FILE PHOTO: Activists defending the rights of migrants hold a protest near Fort Bliss to call for the end of the detention of unaccompanied minors at the facility in El Paso
By Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government workers feared retaliation for raising concerns last year about the treatment of unaccompanied migrant children on a Texas military base, where children have been held amid record arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a watchdog report released on Tuesday.
Two U.S. government employees said they experienced retaliation after they sounded alarms about the conditions at Fort Bliss, which has been used for emergency housing since March 2021, according to the report issued by the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general's office.
The alleged acts of retaliation, which included demotion and removal from assignments, may have caused a broader "whistleblower chilling," the inspector general's office said, "effectively scaring staff into withholding any complaints or reports of wrongdoing."
The whistleblowers cited in Tuesday's report included a staff member working with HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) leadership. ORR oversees the care and custody of unaccompanied minors.
The staffer, who was not named, was allegedly demoted and transferred after raising concerns about the treatment of children at the base and the removal of certain safety checks in...
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