Apparently, 'literally Hitler' was not an exaggeration.
These photos were the Trump administration’s attempt to quiet criticism. They’re only increasing critics’ horror.
As attention to the issue of child separation reaches a new high on Monday, the Trump administration is trying to defend what critics call “cruel” and “immoral” policy. It’s even releasing photos and video of the facilities where children separated from their parents are being held — but far from tamping down criticism, it’s only increasing critics’ horror.
When Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) visited a detention center for unaccompanied immigrant children two weeks ago in McAllen, Texas, what he saw shocked him. There were “hundreds of children locked up in cages there at that facility,” he told CNN, adding that the “cages [were] made out of fencing and then wire and nets stretched across the top of them so people can’t climb out of them.”
Since that interview, there’s been pushback from both the administration and conservative reporters, who argue that conditions aren’t nearly as dire as Merkley and others have described. “Those children are being well taken care of,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions when asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt about the treatment of migrant children separated from their parents.
In what appears to be a public relations effort to counter some of the damning descriptions of its detention centers, US Customs and Border Protection is now giving the broader public the opportunity to see the conditions for themselves, by releasing video and photos of the McAllen location. The Department of Health and Human Services has also shared images of a shelter that unaccompanied immigrant children are sent to in Brownsville, Texas, after they leave the border patrol center.
Rather than prove the administration’s point, the images of the McAllen facility only serve to further illustrate the horrific nature of its practices, showing kids held in metal enclosures sprawled atop mattresses laid on a concrete floor, with little around them except flimsy space blankets. “More than 1,100 people were inside the large, dark facility that’s divided into separate wings for unaccompanied children, adults on their own, and mothers and fathers with children,” the Associated Press reported, following a Sunday visit.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/18/17474986/family-separation-border-video
These photos were the Trump administration’s attempt to quiet criticism. They’re only increasing critics’ horror.
As attention to the issue of child separation reaches a new high on Monday, the Trump administration is trying to defend what critics call “cruel” and “immoral” policy. It’s even releasing photos and video of the facilities where children separated from their parents are being held — but far from tamping down criticism, it’s only increasing critics’ horror.
When Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) visited a detention center for unaccompanied immigrant children two weeks ago in McAllen, Texas, what he saw shocked him. There were “hundreds of children locked up in cages there at that facility,” he told CNN, adding that the “cages [were] made out of fencing and then wire and nets stretched across the top of them so people can’t climb out of them.”
Since that interview, there’s been pushback from both the administration and conservative reporters, who argue that conditions aren’t nearly as dire as Merkley and others have described. “Those children are being well taken care of,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions when asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt about the treatment of migrant children separated from their parents.
In what appears to be a public relations effort to counter some of the damning descriptions of its detention centers, US Customs and Border Protection is now giving the broader public the opportunity to see the conditions for themselves, by releasing video and photos of the McAllen location. The Department of Health and Human Services has also shared images of a shelter that unaccompanied immigrant children are sent to in Brownsville, Texas, after they leave the border patrol center.
Rather than prove the administration’s point, the images of the McAllen facility only serve to further illustrate the horrific nature of its practices, showing kids held in metal enclosures sprawled atop mattresses laid on a concrete floor, with little around them except flimsy space blankets. “More than 1,100 people were inside the large, dark facility that’s divided into separate wings for unaccompanied children, adults on their own, and mothers and fathers with children,” the Associated Press reported, following a Sunday visit.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/18/17474986/family-separation-border-video
