According to the Associated Press, hundreds of detained migrant children and teenagers are crammed into a border facility tent waiting to be released. Some have been there a week, when the law says they can only spend three days in U.S. custody. There’s no room to practice social distancing, no soap for showers, and the kids aren’t allowed to call their relatives and let them know they’re okay.
The Biden administration is also preventing attorneys from visiting the tent, which doesn’t sound very transparent and welcoming to me.
“It is pretty surprising that the administration talks about the importance of transparency and then won’t let the attorneys for children set eyes on where they’re staying,” said Leecia Welch of the National Center for Youth Law, one of the lawyers. “I find that very disappointing.”
All of this chaos is pretty much what Donald Trump faced during the migrant surge in 2019. At that time, the media was outraged at the condition the kids were kept in. Trump was called all sorts of names for a situation far beyond his or anyone else’s control.
The catchwords for managing the border for the Biden administration have been “orderly, humane, and safe.” I would give the president an “F” for “Epic Fail” at the border so far.
Although none of the children reported situations as severe as during the Trump era, Welch said the lawyers “weren’t able to lay eyes on any of it to see for ourselves, so we’re just piecing together what they said.”
A 1997 court settlement known as the Flores agreement sets standards for government detention of immigrant children. Lawyers are entitled under Flores to conduct oversight of child detention. The Justice Department declined to comment Thursday on why the lawyers were denied access. The Biden administration has not responded to several requests from The Associated Press seeking access to the tent.
How does AP know the situation isn’t as severe as it was during the Trump era? I guess it depends who’s interpreting what those conditions are since no one except the kids has seen them.
So the Biden Justice Department does exactly what the Trump administration did but we can hear crickets chirping as far as the media reporting on the crisis goes.
While the majority of youths detained by the government are teenagers, both Border Patrol and HHS are detaining very young children who were in some cases separated from adult caretakers.
The Associated Press this week interviewed the mother of one 4-year-old girl from Guatemala who crossed the border March 5 with her aunt. Border authorities expelled the aunt and labeled the girl unaccompanied by a parent, placing her in the Donna tent.
What’s this? Kids separated from their relatives at the border? Where’s the outrage?
According to the administration, there is no “crisis” at the border, just a “serious situation.” I think there are about a thousand kids sweating in a tent who might disagree.
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