Trump's Immigration Policy Is Promoting Child Abuse

It is an undeniable fact that the population of the United States is made up mostly of immigrants and the descendants of immigrants. And most Americans are proud of that, and revere the poem inscribed on the base of our Statue of Liberty (see above) that welcomes immigrants.

But there have been periods throughout our history where the racists and xenophobes have gotten powerful and tried to stop immigration -- especially people of a different ethnicity or religion from the dominant white population.

We are currently in one of those periods. With a racist and xenophobe currently living in our White House, demonizing immigrants and refugees has become government policy. And that policy has led to the denial of human rights.

Trump would like Americans to believe that refugees seeking safety and a better future for their families are criminals. They are not. The latest refugees (from Central America) are trying to escape dangerous and horrendous situations in their home country. Most have not crossed the border illegally, but have turned themselves in at the border seeking asylum -- as they have the legal right to do.

But they have been met with hate and discrimination by the Trump administration. They have been denied both their human and legal rights. They have been separated from their children, and housed in camps that truly do seem to deserve the title of "concentration camps".

But worst of all is the treatment of the refugee children. After being unlawfully separated from their parents, they are being held in facilities that deny them adequate and decent food, proper medical care, beds and blankets, soap and toothbrushes, and other items required by common decency (and law). Trump has said he did not build these facilities and has tried to blame Democrats for them. But he is the one who filled those facilities and has denied even basic care to those his policies have detained. He must be blamed for promoting child abuse at our southern border.

The following is part of an article by Caitlin Dickerson in The New York Times detailing the horrendous treatment of refugee children in Trump's border facilities. It should shame all Americans.

A chaotic scene of sickness and filth is unfolding in an overcrowded border station in Clint, Tex., where hundreds of young people who have recently crossed the border are being held, according to lawyers who visited the facility this week. Some of the children have been there for nearly a month.

Children as young as 7 and 8, many of them wearing clothes caked with snot and tears, are caring for infants they’ve just met, the lawyers said. Toddlers without diapers are relieving themselves in their pants. Teenage mothers are wearing clothes stained with breast milk.

Most of the young detainees have not been able to shower or wash their clothes since they arrived at the facility, those who visited said. They have no access to toothbrushes, toothpaste or soap.

“There is a stench,” said Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, one of the lawyers who visited the facility. “The overwhelming majority of children have not bathed since they crossed the border.” . . .

Ms. Mukherjee is part of a team of lawyers who has for years under the settlement been allowed to inspect government facilities where migrant children are detained. She and her colleagues traveled to Clint this week after learning that border officials had begun detaining minors who had recently crossed the border there.

She said the conditions in Clint were the worst she had seen in any facility in her 12-year career. “So many children are sick, they have the flu, and they’re not being properly treated,” she said. The Associated Press, which first reported on conditions at the facility earlier this week, found that it was housing three infants, all with teen mothers, along with a 1-year-old, two 2-year-olds and a 3-year-old. It said there were dozens more children under the age of 12.

Ms. Mukherjee said children were being overseen by guards for Customs and Border Protection, which declined to comment for this story. She and her colleagues observed the guards wearing full uniforms — including weapons — as well as face masks to protect themselves from the unsanitary conditions.

Together, the group of six lawyers met with 60 children in Clint this week who ranged from 5 months to 17 years old. The infants were either children of minor parents, who were also detained, or had been separated from adult family members with whom they had crossed the border. The separated children were now alone, being cared for by other young detainees.

“The children are locked in their cells and cages nearly all day long,” Ms. Mukherjee said. “A few of the kids said they had some opportunities to go outside and play, but they said they can’t bring themselves to play because they are trying to stay alive in there.” . . .

Some sick children were being quarantined in the facility. The lawyers were allowed to speak to the children by phone, but their requests to meet with them in person and observe the conditions they were being held in were denied.

The children told the lawyers they were given the same meals every day — instant oats for breakfast, instant noodles for lunch, a frozen burrito for dinner, along with a few cookies and juice packets — which many said was not enough. “Nearly every child I spoke with said that they were hungry,” Ms. Mukherjee said.

Another group of lawyers conducting inspections under the same federal court settlement said they discovered similar conditions earlier this month at six other facilities in Texas. At the Border Patrol’s Central Processing Center in McAllen, Tex. — often known as “Ursula” — the lawyers encountered a 17-year-old mother from Guatemala who couldn’t stand because of complications from an emergency C-section, and who was caring for a sick and dirty premature baby.

“When we encountered the baby and her mom, the baby was filthy. They wouldn’t give her any water to wash her. And I took a Kleenex and I washed around her neck black dirt,” said Hope Frye, who was leading the group, adding, “Not a little stuff — dirt.”