The Trump administration has often come under scrutiny for using the cages to detain migrants, though a lesser-known detail is that those same cages have been used for years, albeit under different circumstances.
Last summer, for instance, images went viral showing young migrant children lying sprawled on flimsy mattresses, caged behind the metal fencing. Though critics rushed to condemn the Trump administration, it quickly emerged that the images were from 2014, during the Obama administration, and that the children had arrived at the border unaccompanied and were awaiting processing in the facilities.
At the time, the Obama administration had been struggling to manage a major influx in unaccompanied Central American children arriving at the US-Mexico border.
As one former Obama official explained, "We didn't have enough shelter facilities, because we had a huge increase, so kids ended up piling up in Border Patrol lock-ups, which are no places for children."
