already short on specialists. "You've got these girls that are pregnant without a doctor on site or a specialist on site," he said. "And so I do question the medical services available to them."
Recent public reporting has cited objections from some federal health and child-welfare officials who also argued the facility and surrounding region lacked adequate specialized care.
In a statement U.S. Health and Human Services which oversees ORR said pregnant minors are sent to the San Benito facility because it can meet their medical needs.
According to the statement: "ORR's placement decisions follow child-welfare best practices and are made individually to ensure each unaccompanied alien child, including those who are pregnant or parenting, is placed in a setting that meets their medical, developmental, and safety needs. ORR regularly consults with clinical experts and internal health professionals within the ORR network, weighing multiple factors when making placement decisions."
Critics of the Trump administration claim that the girls are being sent to detention in Texas because of the state's tough anti-abortion laws.
Castro said he also believes the administration is concentrating pregnant minors in Texas to make abortion harder to obtain.
"I do think that there is an effort to prevent these girls who are pregnant from having an abortion if they want one," he said.
Castro also accused ORR officials of withholding key information during the visit, including how some girls ended up there and how many had experienced sexual assault.
"They just wouldn't answer my question," he said.
Castro said officials repeatedly asked for questions in writing, which he argued frustrates Congress's oversight role. "We need to be able to fully visit with the minors and ask them these questions and get the stories out," Castro said. "And right now we're being blocked from doing that."
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