>WOW! It's even worse than what we know. Thanks Janis for keeping us posted. <3
And I truly have barely touched upon the disgusting practices going on here in
the U.S. by this administration (Geez, our Attorney General, Jeff Sessions
condones this crap...). I have a few links to this crap on my blog
http://www.filegate.net/blog/.
Read this if you truly want to get sick:
Image caption: The authorities released this image of illegal migrants inside a
large cage - reporters said they saw unaccompanied children in similar
conditions
Reporters and Democratic lawmakers have been allowed inside a detention centre
that lies at the heart of a growing storm over a new US policy separating
migrant children from their parents.
Authorities did not allow photos or videos to be taken inside the centre, but
US Customs and Border Protection later released several images. Former First
Lady Laura Bush has compared it to the internment camps used for
Japanese-Americans during World War Two. A Democratic congressman who visited
the site said it was "nothing short of a prison".
The Texas facility is known as Ursula, though immigrants are reportedly calling
it La Perrera - _dog kennel in Spanish_ (emphasis mine, JK) - in reference to
the cages used to hold children and adults who have ended up there after
crossing the border from Mexico illegally.
"One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water, bags of
chips [crisps] and _large foil sheets_ (emphasis mine, JK) intended to serve as
blankets," the Associated Press reports.
Image caption: This image from the US Customs and Border Protection shows the
foil blankets given to children
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley led the team of lawmakers to the site in the
town of McAllen on Sunday.
He hit the headlines earlier this month when he was turned away from another
facility housing some 1,500 boys in a disused Walmart store.
Speaking to CNN after the visit to Ursula, he said: "In wire-mesh, chain linked
cages that are about 30x30 [feet], a lot of young folks put into them.
"I must say though, far fewer than I was here two weeks ago. I was told that
buses full (of children) were taken away before I arrived.
"That was one of my concerns, that essentially, when you have to give lengthy
notice, you end up a little bit of a show rather than seeing what's really
going on in these centres."
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen and Vermont Congressman Peter Welch expressed
shock and anger over the conditions they saw: Skip Twitter post by
@ChrisVanHollen
Just left Border Patrol Processing Center in McAllenCÇöaka "the dog
kennel." Witnessed loads of kids massed together in large pens of chain-linked
fence separated from their moms and dads. @realDonaldTrump, change your
shameful policy today! #FamiliesBelongTogether
CÇö Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) June 17, 2018
Report
End of Twitter post by @ChrisVanHollen Skip Twitter post by @PeterWelch
I saw chain link cages full of unaccompanied children. They sat on metal
benches and stared straight ahead silently
~ Rep. Peter Welch (@PeterWelch) June 17, 2018
Inside Ursula, more than 1,100 illegal immigrants are waiting to be processed.
They have been separated into three wings: unaccompanied children, lone adults
and parents with their children. Officials said nearly 200 of those being held
there were unaccompanied minors and another 500 were parents with their
children.
The Los Angeles Times, which also sent a team there, described the 72,000 sq ft
facility as "clean and spare, with bare concrete floors".
A patrol agent currently in charge of the site, John Lopez, told the paper the
42 portable toilets on site are cleaned three times a day. There are three
paramedics, two medical members of staff and 310 employees - but no mental
health staff, or training, the paper notes. The main lights in the building
remain on at all times.
Nearly 60 miles away, in the town of Brownsville, some 1,500 boys are being
housed inside a building that was once a Walmart superstore. The boys, aged 10
to 17, were all caught illegally crossing the border. It is America's largest
facility for such minors, and numbers have increased in the past month by
several hundred.
Senator Merkley's Facebook Live on 4 June showing security officials denying
him entry to that site - known as Casa Padre - led to questions about
conditions there. Last week, news organisations were given a tour. Media
captionZero-tolerance: The US policy dividing families and opinion
No cages were mentioned, but the accommodation was likened to dorm rooms inside
a giant warehouse. To accommodate for the growing numbers since the new
"zero-tolerance" policy went into force, cots have been added to sleeping areas
in the Casa Padre.
The New York Times described it as "clean, massive and brightly lit", with the
children given classes six hours each week day and outdoor play time for two
hours a day. They have 48 medical staff and three on call doctors on hand.
Long-term trauma?
"Those kids inside who have been separated from their parents are already being
traumatised," Senator Merkley warned. "It doesn't matter whether the floor is
swept and the bed-sheets tucked in tight."
Officials say they are trying to keep siblings together and not separate
children under four or younger from their parents.
But Anne Chandler, who's running a non-profit project for migrant children
found on the southern US border, told Texas Monthly she had heard stories of
"kids that are very young, that are breastfeeding babies and under three in the
shelters, separated from their parents".
The head of the Tahirih Justice Centre in Houston said she had seen cases where
parents had not been told ahead of time that their child was being taken away,
and instead were told by immigration officers that their child required a bath,
only to not be returned.
"I was talking to one mother, and she said, "Don't take my child away," and the
child started screaming and vomiting and crying hysterically, and she asked the
officers, "Can I at least have five minutes to console her?" They said no," Ms
Chandler told the magazine. Image copyright AFP
A rights worker who visited the Ursula facility at the weekend told the
Associated Press she had spoken to a 16-year-old girl who was left in charge of
an unaccompanied toddler for three days and tasked with changing the child's
nappies.
"She had to teach other kids in the cell to change her diaper," Michelle Brane,
from the Women's Refugee Commission, said. The girl - who was four years old -
was later reunited with her aunt, but the process took time because she did not
speak Spanish but a language indigenous to Guatemala, the agency reports.
"She was so traumatised that she wasn't talking," Ms Brane said, describing the
girl. "She was just curled up in a little ball."
She is not alone in voicing concerns over the long-term effects of separating
adults and their children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics warned last week that "highly stressful
experiences, including family separation, can cause irreparable harm to
lifelong development by disrupting a child's brain architecture".
Separately, authorities have announced plans to erect tent cities that will
hold hundreds more children in the Texas desert where temperatures regularly
reach 40C (105F).
Local lawmaker Jose Rodriguez described the plan as "totally inhumane" and
"outrageous", adding: "It should be condemned by anyone who has a moral sense
of responsibility."
Image caption: The authorities released this image of illegal migrants inside a
large cage - reporters said they saw unaccompanied children in similar
conditions
Reporters and Democratic lawmakers have been allowed inside a detention centre
that lies at the heart of a growing storm over a new US policy separating
migrant children from their parents.
Authorities did not allow photos or videos to be taken inside the centre, but
US Customs and Border Protection later released several images. Former First
Lady Laura Bush has compared it to the internment camps used for
Japanese-Americans during World War Two. A Democratic congressman who visited
the site said it was "nothing short of a prison".
The Texas facility is known as Ursula, though immigrants are reportedly calling
it La Perrera - dog kennel in Spanish - in reference to the cages used to hold
children and adults who have ended up there after crossing the border from
Mexico illegally.
"One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water, bags of
chips [crisps] and large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets," the
Associated Press reports.
Image copyright US Customs and Border Protection Image caption This image from
the US Customs and Border Protection shows the foil blankets given to children
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley led the team of lawmakers to the site in the
town of McAllen on Sunday.
He hit the headlines earlier this month when he was turned away from another
facility housing some 1,500 boys in a disused Walmart store.
Speaking to CNN after the visit to Ursula, he said: "In wire-mesh, chain linked
cages that are about 30x30 [feet], a lot of young folks put into them.
"I must say though, far fewer than I was here two weeks ago. I was told that
buses full (of children) were taken away before I arrived.
"That was one of my concerns, that essentially, when you have to give lengthy
notice, you end up a little bit of a show rather than seeing what's really
going on in these centres."
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen and Vermont Congressman Peter Welch expressed
shock and anger over the conditions they saw: Skip Twitter post by
@ChrisVanHollen
Just left Border Patrol Processing Center in McAllenCÇöaka "the dog
kennel." Witnessed loads of kids massed together in large pens of chain-linked
fence separated from their moms and dads. @realDonaldTrump, change your
shameful policy today! #FamiliesBelongTogether
~Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) June 17, 2018
Inside Ursula, more than 1,100 illegal immigrants are waiting to be processed.
They have been separated into three wings: unaccompanied children, lone adults
and parents with their children. Officials said nearly 200 of those being held
there were unaccompanied minors and another 500 were parents with their
children.
The Los Angeles Times, which also sent a team there, described the 72,000 sq ft
facility as "clean and spare, with bare concrete floors".
A patrol agent currently in charge of the site, John Lopez, told the paper the
42 portable toilets on site are cleaned three times a day. There are three
paramedics, two medical members of staff and 310 employees - but no mental
health staff, or training, the paper notes. The main lights in the building
remain on at all times.
Nearly 60 miles away, in the town of Brownsville, some 1,500 boys are being
housed inside a building that was once a Walmart superstore. The boys, aged 10
to 17, were all caught illegally crossing the border. It is America's largest
facility for such minors, and numbers have increased in the past month by
several hundred.
Senator Merkley's Facebook Live on 4 June showing security officials denying
him entry to that site - known as Casa Padre - led to questions about
conditions there. Last week, news organisations were given a tour. Media
captionZero-tolerance: The US policy dividing families and opinion
No cages were mentioned, but the accommodation was likened to dorm rooms inside
a giant warehouse. To accommodate for the growing numbers since the new
"zero-tolerance" policy went into force, cots have been added to sleeping areas
in the Casa Padre.
The New York Times described it as "clean, massive and brightly lit", with the
children given classes six hours each week day and outdoor play time for two
hours a day. They have 48 medical staff and three on call doctors on hand.
Long-term trauma?
"Those kids inside who have been separated from their parents are already being
traumatised," Senator Merkley warned. "It doesn't matter whether the floor is
swept and the bed-sheets tucked in tight."
Officials say they are trying to keep siblings together and not separate
children under four or younger from their parents.
But Anne Chandler, who's running a non-profit project for migrant children
found on the southern US border, told Texas Monthly she had heard stories of
"kids that are very young, that are breastfeeding babies and under three in the
shelters, separated from their parents".
The head of the Tahirih Justice Centre in Houston said she had seen cases where
parents had not been told ahead of time that their child was being taken away,
and instead were told by immigration officers that their child required a bath,
only to not be returned.
"I was talking to one mother, and she said, "Don't take my child away," and the
child started screaming and vomiting and crying hysterically, and she asked the
officers, "Can I at least have five minutes to console her?" They said no," Ms
Chandler told the magazine. Image copyright AFP
Image caption Authorities say they do not separate parents with children under
five
A rights worker who visited the Ursula facility at the weekend told the
Associated Press she had spoken to a 16-year-old girl who was left in charge of
an unaccompanied toddler for three days and tasked with changing the child's
nappies.
"She had to teach other kids in the cell to change her diaper," Michelle Brane,
from the Women's Refugee Commission, said. The girl - who was four years old -
was later reunited with her aunt, but the process took time because she did not
speak Spanish but a language indigenous to Guatemala, the agency reports.
"She was so traumatised that she wasn't talking," Ms Brane said, describing the
girl. "She was just curled up in a little ball."
She is not alone in voicing concerns over the long-term effects of separating
adults and their children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics warned last week that "highly stressful
experiences, including family separation, can cause irreparable harm to
lifelong development by disrupting a child's brain architecture".
Separately, authorities have announced plans to erect tent cities that will
hold hundreds more children in the Texas desert where temperatures regularly
reach 40C (105F).
Local lawmaker Jose Rodriguez described the plan as "totally inhumane" and
"outrageous", adding: "It should be condemned by anyone who has a moral sense
of responsibility."
Copyright 2018 BBC.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44518942
Thanks Bjorn.
Take care,
Janis
--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: Prism bbs (1:261/38)
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