Migrants Face Violence as U.S. Makes Them Wait in Mexico | Time
Jeezus…
Category: Modern Parenting,
DHS Watchdog Describes Crammed Detention Centers, A Ticking Time Bomb : NPR
[The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General] said the prolonged detention of migrants without proper food, hygiene or laundry facilities — some for more than a month — requires “immediate attention and action.”
…The latest report from the Rio Grande Valley includes photos of migrants penned into overcrowded Border Patrol facilities — including one man pressing a cardboard sign to a cell window with the word “Help.”
…Inspectors found that hundreds of children were held for longer than the 72 hours, the maximum time federal rules allow. In some cases, kids were held for more than two weeks. And some adults were kept in standing-room-only cells, without access to showers, for more than a week.
DHS Watchdog Describes Crammed Detention Centers, A Ticking Time Bomb : NPR
mmmhmm
House Democrats Visit Texas Detention Centers: ‘Nothing Prepares You for the Inhumanity of It’
House Democrats Visit Texas Detention Centers – The Atlantic
Our grandparents put their lives on the line to defeat Nazis and this is how we honor that legacy, by allowing Nazi tactics to be the norm on American soil.
Doctors describe black box of medical care in detention facilities: ‘That is not medical care. That’s malpractice’
US Border Patrol, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, US Customs and Border Protection = Nazi Tactics
Thousands of migrant children were sexually abused in U.S. custody, HHS docs say
Thousands of migrant children were sexually abused in U.S. custody, HHS docs say – CBS News
Aggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Make arrests now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why a janitor saved the rosaries confiscated at the Mexican border
Why a janitor saved the rosaries confiscated at the Mexican border | America Magazine
Short answer? Because he has a soul and a shred of human decency.
And yes, to be clear, I am saying those making the decision to take these items away from people do not.
Boys are wearing U.S. Women’s National Team jerseys while adults are still tripping over outdated gender expectations
Over in adult world, where change occurs at a more glacial pace, we’re arguing over whether the women’s team should score so many goals (rude!), and whether they should have celebrated those goals so enthusiastically (super rude!).
Over in adult world, CBS News is tweeting, “Eagles tight end Zach Ertz leaves training camp to watch wife in World Cup.” “Wife” is Julie Ertz, a 2015 World Cup champion, Chicago Red Stars defender and member of the U.S. Women’s National Team.
Meanwhile, boys and girls alike are walking around with the names of female athletes on their backs. You don’t wear someone’s name on your back unless you revere them, respect their game, dream a little bit about being more like them.
hmmm
In Their Own Words, Migrant Children Describe Horrific Conditions At Border Patrol Facilities
A 16-year-old mother sleeps with her baby on a cement floor. A 12-year-old wakes up in the middle of the night from hunger. A 5-year-old is sick and has no socks. An 11-year-old cries in a cell, and is only let outside for a few minutes each day.
… They provide a horrifying portrait of life in detention, where toddlers and children sleep on concrete under bright lights and are not properly fed, allowed to bathe or brush their teeth.
…On Wednesday, the lawyers involved in the Flores settlement, an agreement that outlines child welfare standards in detention, filed a temporary restraining order in federal court. It would force the government to allow the facilities to be inspected by public health professionals and staffed by medical professionals.
“The immigration agents separated me from my father right away. I was very frightened and scared. I cried. I have not seen my father again.
I have been at this facility for several days. I have not been told how long I have to stay here. I am frightened, scared, and sad.
I have had a cold and cough for several days. I have not seen a doctor and I have not been given any medicine. It is cold at night when we sleep. I have shoes but no socks.” ― A 5-year-old from Honduras
“Two hours after we crossed, we met Border Patrol and they took us to a very cold house. They took away our baby’s diapers, baby formula, and all of our belongings.
After that they took us to a place with a tent. Up until this point, our family was kept together, but here they took our daughter and me out of the cell and separated my fiancé from us. Our [one-year-old] baby was crying. We asked the guards why they were taking our family apart and they yelled at us.
After that we stayed in a room with 45 other children. There was no mat so my baby and I slept directly on the cement.
I have been in the U.S. for six days and I have never been offered a shower or been able to brush my teeth. There is no soap here and out clothes are dirty. They have never been washed. My daughter is sick and so am I.” ― A 16-year-old mother from El Salvador
“The guards were mean and scary. They yelled at us. One day the guards wanted to know if anyone had snuck food in the cell. They found one kid who was about 15 or 16 years old who had a burrito, pudding, and juice. The officials handcuffed his wrists.
>I’m so hungry that I’ve woken up in the middle of the night with hunger. I’m too scared to ask the officials here for any more food, even though there is not enough food here for me. In the morning we get oatmeal, pudding, and juice. In the afternoon we get soup, a cookie, and juice. For dinner we get a burrito, pudding and juice.
I saw a child ask for more food once and the guard told him ‘No, you’ve had your ration.’ Sometimes the younger kids get an extra chocolate pudding. I need more food too.” –― A 12-year-old from Guatemala
“The officers took everything from us except our documents. They even took our shoelaces. There was a mother in our group traveling with a very young baby. The officers took her diapers, baby formula, and nearly everything else she had and threw it away.
The water here is horrible. It tastes like chlorine. We can use cups to drink the water. But the water tastes awful and I don’t like it at all. None of the kids here like the water.
The officials here are very bad to us. During the night when we’re trying to sleep they come in and wake us up, yelling and scaring us. Sometimes children rise up in the night and officials yell at them to lay back down. The guards who are yelling don’t speak much Spanish, so it’s hard to understand what they’re saying. My sisters and I are very scared when they yell at us and other children.
Every night my sisters keep asking me, ‘When will our mommy come to get us?’ I don’t know what to tell them. It’s very hard for all of us to be here.” – A 12-year-old from Ecuador
“A Border Patrol agent came in our room with a two-year-old boy and asked us, ‘Who wants to take care of this little boy?’ Another girl said she would take care of him, but she lost interest after a few hours so I started taking care of him yesterday. His bracelet says he is two years old.
I feed the 2-year-old boy, change his diaper, and play with him. He is sick. He has a cough and a runny nose and scabs on his lips. He was coughing last night so I asked to take him to see the doctor and they told me that the doctor would come to our room, but the doctor never came. The little boy that I am taking care of never speaks. He likes for me to hold him as much as possible.
Since arriving here, I have never been outside and never taken a shower.” – A 15-year-old from El Salvador
“We were put into a three sided cage with the fourth side open to the outside filled with loads of people. We had to wait for someone to stand up and quickly take their place on the ground.
My [8-month-old] baby was naked outside with no blanket for all four days we were there. We were freezing. My baby couldn’t sleep because the ground was cement with rocks and everytime she moved the sharp ground would scratch her. There were many pregnant women who had to sleep on rocks and I felt very badly for them.
My baby began vomiting and having diarrhea. I asked to see a doctor and they did not take us. I asked again the next day and the guard said ‘She doesn’t have the face of a sick baby. She doesn’t need to see a doctor.’
Since we arrived here my baby has lost a lot of weight. Her pants are very loose now. She is not sleeping because she is sick, and it is very loud. She cries a lot and is listless.” ― A 16-year-old mother from Honduras
“We are being held in a cold cell. We sleep on the floor on mats with blankets. I have only been permitted to take a shower twice in the almost two weeks we’ve been here. We’ve been allowed to brush our teeth once.
About three days ago I got a fever. They moved me alone to a flu cell. There is no one to take care of you there. They just give you pills twice a day. I also am having an allergic reaction all over my skin. My skin is itchy and red and my nose is stuffed up. Two times they gave me a pill for it but not anymore.
They let us out of our cell twice a day for a few minutes but other than that we just sit there. We cry a lot and the other kids in the cell also cry. It’s so ugly to be locked up all the time.” – An 11-year-old from El Salvador
“I started taking care of a [little girl] in the Ice Box after they separated her from her father. I did not know either of them before that. She was very upset. The workers did nothing to try to comfort her. I tried to comfort her and she has been with me ever since.
>She sleeps on a mat with me on the concrete floor. We spend all day every day in that room. There are no activities, only crying. We eat in the same area. We can only go outside to go to the bathroom. We don’t have any opportunities to go outside to do activities or anything. There is nothing to do. None of the adults take care of us so we try to take care of each other.” ― A 15-year-old who didn’t specify their country of origin
Jeezus Fricking Krrreyest
Lawsuit Claims Amazon’s Alexa Devices Record Without Consent, Against N.H. Law
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Seattle claims the voice-controlled virtual assistant devices permanently records millions of children without their consent or parents’ consent.
It claims the devices can identify individual voices and Amazon could ask for consent when a new person uses the device.
hmmm
Whistleblower doctors decry immigrant family detention
“Detention of innocent children should never occur in a civilized society, especially if there are less restrictive options, because the risk of harm to children simply cannot be justified,” they wrote.
…”Each passing day of continued detention of children — and no acknowledgment of the risk that we have reported — alarms me even more,” Allen told CNN in a recent interview.
…Allen and McPherson say they documented their concerns numerous times in reports filed with the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration, and felt like the people in power were listening. But they say two things prompted them to speak more publicly about the matter after Trump took office: the spike in family separations at the border and moves to increase family detention rather than scale it back.
- Significant weight loss in children that went largely unnoticed by the facility medical staff, including a 16-month-old baby who lost nearly a third of his body weight over 10 days during a diarrheal disease but was never given IV fluids or sent to an emergency room.
- A 27-day-old baby who had a seizure from bleeding inside his skull that was missed by the facility on arrival.
- Numerous children who suffered severe finger injuries while confined in a facility that was designed as a medium-security prison for adults.
“This is not a story about people in these facilities not caring about children. … It is about good people trying to keep children safe in an environment that’s very dangerous to them by design, if not intent. And they’ve been asked to execute deeply flawed and I would even say mean-spirited policies, and to do so in such a way that minimizes harms to children,” Allen says. “It’s an impossible task.”
“Even if you could pour money and resources into properly staffing these facilities and giving them programming,” Allen says, “the simple act of detaining and indefinite detention … is irreparably harmful to children.”
…And while they’ve been lauded by colleagues and friends, there are two things McPherson and Allen say haven’t happened since they wrote their first letter to Congress.
The doctors haven’t been asked to inspect any family detention facilities again.
And the government’s family detention policies haven’t changed.
…In budget requests, officials have repeatedly outlined plans to increase family detention capacity. The White House’s proposed 2020 budget includes a plan to expand capacity to 10,000 family detention beds, a request that would quadruple the number of beds currently funded.
…”The practice of detaining children and families is no longer an issue of policy dispute,” they wrote in their March letter to Congress. “It is a willful policy that knowingly inflicts serious harm to children, including risk of death.”
The doctors say the problems detailed in their letters illustrate how difficult it is to provide care to vulnerable children in relatively small detention facilities.
“Now you take that, and you try to rapidly upscale it. This is going to be a disaster,” Allen says.
…Because of policy decisions, Allen says, children and families are placed in confinement first, with appropriate triage and medical care occurring later.
“That’s exactly the wrong way to do it,” he says. “As doctors, we say, triage them, make sure they’re safe, make sure they’re healthy, and then put them through the process of asylum.”
… “Our goal is to protect children. But if we fail them, we sure as hell want to leave a written record for history that documents who is notified of an impending harm to children — and who did nothing about it.”
Whistleblower doctors decry immigrant family detention – CNN
sigh…
Federal officials lost – yes, lost – 1,475 migrant children
Federal officials lost – yes, lost – 1,475 migrant children
Aaaaaaaaaaggggggghhhhhhhhhhh
Restraint and Seclusion In Schools
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights requires that school districts report every time a student is restrained or secluded. And while tens of thousands of cases are reported, many suspect those numbers fall short.
…For years, Fairfax County Public Schools also told the government that it never secluded or restrained students. But the WAMU investigation found hundreds of cases recorded in internal documents and letters that schools sent to parents.
…Teachers are coached to empathize with students and think about what someone would need if they were having a bad day.
“Most people would say [they need] space, someone to be kind to me, maybe to read a book … go for a walk,” Sanders says. “No one is going to say, ‘Well actually, I need someone to hold me against my will or lock me in a room by myself.’
Here’s What You Need to Know About Restraint and Seclusion In Schools : NPR
hmmmm
My Mother’s Resiliency Saved Me From the Scars of Family Separation
Decades ago, as my mom lay recovering from labor in a San Francisco hospital, a group of social workers gently suggested she consider giving me and my sister up for adoption. At first the arrangement was framed as temporary—a fancy version of foster care by a wealthy white family apparently eager to look after a set of brown babies. As they saw it, my mother was woefully ill-equipped to care for her new twins. After all, she was white and Jewish, my dad was black and Baptist, and my parents were unmarried—and would forever stay that way.
Even in the City of Love (during the era of love) it was assumed my mom—despite being educated, employed, and well past 30—wouldn’t be able to raise us on her own. Our “best interests,” these women insisted, lay with them and the government and a future family they assured her would take good care of us. Or at least better care of us than they figured she could.
…She described these social workers as an insistent bunch who paid her repeated visits—including a few after she took us home to her tiny studio apartment at the foot of San Francisco Bay.
…She instinctively knew that their assurances of “short-term” and “temporary” care were completely bogus—that full-fledged adoption was the ultimate goal, and she was having none of it. Still, I’m sure they made some headway, what with their promises of the grand homes and two-parent lifestyles my mother knew she could never deliver. Sow the seeds of doubt hard and long enough and you can gaslight even the toughest among us.
My Mother’s Resiliency Saved Me From the Scars of Family Separation
hmmmm
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