My last post included a note about how the US House oversight committees should begin to hold hearings about the brutal cruel policies being implemented in the name of USA, but pushed by the republican President Donald J. Trump’s administration where it can be said that migrant children from Central American refugee families who have legally been seeking asylum at the US SW border, are being placed into what can be described as “torture facilities.”
It looks like the House Oversight and Reform Committee chaired by Rep. Elijah Cummings has scheduled a hearing on the subject of these abused migrant children for the 12th of July 2019. If this crime against humanity doesn’t meet the test of what a president should be held accountable for, via the House commencing an Impeachment Inquiry, I don’t what does?
See: esquire.com/news-/ The Crimes Against Humanity Are in Progress |
See: Can a photograph of dead migrants break through our indifference?/ Washington Post
I hope Rep. Elijah Cummings includes in his list of witnesses, the acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection John Sanders who recently resigned out of disgust around June 26, 2019, amid an uproar over the discovery of migrant children being held in pitiful conditions at one of the agency’s stations in Texas.
On July 2, 2019 Vinnie Longobardo tweeted the following:
Following @VLongobardo
ACLUVerified account tweeted the following on 7/2/2019
Here’s the rest of the story…
As per the 7/2/2019 Hill report, “House Democrats to hold hearing next week on treatment of migrant children” by Morgan Chalfant:
“The House Oversight and Reform Committee has scheduled a hearing next week to hear testimony from Trump administration officials about the separation and treatment of immigrant children at the southern border.”
“Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) has invited acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan and acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan to testify at a hearing on July 12. ”
“The Trump Administration’s actions at the southern border are grotesque and dehumanizing,” Cummings said in a statement Tuesday (7/2/2019).
“There seems to be open contempt for the rule of law and for basic human decency. The committee needs to hear directly from the heads of these agencies as soon as possible in light of the almost daily reports of abuse and defiance,” Cummings said, adding that he hoped McAleenan and Morgan would appear “voluntarily” at the hearing.”
The announcement closely followed the release of a new Homeland Security inspector general report describing “dangerous overcrowding and prolonged detention” of immigrant children and adults at facilities in the Rio Grande Valley that require “immediate attention and action.”
“The report, issued Tuesday, says that 31 percent of children at the facilities were being held longer than the 72 hours permitted, according to Border Patrol custody data.”
“The hearing is expected to focus on reports of unaccompanied children being held in overcrowded and dirty facilities in Clint, Texas, and other parts of the country, as well as the newly issued inspector general report.”
“A cadre of Democratic lawmakers visited a border facility in Clint on Tuesday (7/2/2019) to survey the conditions and investigate reports of mistreatment of migrants.”
“Cummings has also sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg requesting information related to the committee’s investigation into a report that Border Patrol agents used a secret Facebook group to mock immigrants and members of Congress and post racist and sexist content. The hearing next Friday is also expected to focus on the Facebook posts.”
“According to a new report from ProPublica, current and former border agents who are members of the secret Facebook group posted derogatory comments about migrants and Latino members of Congress.”
Link: House Democrats to hold hearing next week on treatment of migrant …
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/6ee66d9960462164123078161065458d/04-03-19%20Immigration%20Migrant%20Border%20Photos%20Tribune%20IPA%2006%20TT.jpg)
As per the 6/29/2019 New York Times analysis, “The Treatment of Migrants Likely ‘Meets the Definition of a Mass Atrocity’ by Dr. Kate Cronin-Furman, an assistant professor of human rights:
Excerpts:
“The debate over whether “concentration camps” is the right term for migrant detention centers on the southern border has drawn long-overdue attention to the American government’s dehumanizing treatment of defenseless children. A pediatrician who visited in June said the centers could be compared to “torture facilities.” Having studied mass atrocities for over a decade, I agree.”
“At least seven migrant children have died in United States custody since last year. The details reported by lawyers who visited a Customs and Border Protection facility in Clint, Tex., in June were shocking: children who had not bathed in weeks, toddlers without diapers, sick babies being cared for by other children. As a human rights lawyer and then as a political scientist, I have spoken to the victims of some of the worst things that human beings have ever done to each other, in places ranging from Cambodia to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Sri Lanka. What’s happening at the border doesn’t match the scale of these horrors, but if, as appears to be the case, these harsh conditions have been intentionally inflicted on children as part a broader plan to deter others from migrating, then it meets the definition of a mass atrocity: a deliberate, systematic attack on civilians. And like past atrocities, it is being committed by a complex organizational structure made up of people at all different levels of involvement.”
“Thinking of what’s happening in this way gives us a repertoire of tools with which to fight the abuses, beyond the usual exhortations to call our representatives and donate to border charities.”
“Those of us who want to stop what’s happening need to think about all the different individuals playing a role in the systematic mistreatment of migrant children and how we can get them to stop participating. We should focus most on those who have less of a personal commitment to the abusive policies that are being carried out.”
See NYT : The Treatment of Migrants Likely ‘Meets the Definition of a Mass Atrocity’
On July 2, 2019, The Guardian staff published the following report, “Texas migrant detention facilities ‘dangerously overcrowded’ – US government report”
“The report released on Tuesday (7/2/2019) by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General warns that facilities in the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas face “dangerous overcrowding” and require “immediate attention”.
“One image shows a man squashed in a crowd pressing a cardboard sign to a cell window with the word “help” written on it. He’s one of 88 men in a cell meant for 41.”
“During the week of June 10, 2019, we traveled to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and again observed serious overcrowding and prolonged detention in border patrol facilities requiring immediate attention,” the report says. A previous report issued in May had also warned about “dangerous overcrowding” at facilities in the El Paso facilities.”
“DHS has blamed the surge of families crossing the border for straining its capacity. But reports of filthy conditions in some facilities have sparked outrage.”
“The report comes a day after several members of Congress toured a migrant detention center in Texas. The Democratic New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the conditions they witnessed as “horrifying”.
“She posted on Twitter that the “officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets” and said one woman “described their treatment at the hands of officers as ‘psychological warfare’ – waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them wh*res, etc. Tell me what about that is due to a ‘lack of funding?’”
“The Democratic Texas congressman Joaquín Castro says he released video and photos of migrant women being held at a border facility in his state so the public could better understand “awful” conditions under Donald Trump’s policies.”
“There’s a reason these conditions are kept secret because these conditions are awful,” Castro, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told the Associated Press.
“Women held at the facility were “crammed into a prison-like cell with one toilet, but no running water to drink from or wash their hands”, Castro tweeted. Some had been separated from their children and held for more than 50 days, he said.”
Link to report: Texas migrant detention facilities ‘dangerously overcrowded’ …
In-Depth–The Guardian
See CNN report: Immigration crisis at the US border
Gronda Morin 
Hello Gronda. I am out of words at this point. The downward spiral of what is happening has become almost overwhelming. I keep thinking this has to be the thing that will be too much and it will start to change. How much longer can this continue? How low will our country go? Hugs
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Dear Scottie,
What’s being done to these children is criminal and the rot starts at the head of this country. This qualifies as child abuse and endangerment. If this doesn’t get the House to start an impeachment inquiry, then President Trump is literally correct, he can walk into 5th Ave,, shoot someone and get away with it.
Hugs, Gronda
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Hello Gronda. That is the point I keep making. If any of these CBP agents did these things to their own children they would be charged with child abuse and neglect. Yet it is OK for the government to do it to children because they are brown? I don’t get the tRump supporters, if it is wrong then it is always wrong. Something has to change. Hugs
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Dear Scottie,
The state allowing for abuse of children as a deterrent is a state that should be brought before the Hague for crimes against humanity.
Any one who condones, looks the other way and backs this president aren’t acting like Christians. They are the racists, the same ones who questioned President Obama’s citizenship. They are complicit in the evil of this man.
I’m very hurt that the Democratic leadership isn’t backing the impeachment against President Trump, the man who wants this policy of cruelty.
Hugs, Gronda
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Hello Gronda. I am stunned that Nancy Pelosi simply gave in on the border funding bill. Never even tried to fight. I don’t get it. Hugs
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I’m very discouraged today. And being from Fla. Polk County, I feel overwhelmed.
I saw a post on Facebook from WFLA earlier about the baby trump balloon that is coming to DC for the 4th of July trump rally paid for by us and the National Park system, which is horrible.
But the thing that got me were almost 95% of the comments were pro trump. They all think he is wonderful and these are not just the old folks here that are often conservative and living in the past. I knew that Fla. in some areas was a lot like the Deep South, but I had no idea just how bad it is.
I use to think people who support trump were mostly ignorant with racism too. I’m more convinced it mostly pure racism and that’s why they like him.
I feel like moving, but all the liberal areas in the country are up North where it is so cold or out West and it’s so expensive.
Sorry…just had to vent as I think you both are in Florida too. Is that how you feel or am I just in a bad area of the state? I’m near Lakeland.
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Dear Mary,
One day we have to meet. Lakeland is not that far away from Tampa. I have to be careful about what I say in FL because you’re right, we are surrounded by GOP who favor President Trump. I’m convinced too that racism is the button that President trump pushes to keep his followers in line.
I lost one friendship because the other party read my blog and she and her husband were staunch GOP advocates.
It’s hard but I can’t continue to tolerate anyone who supports this man who continues to cruelly treat innocent children in the US SW border.
Scottie and Horty also live in Florida.
Hugs, Gronda
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Gronda, Mary, I read the Trump team is scurrying to get attendance up for the July 4 event; a GOP official said they started too late. Do you know what surprises me most about the president – it is not the lying, bullying, cheating or denigrating of critics, media, etc. as he has done that all of his adult life. What surprises me most is as a real estate developer, you would think he would have a better understanding of the need to plan, to communicate, to vet, to allow time and funding, and to glean buy-in. Not do them himself, but understand they need to be done. How many times has he made announcements surprising hos staff – the disastrous travel ban is a good example, as is the shutdown. He is a horribly chaotic and incompetent manager. The military has a term for leadership like this – they call it a cluserf**k.
Keith
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PS – the first part of that word is cluster.
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I would like that. I was born in Tampa…lived there most of my life until my husband and I retired. We went to Asheville NC, which is a great liberal progressive enclave. But he passed away 6 years ago and I didn’t like the cold weather, so I moved back to Fla. Many things about Fla. I like, but not the conservatism that prevails here and the racism I sense too.
Luckily I have a few friends that think like me. I can be civil to people who think differently, but I can’t be close friends. We are just too different in our values.
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Gronda, I just typed this on Jill’s post. I am going to paste it here as well.
I am having a very hard time witnessing those who are rationalizing this maltreatment of kids and adults. Jesus is weeping while Putin is laughing. This ego-maniacal person who is the in the White House has made this problem worse. The reason we don’t have a bipartisan fix is the Speaker in the House John Boehner refused to take up the bipartisan bill of 2013. That was the third bipartisan effort and was the most promising. In his mind, he did not want to further infuriate his Freedom Caucus, but the real reason was not solving the problem would be to the GOP advantage. That led to the DACA Executive Decision by Obama.
Scroll forward to the winter of 2018 and the current president agreed to a bipartisan measure in the morning of $25 billion of a wall to enact DACA protection and few other things. By the afternoon, he reneged on the deal as the Freedom Caucus members got in his ear asking him to be more demanding. This shows that Trump’s word means nothing and never has. It also shows how easily swayed he can be.
It should be noted immigration is complex and deserves thoughtful deliberation, which is why the 2013 Senate Bill had some merit. Now, mind you the Dems are at fault too, for making this political over the years, but for the most part this president has made a recurring problem far worse with his rhetoric and decisions.
Yet, I am tired of the parade of sycophants who are loaded up with sandpaper to sand away this issue on the president’s behalf. There is not enough sandpaper to sand away that we are treating these people inhumanely.
Keith
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Dear Keith,
President Trump is a walking cluster f**k. For me, I’m going nuts as to why GOP lawmakers in the US Congress and the House Democrats cower before this cruel, evil bully who abuses children without a second thought. if that’s what it takes to cater to his anti-immigration, racist base of voters, that’s what he’ll do.
Speaker Pelosi is old enough to know better. There’s no way to appease the bully-in-chief tyrant living in the White House where he won’t take full advantage of her reticence to commence the -I-word by pushing the envelop to get away with more and more lawless behaviors.
Now, he’s attempting to ignore the Supreme Court and the lower court’s directives which supposedly should have stopped him from adding the citizen question to the 2020 US census forms.
The price for acquiescence by the House Speaker Pelosi is going to be way more costly than if she had taken the risk to act more offensively..
Hugs, Gronda
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Gronda, I think Pelosi needs to visit with McConnell and say we have a problem and shoot straight with him. My thinking is if Trump wins, it will harm the planet and hasten the demise of the US’ global influence. If Trump loses, he will not leave. He will blame the election system he refuses to protect (which I believe is part of his strategy) and he will just won’t leave. Then, it will really hit the fan.
As John Oliver noted on his show concerning impeachment, you know the only way for Trump to leave is to drag him out kicking and screaming. He emphasized this point by saying “you know that.”
Keith
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