When it comes to alternative truths the republican party seems to have a lock on the formula. Monday, Texas GOP Congressman, Michael Burgess had this to say when it came to a Brownsville immigrant detention center housing hundreds of kids: "There is not a lock on the door. Any child is free to leave anytime. But they don't and you know why? Because they are well taken care of and yes at some time they are going to live with family, generally not with mother and father, but some family member, that's a good thing."
I don't know for sure Congressman, but I'm thinking there are other reasons they aren't leaving. You know, like many of them aren't old enough to walk, or talk, others are still too young to fend for themselves on the streets, and none of them know where their parents are. Then of course there are the Customs and Border Patrol personnel watching over them. It is highly unlikely any CBP people wanting to keep their jobs would let anyone just stroll out the front door, unlocked, or not.
Here is what a bullshit nightmare this has become. A little while ago Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, called the places in Brownsville and elsewhere concentration camps. Over the next few days everyone forgot all about the children while conservatives, progressives, and various cable media personalities argued about whether the term, "concentration camp," was appropriate, or not.
Some on both sides interpreted it as an insult to WWII Holocaust victims, others argued it was a more accurate description than the term detention centers. (For those wondering the British invented concentration camps and used the name during the Boer War at the end of the 19th century. The Germans co-opted the phrase in the second World War as a propaganda dig at Britain.)
Meanwhile children were and are still being forcibly separated from their parents, then chucked into dumps which, despite Mike Burgess' glowing assessment, they cannot walk away from and leaves them in conditions which can best be described as unfit for dogs.
At a CBP camp outside of El Paso an estimated 255 children were being held without access to things like soap and toothpaste, while infants were denied diapers. The AP and others reported on the squalid conditions and all, but about 30 kids were immediately moved to other facilities. Not long after the press left, 100 of them were returned to the place. Efforts by the local population to donate personal hygiene products were turned away at the gate.
Last week Justice Department lawyer, Sarah Fabian told an incredulous 9th Circuit Court the Trump administration was under no obligation to improve conditions in the camps despite a 1997 court decision which requires the government to hold detainees in, "safe and sanitary conditions." Yes, that's right, she maintained, with a straight face, the government is legally allowed to make young children sleep on concrete floors in over crowded cells.
As for that soap, toothpaste, and diaper stuff, Fabian argued since the accord, known as the Flores Agreement, doesn't specify providing any of it, the government doesn't have to.
This moved one member of the three judge panel to tell, Fabian, "Are you arguing seriously that you do not read the agreement as requiring you to do anything other than what I just described: Cold all night long, lights on all night long, sleeping on concrete, and you've got an aluminum foil blanket? I find it inconceivable the government would say that is safe and sanitary."
Well, Your Honor I hate to break the bad news, but that is exactly what the sons of bitches are saying.
One has to think this sort of behavior on the government's part is a huge and cruel exercise in aversion therapy. Lacking any sort of true plan, or immigration reform--Trump's plan on everything is to have no plan and Congress can't agree on anything--the objective seems to be make things so terrible, so monstrous, no one will ever want to come here again.
Indeed, if we can make the Guatemalans and Hondurans more miserable here than they were in their home countries, a truly horrifying accomplishment, then they won't want to leave in the first place.
Why do I think wherever the shade of Herr Hitler is lurking right now, it's smiling.
6-25-19
This reminds me of the immigrant camps the Palestinians have been subjected to for half a century. Overcrowded and full of filth, no wonder they hate their hosts. Hmm, do you suppose those in OUR camps will love us like many think they should?
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