Trump Administration Holding Babies And Toddlers In Multiple 'Tender Age' Shelters: AP

As the Trump administration continues to forcibly separate immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border, babies and other young children are being sent to tender age shelters in Texas, The Associated Press reported Tuesday night.

At least three shelters, in Combes, Raymondville and Brownsville in South Texas, are currently operating, the report said. Visitors to the centers described playrooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis. Children at the shelters were found to be hysterical, crying and acting out.

A fourth shelter, which could house up to 240 children, is reportedly being planned for Houston. Sylvester Turner, Houstons mayor, has said the shelter is not welcome in his city .

The thought that they are going to be putting such little kids in an institutional setting? I mean it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around it, Kay Bellor of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, a nonprofit that provides child welfare services to migrant children, told AP this week.

Toddlers are being detained, she said.

This toddler is about 12 months old. She was separated from relatives as part of the Trump administration's family separation policy. She is being held at a Brownsville shelter. I did not take the photo. It was supplied to me. pic.twitter.com/rq5zsfglbX

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This toddler is about 12 months old. She was separated from relatives as part of the Trump administration's family separation policy. She is being held at a Brownsville shelter. I did not take the photo. It was supplied to me. pic.twitter.com/rq5zsfglbX
Manny Fernandez (@mannyNYT) June 20, 2018

The administration has taken more than 2,300 children from their parents since early May, when the White House announced its zero tolerance policy for illegal border crossing. Officials on Tuesday said they didnt know how many of these children were younger than 5.

CNN reported last week that a mother from Honduras said her breastfeeding baby was taken from her by federal agents while she was awaiting prosecution at an immigrant detention center. Michelle Brane, director of migrant rights at the Womens Refugee Commission, described seeing 5-year-olds in cages alone with no adult care and a 4-year-old whose diapers were being changed by other detained children as she visited a facility where migrants were being held.

On Monday, ProPublica released an audio clip of 10 young Central American children held by Border Patrol many of them crying so hard that it sounded as if they could barely breathe.

Inside a detention center last week. Children separated from their parents wail and ask for help.

A Border Patrol agent booms above the crying. Well, we have an orchestra here, he jokes. Whats missing is a conductor.

Listen to the full audio here: https://t.co/FrqfILMSUP pic.twitter.com/3Htj4t7alB

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Inside a detention center last week. Children separated from their parents wail and ask for help.

A Border Patrol agent booms above the crying. Well, we have an orchestra here, he jokes. Whats missing is a conductor.

Listen to the full audio here: https://t.co/FrqfILMSUP pic.twitter.com/3Htj4t7alB
ProPublica (@ProPublica) June 18, 2018

Trump officials this week defended the tender age shelters, saying they are well-equipped for providing care to young children.

We have specialized facilities that are devoted to providing care to children with special needs, and tender age children as we define as under 13 would fall into that category, Steven Wagner, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, told AP. Theyre not government facilities per se, and they have very well-trained clinicians, and those facilities meet state licensing standards for child welfare agencies, and theyre staffed by people who know how to deal with the needs particularly of the younger children.

Lawyers and medical professionals who visited the shelters said they found the facilities to be clean and safe but stressed it wasnt the centers themselves that were the issue.

The shelters arent the problem, its taking kids from their parents thats the problem, Marsha Griffin, a South Texas pediatrician who has visited several shelters, told AP.

Research has shown that institutionalizing children can cause lasting emotional scars, as well as physical and mental health issues .

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[Separating] children and parents at the border is a practice that has the potential to cause significant, lifelong harm to the children involved, wrote the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners in a statement last week denouncing the practice. Research clearly shows that traumatic life experiences in childhood, especially those that involve loss of a caregiver or parent, cause lifelong risk for cardiovascular and mental health disease.

It remains unclear how long the Trump administration intends to hold the thousands of children in their care in shelter facilities. Its also unknown how long these children will be kept from their families.