Rim Country Gazette: Trump admin's 'temporary' prison camp for migrant kids is continuing

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Trump admin's 'temporary' prison camp for migrant kids is continuing—and getting even bigger

Shoes are left by people at the Tornillo Port of Entry near El Paso, Texas, June 21, 2018 during a protest rally by several American mayors against the US administration's family separation policy. - President Donald Trump ordered an end to the separation of migrant children from their parents on the US border June 20, 2018, reversing a tough policy under heavy pressure from his fellow Republicans, Democrats and the international community. The spectacular about-face comes after more than 2,300 children were stripped from their parents and adult relatives after illegally crossing the border since May 5 and placed in tent camps and other facilities, with no way to contact their relatives. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

The Trump administration’s “temporary” prison camp for unaccompanied migrant kids and some migrant kids kidnapped from their parents at the border isn’t just going to continue through the end of the year, it’s going to get even bigger. Officials are seeking to increase the capacity of the Tornillo, Texas prison camp by the thousands, from a reported 400 beds earlier this summer, to 3,800 beds.

“These temporary beds will be brought online incrementally as needed,” claimed a Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson. “We will continue to assess the need for this temporary shelter at Tornillo Land Port of Entry in Tornillo, Texas, based on the projected need for beds and current capacity of the program.” Except, the government has always called this prison camp “temporary” because they think it doesn’t make it sound as bad.

In reality, the Trump administration’s wish has always been to detain migrant kids indefinitely—just look at the new proposal seeking to eviscerate standards protecting migrant kids under U.S. custody, and as The Texas Tribune reports, “the decision marks the third time the facility's operations have been extended since it opened in June.” And as officials seek to detain more kids and for longer periods of time, they’re also making it harder for kids to get out of these jails.

Migrants kids can be released to relatives already in the U.S. or other sponsors, but “immigrant rights groups have asserted all year,” The Texas Tribune continued, “that the administration has created unnecessary barriers for families or sponsors willing to take in the unaccompanied minors. After the family separation crisis, critics complained that some families were made to undergo more vetting than others.”

The administration currently has nearly 13,000 migrant children under HHS custody, the vast majority kids who came to the U.S. on their own and seeking refuge. More than 400 are children who continue to remain separated from their parents in blatant violation of a judge’s order. All are at risk of ongoing emotional and physical trauma, and for many, the damage has already been life-altering, with distraught children forcibly medicated under custody.

Child detention is child abuse, and it’s on the hands of every complicit legislator and administration official doing nothing to protect these kids, especially those who are under court order to do so. “This administration has resorted to putting kids in tents rather than pushing for comprehensive immigration reform while Congress sits complicit with inaction," said state Rep. César Blanco.