"... to quickly deploy to U.S. border stations and tent sites where holding cells are crammed beyond capacity.... The number of these teens and children held in detention cells along the border surpassed 3,500 this week, a record, and the minors have been arriving at a rate that far exceeds the government’s ability to place them in shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services or release them to vetted sponsors, often relatives living in the United States. With shelters run by HHS short on bed space, thousands of minors are stuck in rudimentary Border Patrol stations awaiting transfer.... More than 130 minors have been waiting 10 days in the custody of CBP, whose steel-and-concrete detention cells are designed as short-term holding cells for adults...."
From "ICE asks officers to deploy to border ‘as soon as this weekend’ to cope with surge" (WaPo).
That headline must have been different before, because the highest-rated comments are: "WaPo, please re-write this headline. ICE is asking internally for assistance. ICE is not calling for Trumpian militant volunteers to rush to the border to rough up immigrants." AND: "ICE should be careful when calling for 'volunteers.' They'll get a bunch of armed white guys with fat guts, no training and an itch to shoot someone who can't shoot back."
Yes, now I see the cached headline. It was: "ICE asks for volunteers to deploy to border ‘as soon as this weekend’ to cope with surge."
The word "cages" does not appear in this new article, but a couple days ago WaPo published "At border, record number of migrant youths wait in adult detention cells for longer than legally allowed":
The Border Patrol warehouse with chain-link holding pens that were decried as “cages” in 2018 has been closed for renovations, but the conditions in the stations are not much better. Young people are waiting in cramped, austere holding cells with concrete floors and benches. Lights remain on 24 hours a day, agents say, and there are few places to play.
Are they in cages now? Were they in cages then? I don't know, but in 2018 the word "cages" was used and the same facilities are currently closed for renovations — perhaps to make them less cage-y — so there's no shift from using the word for exactly the same place. Right now, the "young people" are stuck in "cramped, austere holding cells," but would these be "cages" if only Trump were President or is there some cell/cage distinction that has to do with chain-link fencing?