It’s been a hectic few weeks — hell, years at this point, but on this specific issue, weeks — for America, as it continues to be baffled by its own backslide into something resembling too closely the kinds of dictatorships we were once so proud of not being like.
This toddler is about 12 months old. She was separated from relatives as part of the Trump administration's family separation policy. She is being held at a Brownsville shelter. I did not take the photo. It was supplied to me. pic.twitter.com/rq5zsfglbX
— Manny Fernandez (@mannyNYT) June 20, 2018
Executive order aside, we should always refer to President Trump as President Baby Jail so no one will ever forget & forgive what his administration did.
— Jason Gore (@mrjasongore) June 20, 2018
Americans for a week wrestled with how they can be the sort of country that imprisons children, toddlers even, after separating them from their families. The latter caused Rachel Maddow to cry live on air, as the separation of families from their children should inspire others to do.
In a stark juxtaposition to Corey Lewandowski’s depravity, Rachel Maddow cries on air while reading the @AP’s report on immigrant babies forcibly taken from their parents.
The shelters reportedly have play rooms full of crying babies in crisis…pic.twitter.com/wzI5SOB1qQ
— rantt (@ranttmedia) June 20, 2018
ProPublica has released a harrowing video as well, of children crying for their parents inside a detention facility as an ICE agent mocks them. Remember, the president is doing this because he wants to win another election. These children’s lives are being destroyed by the government to which you pay your taxes so Republicans can score vague political points.
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump and Jeff Sessions’ decisions to separate children from families at the border has been unpopular, as people outside of Trump’s sphere generally think Nazis are bad, causing Donald Trump to reverse his own inhumane decision to put children into detention centers. Trump held a press conference where he announced his intentions to do so. However, he also announced he will continue to indefinitely imprison immigrants, in a clear violation of habeas corpus, so the victory margin on this is slimmer than it immediately seems to be.
Trump says he will sign executive order today to keep migrant families together #tictocnews pic.twitter.com/jVoc0s7ZVz
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) June 20, 2018
In the speech announcing his intention to keep families together, Trump continues to blow the dog whistle on border security, which is fancy language for we’re still going to be treating immigrants like garbage, and indeed ICE’s policies of harassing people for speaking Spanish, naturalized citizens, and still treating migrants like animals seems to show no signs of slowing down. Nothing is fixed, and until Trump signs anything the policy that he co-created of separating children from their families is not enacted.
Breaking: Trump announces plans for an executive order to detain families together indefinitely, without limit
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) June 20, 2018
Plus, the untold amounts of damage that have been done to these children is nigh impossible to reverse. This thread, for example, goes into the number of drugs that have been injected into the children, and the physical abuses they have felt at the hands of the guards.
ADVERTISEMENT
1/ Immigrant children have been forcibly injected with powerful psychiatric drugs at one of the U.S. gov't shelters, Shiloh Treatment Center outside of Houston, according to court documents and interviews. https://t.co/Ve4XSyRw5N
— Reveal (@reveal) June 20, 2018
If you want to end ICE, make sure to call your senator or representative, and you can follow the DSA on Twitter, which is trying to make real strides towards the ending of the immigration enforcement power.
It's not enough to end family separation. We have to #AbolishICE entirely. We're ready to mobilize — are you? Stay tuned for details. pic.twitter.com/Yx8WK5L9vK
— DSA-LA ???? (@dsa_losangeles) June 20, 2018
Until ICE is abolished and we have a less inhuman view of immigration as a country, the fight is not yet over.
What do you think about this development? Will it lead to the president further giving in to the will of the people, or will he continue to double down on his hateful immigration action? Let us know in the comments, or on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.
