CBP is Detaining Children Incommunicado in Windowless Cells

Customs and Border Protection facilities are barren, brutal and meant only for brief processing, but CBP is holding families incommunicado for weeks.

Today, Flores counsel filed a Motion for Clarification, asking the Court to confirm that children in immigration detention have a right to call a lawyer to report violations of the Flores Settlement Agreement, which has protected the rights of children detained by the U.S. government for decades.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operates hundreds of immigration detention facilities across the country, primarily along the border meant for people who turn themselves in or are encountered just after crossing the border. These facilities are intended only for very brief stays, just enough time for CBP to process the person and determine the next steps in their case. CBP’s own policies direct it to hold adults for no more than 72 hours.

As the administration implements sweeping restrictions on asylum, CBP has adopted a general policy against releasing recent arrivals, proudly announcing “zero Border Patrol releases” in fiscal year 2026. Now, children from countries where they were persecuted or to which they cannot return are locked in CBP detention, sometimes for over a month. Most months, over 150 children spend more than three days locked in a CBP cell, and some of those children spend over 25 days without seeing the sun.

CBP prisons are some of the most brutal prisons in the country. Children are detained in large cement cells whose only window faces in, towards the guards monitoring their movements. The cells are empty aside from a metal prison toilet, which is covered only by a chest-high partition on one side. Children must sleep on thin plastic mats on the cement floor, without a pillow, with nothing but a mylar blanket for warmth.

When one mother’s eight-year-old son had an allergic reaction to the material of the mats, she began to have him lie on top of her at night, using herself as a mattress while she lay awake, desperate to protect him. After a week detained, she explained, “We haven’t seen the sun. We haven’t been outside. The only thing my son has outside the cell is these thirty minutes [per day],” when guards permit him to sit just outside his cell inside another room in the prison and draw. “I beg him to eat but he won’t. If they ever give us anything he will eat, I take a tiny bite and give the rest to him.”

“We haven’t seen the sun. We haven’t been outside. The only thing my son has outside the cell is these thirty minutes [per day],” when guards permit him to sit just outside his cell inside another room in the prison and draw. “I beg him to eat but he won’t. If they ever give us anything he will eat, I take a tiny bite and give the rest to him.”

Many facilities leave blinding lights on 24 hours a day. Because the cells are windowless, children don’t know if it is day or night.

“In the morning, they bring us a burrito and that’s the way we learn that it is the morning,” explained the father of a 16-year-old girl who was detained for days in a cell alone. “My daughter is alone in her room. There is no one to speak to and there are no games, books, TV, nothing to do but sleep and think . . . she is completely alone.”

“In the morning, they bring us a burrito and that’s the way we learn that it is the morning,” explained the father of a 16-year-old girl who was detained for days in a cell alone. “My daughter is alone in her room. There is no one to speak to and there are no games, books, TV, nothing to do but sleep and think . . . she is completely alone.”

Although all interviews and telephonic judicial hearings, if the family gets a hearing at all, occur while the family remains detained, CBP officials often do not allow children to use a phone. One mother explained, “I want a lawyer [but] they didn’t let me have a phone call . . . All I want is to call my son . . . For eight days, my family has not known if we are alive.”

One mother explained, “I want a lawyer [but] they didn’t let me have a phone call . . . All I want is to call my son . . . For eight days, my family has not known if we are alive.”

Further, CBP fails to provide children access to a phone if they wish to call Flores counsel and refuses to facilitate calls with class members when Flores counsel requests to schedule them. Flores counsel are responsible for helping children protect their rights under the Settlement, including their rights to safe, sanitary and humane conditions and quick processing for release from these restrictive, unlicensed facilities which are not intended for children. Without phone calls, children have no voice, and no way to advocate for themselves.

“We should not have to seek intervention of the Court to ensure that children can call their lawyers to ask for help when their rights are being violated,” said Sarah Kahn, Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. “Preventing a child from calling a lawyer is a clear indication that the people who run these horrific prisons and draconian systems understand what they’re doing. They know they are torturing children. They know they are denying them their rights to due process, protection and safety. And they don’t want the children to tell anyone.”

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The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL) is a legal non-profit committed to protecting and advancing the rights of immigrants through legal action, advocacy, and education. Through impact litigation, we challenge unlawful immigration policies to drive systemic change and establish stronger legal protections for immigrants. At the local, state, and federal levels, we advocate for fair and humane policies that uphold the rights of all immigrants. For more information, please visit centerforhumanrights.org.

The National Center for Youth Law centers youth through research, community collaboration, impact litigation, and policy advocacy that fundamentally transforms our nation’s approach to education, health, immigration, foster care, and youth justice. Our vision is a world in which every child thrives and has a full and fair opportunity to achieve the future they envision for themselves. For more information, please visit youthlaw.org.

Children’s Rights is a national advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of children living in or impacted by America’s child welfare, juvenile legal, immigration, education, and healthcare systems. We use civil rights impact litigation, advocacy and policy expertise, and public education to hold governments accountable for keeping kids safe and healthy. Our work centers on creating lasting systemic change that will advance the rights of children for generations. For more information, please visit childrensrights.org.