Date: 8/9/2018
Trump has been unable to reunite all immigrant families separated under his direction. Some parents have been deported without their children and without contact information. Some parents have chosen to leave their children behind because returning to the war zone means death. These people have done nothing wrong. Our laws allow anyone to present themselves for asylum if they are in fear of their lives. In the past they were given a date for a hearing and they returned for that date at the rate of 99.4 percent. Using ankle bracelets could make it 100 percent. Why the need for all this expensive incarceration and why the family separations? The stories are just starting to come out and some are hard to read.
A ten year-old girl living in a small cell with 5 to 17 year-olds, says she could not lie down on the concrete floor to sleep because of lack of space. She had to sleep sitting up on the concrete. There was no access to showers, tooth brushing, washing, etc. with only one toilet for about 50 people. There’s the five year-old who blames his parents for abandoning him and will not speak to them. There’s the six year-old who has lost the ability to speak because of the trauma. Then there’s the toddler who does not remember his parents. An eleven year-old boy says he was harassed by older boys in his cage. Nobody noticed and nobody cared.
One woman wrote into PBS Newshour that when she got her 14 month-old baby back after 84 days in captivity he was not the same baby. No more smiling or laughing. He now cries constantly and she can’t put him down. She is convinced that he was never bathed in the 84 days because he was totally filthy and had lice. Can that baby ever recover from the trauma of prison.
The shocker in all this is that the private prison owners were paid $159 per night per child (or adult). That price could buy a private hotel room. What a rip off to taxpayers. These private prison owners should be sued for every penny they took and more for the inhumanity and trauma they caused innocent children who may be scared for life. Could enrichment to prison owners have been part of the plan from the get-go, like Trump’s tax bill for the wealthy.
The rest of the world should know that Americans are good people. We are generous, fair and humane. Trump does not represent us. We will get rid of Trump and his swamp of greedy billionaires, including private prison owners, and we will never have an American “holocaust” again.
Malita Brown
Wilbraham
