Merkley says images of migrant processing center are "seared" in his mind

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Sen. Jeff Mekley says that what he witnessed in Texas at a migrant processing center is now "seared" in his mind. He described long lines of young boys and girls being sorted by age and sex in large fenced-in warehouses, a part of their processing before they were handed off to the supervision of government agencies, all without their parents by their side.

"This morally bankrupt and wrong on every level," Merkley said in his description of the process. He added, "You don't hurt children in order to influence policy decision."

Merkley spoke with members of the press following his viral account of being denied entry at a separate detention facility in Brownsville, Texas over the weekend. He described what he witnessed inside a different facility in McAllen, Texas, the McAllen Border Patrol Processing Center, which is controlled by the Department of Homeland Security, and is used to process undocumented migrants when they first arrive, and where many families are being separated as they enter the U.S.

The migrant children, he said, undergo their initial screening and sorting in a "dog-kennel style" setting. The senator's team were forced to lock their phones away before entering the facility.

"In the first room the ceiling is lower, the rooms were some, maybe 12 x 12 to 15 x 15," described Merkley of the cyclone-fencing in the space. He added that migrants had only the clothing they were carrying and foil space blankets. A Merkley staffer that traveled with the Senator described the scene as "impossible to calculate" as individuals were being sorted, separating boys from girls and men from women. A four-foot-high cinderblock wall acted as a partition for toilets for them to use. The room, Merkley said, had no padding on the floor, and some individuals were seen lying on the ground. In the same space, inundated staff members input data about the migrants into their computer system, and then, they later moved into a "vast warehouse" where fencing enclosures were "much larger" according to Merkley.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/merkley-says-images-of-migrant-processing-center-are-seared-in-his-mind/ar-AAygB8v?li=BBnb7Kz

[Docreed2003]

1. K&R for exposure

[Donkees]

2. Taking Migrant Children From Parents Is Illegal, U.N. Tells U.S.

That practice “amounts to arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is a serious violation of the rights of the child,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, based in Geneva, told reporters.

The United States ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, clearly showed American irritation with the accusation in a statement released a few hours later.

Without addressing the specifics of the accusation, Ms. Haley said: “Neither the United Nations nor anyone else will dictate how the United States upholds its borders.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/world/americas/us-un-migrant-children-families.html

[The Blue Flower]

3. Haley is now permanently slimed by the revers Midas touch of il drumpf

This response is something she'll have to answer for if she ever runs for office.

[Greywing]

4. This is so outrageous ... I'm just so angry

Trump & Sessions have crossed the line ... if he's so proud of his immigration policy why isn't he at these facilities doing photo ops? This is just unforgivable ... I hate these bastards!

[volstork]

5. Well, it's official:

we've become Nazi Germany. This is unconscionable. How do hold people who just ignore the law accountable to it?

[defacto7]

6. And the world looks on the United States with disgust.

And they should.

[msongs]

7. the boxcars will be next. they hold thousands more people. nt

[mr_lebowski]

8. I'd imagine Trumpists justify this to themselves in a pretty simple manner.

'Illegals', both minor and adult, 'broke the law'. Trump and Sessions have arbitrarily decided to declare crossing the border a fairly serious criminal act (exactly how Trump or Sessions get to unilaterally decide this I'm not quite sure).

Now ... adults who commit crimes, US citizens or not, are incarcerated in some way. Juveniles who commit crimes can and often are also incarcerated.

When that happens in the US, to US Citizens, daddy don't go to Juvie with Junior, nor would Junior go with Mommie to Prison. Families are separated all the time when crimes happen, when they involve kid OR parent, or kid AND parent, if they 'conspired'.

Ergo, this is all perfectly normal, totally in-line with what happens to US citizens every single day when they 'break the law'. And we on the left don't regularly say much about it ... if the people are guilty.

Thus 'our' real difference of opinion with Trump, et al, is the severity of the 'crime' at hand. To us, it's not so serious that these draconian steps are justified. To Trump and the Trumpists, its REAL REAL SERIOUS.

Thus, in their minds, what's happening here is quite in line with normal US criminal procedures.

[bdtrppr6]

9. the worst part is

there are empty wal marts in damn near every almost-large-small city throughout the mid west. i know of at least 6 different places in southern IL where the old store was left behind to build the super stores just across the street. i'm sure it's the same everywhere that wally world has destroyed. most were never really used again.

until now, i guess.