The alert description said (and links to their article) -
"No sitting on the floor, no hugging your siblings, and it's best not to cry: Migrant children describe life in detention."
Cleaning Toilets, Following Rules: A Migrant Child’s Days in Detention
A portrait of life in the shelters for the children detained after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
By Dan Barry, Miriam Jordan, Annie Correal and Manny Fernandez
July 14, 2018
Do not misbehave. Do not sit on the floor. Do not share your food. Do not use nicknames. Also, it is best not to cry. Doing so might hurt your case.
Lights out by 9 p.m. and lights on at dawn, after which make your bed according to the step-by-step instructions posted on the wall. Wash and mop the bathroom, scrubbing the sinks and toilets. Then it is time to form a line for the walk to breakfast. “You had to get in line for everything,” recalled Leticia, a girl from Guatemala.
Small, slight and with long black hair, Leticia was separated from her mother after they illegally crossed the border in late May. She was sent to a shelter in South Texas — one of more than 100 government-contracted detention facilities for migrant children around the country that are a rough blend of boarding school, day care center and medium security lockup. They are reserved for the likes of Leticia, 12, and her brother, Walter, 10.
The facility’s list of no-no’s also included this: Do not touch another child, even if that child is your hermanito or hermanita — your little brother or sister.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/us/migrant-children-shelters.html
Just like the devastation in Puerto Rico, the "update" stories mostly end up coming from "long form" media - whether newspaper or magazine articles/exposes or "special documentaries" on broadcast sources...
Since access has been extremely limited to these facilities, even for members of Congress, let alone the media, the saga goes on beneath all the other news stories... The fact that the GOP-run Congress refuses to have oversight hearings means the Democrats are left to tweet out and otherwise attempt to express their outrage and next steps via press releases - e.g., this -
Press release here -
Oversight Committee Democrats Ramp Up Demand for Hearing on Trump Administration’s Inhumane Child Separation Policy
Jul 11, 2018
Press Release
Dems Seek Testimony Directly from Sessions, Nielsen, and Azar
Washington, D.C. (July 11, 2018)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led all Committee Democrats in a letter to Chairman Trey Gowdy renewing their request from nearly a month ago for the Committee to hold a hearing on the Trump Administration’s inhumane child separation policy within the next two weeks with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.
“Since we wrote to you last month, President Trump caved to massive public outrage and bipartisan political pressure to halt his child separation policy,” the Democrats wrote. “However, it has become clear over the past several weeks that the Trump Administration had no plan to reunite these children with their parents at the conclusion of proceedings initiated under the ‘zero tolerance’ policy announced in April.”
“We do not know whether this was an intentional effort to create a deterrent or a failure to consider the basic human ramifications of their policy,” the Democrats continued. “However, it is obvious that Trump Administration officials gave little or no thought to how they would track and reunite these children with their parents. They also apparently had no regard for the immense toll their actions would take on these children.”
Chairman Gowdy has ignored all previous Democratic requests to investigate this policy or hold a public hearing, including requests in letters on May 22, 2018, and June 17, 2018, and at hearings on other matters on June 19, 2018, and June 27, 2018.
In their letter today, the Democrats noted that the Committee has held a series of public hearings on a wide range of topics since they wrote their letter to Gowdy last month, including:
• “A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election”
• “Holding Cuban Leaders Accountable”
• “Access to Public Lands: The Effects of Forest Service Road Closures”
• “Examining the Administration’s Governmentwide Reorganization Plan”
“This issue cries out for a public hearing,” the Democrats wrote. “Members of Congress should have the opportunity to ask basic questions that these officials still have not answered after weeks of chaos. We have an obligation to step in, exercise our responsibilities under the Constitution, and hold Trump Administration officials accountable for their decisions and their actions.”
“Surely, the Trump Administration’s policy of intentionally removing thousands upon thousands of children from their parents’ arms—with no discernable plan for reuniting them—merits at least a single hearing by Congress’ premiere oversight committee,” the Democrats concluded.
Click
here to read the full letter.
Issues:
Administration, Immigration and Border Issues
115th Congress
https://democrats-oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/oversight-committee-democrats-ramp-up-demand-for-hearing-on-trump-administration
The letter they sent to Gowdy is here (PDF) -
https://democrats-oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/2018-07-11.OGR%20Dems%20to%20Gowdy%20re%20Child%20Separation%20Hearing%20Request.pdf
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