Rantt Rundown: The Trump Administration Is Running Baby Internment Camps

Day 516 of the Trump presidency
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by: Ahmed Baba on June 20, 2018

Lucia Ajas, middle, talks about her and her children, Regina Vargas, 7, left, Akemi Vargas, 8, second from left, and Trinidad Vargas, 5, right, being separated from their father during an immigration family separation protest in front of the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. District Court building, Monday, June 18, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Lucia Ajas, middle, talks about her and her children, Regina Vargas, 7, left, Akemi Vargas, 8, second from left, and Trinidad Vargas, 5, right, being separated from their father during an immigration family separation protest in front of the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. District Court building, Monday, June 18, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Today, the inhumanity of the Trump administration continued.

The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of prosecuting all undocumented immigrants who cross the southern border unlawfully has resulted in at least 2,300 immigrant children separated from their parents, with at least 700 more separated before the policy was officially announced (a deep dive into the policy, fact-checks of Trump’s lies, and reaction to it here). The United Nations has condemned this as an illegal human rights abuse. The White House is doing this for political purposes, to rile up their base and to use the kids as ransom to leverage Democratic support for their border wall. The stories about this horrific humanitarian crisis at the southern border are rattling decent people around the United States, and today the depravity went to a new level.

The Associated Press published a heartbreaking story that should shake every human being to their very core. The Trump administration is running what are essentially baby jails, and the conditions are abhorrent.

Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border to at least three “tender age” shelters in South Texas, The Associated Press has learned.

Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the Rio Grande Valley shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis. The government also plans to open a fourth shelter to house hundreds of young migrant children in Houston, where city leaders denounced the move Tuesday.

…

Decades after the nation’s child welfare system ended the use of orphanages over concerns about the lasting trauma to children, the administration is standing up new institutions to hold Central American toddlers that the government separated from their parents.

“The thought that they are going to be putting such little kids in an institutional setting? I mean it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” said Kay Bellor, vice president for programs at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which provides foster care and other child welfare services to migrant children. “Toddlers are being detained.”

There you have it. The United States of America is systematically detaining babies and putting them in a traumatic state of distress. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow broke down while trying to deliver this news to the American people.

The Corey Lewandowski mention is referring to the former Trump Campaign Manager and current associate of President Trump, who had a disgraceful appearance on cable news today.

It’s time to call out the indecent among us who challenge our very humanity.

And it appears that is beginning to happen. Thread:

This day began with President Trump continuing his dehumanization of these Latino immigrants, claiming they are “infesting” America. This is white nationalist authoritarian talk.

The Trump administration has refused to allow journalists to shoot video in these centers. They have refused so far to provide images of where the young girls are, leading to intense pushback from the press. All we have so far is the heartbreaking audio of little girls crying for their parents.

And this all came as the United States withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council…

What is happening in America right now is an inhumane disgrace of historic proportions. This White House has decided to stand firmly by this policy and on the wrong side of history. The cruelty President Trump and his administration are showcasing here is truly stunning, short-sighted, and downright evil. As these conditions get worse, we can only hope this ends before the inevitable worst case scenario. These children are about to be in unbearable heat in under-resourced facilities…

This is not simply blue vs. red America‬. ‪This is decency vs. depravity‬. Truth vs. deception‬. Good vs. evil‬. History is watching all of us‬. Neutrality is complicity‬. Pick a side‬.

President Trump. End this NOW.

See you there:

Meanwhile…

  • Rep. Elijah Cummings gave forceful condemnation of this inhumanity.

  • And so did Senator Hirono.

  • 600 members of the United Methodist Church, Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ church, signed a letter condemning the child separation policy and accused Sessions of child abuse.
  • President Trump met with his sycophants on the Hill.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr. shorted stock in a shipping firm — an investment tactic for profiting if share prices fall — days after learning that reporters were preparing a potentially negative story about his dealings with the Kremlin-linked company.

The transaction, valued between $100,000 and $250,000, took place last fall after Mr. Ross became aware that journalists investigating offshore finances were looking at his investments in the shipper Navigator Holdings, whose major clients included a Russian energy company. The New York Times emailed a list of questions about Navigator to Mr. Ross on Oct. 26.

Three business days later, Mr. Ross, a wealthy investor, opened a short position in Navigator, according to filings released on Monday by the Office of Government Ethics. The company’s stock price slid about 4 percent before Mr. Ross closed his position on Nov. 16, eleven days after the articles were published by The Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists as part of the “Paradise Papers” project.

Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen has signaled to friends that he is “willing to give” investigators information on the President if that’s what they are looking for, and is planning on hiring a new lawyer to handle a possible indictment from federal prosecutors.

“He knows a lot of things about the President and he’s not averse to talking in the right situation,” one of Cohen’s New York friends who is in touch with him told CNN. “If they want information on Trump, he’s willing to give it.”

  • President Trump’s 2020 Campaign Manager gave the President some advice over Twitter.

  • The GOP prepared for another healthcare repeal effort later this summer.

Rundown // Donald Trump / Immigration / News / Politics
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by: Ahmed Baba

Ahmed Baba is the Co-Founder and President of Rantt. Writer of Unpresidented, Ahmed documented and analyzed every day of the Trump presidency. He's also a columnist at The Independent and his work has been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, Rolling Stone, BuzzFeed, The New York Post, The Huffington Post, Yahoo News, Blavity, Newsweek, The Telegraph, and more. He can be reached at [email protected] or found on Twitter @AhmedBaba_.

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