On the one year anniversary since Donald Trump purported to “end” his cruel family separation policy, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg issues a salient warning that he “bets we’ll stop caring about migrant kids.” Goldberg’s warning was echoed by Trump’s own audaciously false claim that he reunited the families that the Obama administration separated. Meanwhile, despite the “outlawed” family separations, the administration is still separating children from their parents at the border.
This anniversary and fresh batch of presidentially issued lies comes as the administration is threatening additional family separations with mass immigration raids starting this Sunday and against the backdrop of a stunning legal report on the inhumane conditions of a child detention center in El Paso, Texas.
As The Associated Press reports:
Three girls told attorneys they were trying to take care of the 2-year-old boy, who had wet his pants and no diaper and was wearing a mucus-smeared shirt when the legal team encountered him.
…A 14-year-old girl from Guatemala said she had been holding two little girls in her lap.
“I need comfort, too. I am bigger than they are, but I am a child, too,” she said.
Children told lawyers that they were fed oatmeal, a cookie and a sweetened drink in the morning, instant noodles for lunch and a burrito and cookie for dinner. There are no fruits or vegetables. They said they’d gone weeks without bathing or a clean change of clothes.
In his effort to further exacerbate these conditions, Trump has extended his vile bullying and disregard to a newly-compliant Justice Department, where its lawyers argued that officials don’t need to supply basic sanitary products, such as soap and toothbrushes, to migrants. Chris Hayes’ report on the court hearing with government officials is a must watch, available here.
According to Pili Tobar, Deputy Director of America’s Voice, “Two years into an administration renowned for abject cruelty and racism, it’s hard to believe it could get worse. And yet, Trump and Stephen Miller are doubling down, attempting to further deteriorate the conditions in detention centers holding children and to separate additional families at the border and through threatened mass immigration raids in the middle of the night rumored to begin this Sunday, while simultaneously issuing blatant lies on national television about their intentions and ‘efforts’ to reunite families. Trump and Miller have reached new heights of cruelty.”
