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You are here: Home / Politics / America / Where are the Toddlers and the Girls?

Where are the Toddlers and the Girls?

by Adam L Silverman|  June 19, 20186:18 pm| 172 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election 2018, Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security, Not Normal

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MSNBC’s Jacob Soborrof who has been reporting on site in Texas on this for the better part of the past week repeats the question over and over:

Where are the girls?

Where are the toddlers?

We have asked for access and will continue to.

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 17, 2018

Still asking. https://t.co/WvxifbkPcn

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 18, 2018

And again:

Just asked @HHSGov about seeing girls and toddlers again. https://t.co/8POk4JfHzI

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 19, 2018

He has reported on air on MSNBC today that he’s been informed that the news media will be provided by the government with pictures and videos of separated girls and toddlers being held in detention in two days. In the meantime they offered him:

Update on toddlers and girls: @HHSGov just offered me photos of facilities with girls and toddlers from 2016, long before zero tolerance was enacted.

I said no thanks.

Still trying to get in.

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 19, 2018

The only reason that the government can’t or won’t provide photographic and documentary evidence immediately and will not allow journalists to take those pictures and make those videos themselves is to control the narrative. They need time to make sure everything looks presentable in the materials they are going to present to the public via the news media. They do not want and cannot afford to have another audiotape like yesterday’s, let alone a videotape, leak out and get published again. It is also why they will not allow Senators and Congressman to tour the facilities without advanced notice. Such as Senator Nelson (D-FL) this morning down at the facility in Homestead, FL.

?BREAKING: After being denied access to detention facility in Homestead Florida housing children separated from their families, Florida Sr. Senator @SenBillNelson accuses @DHSgov of “hiding something” & engaged in a “coverup” in video below. pic.twitter.com/c7IF1YyYwF

— Fernand R. Amandi (@AmandiOnAir) June 19, 2018

John Sandweg, fmr. acting Dir. of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in some cases the children and parents separated at the border may never reunite.https://t.co/7ROz8T6yJO

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 19, 2018

MSNBC’s Julia Ainsely has reported that not only will it take years to reunite these children with their families, some will never be reunited at all. (emphasis mine)

The former head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told NBC News that migrant parents separated from their children at the border are sometimes unable to relocate their child and remain permanently separated.

“Permanent separation. It happens,” said John Sandweg, who served as acting director of ICE under the Obama administration from 2013-2014.

Sandweg’s warning contradicts White House messaging that the separation of women and children migrants under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy is only temporary.

While a parent can quickly move from detention to deportation, a child’s case for asylum or deportation may not be heard by a judge for several years because deporting a child is a lower priority for the courts, Sandweg explained.

“You could easily end up in a situation where the gap between a parent’s deportation and a child’s deportation is years,” Sandweg said.

As a result, parents may find themselves back in their home countries struggling to find their children. Many do not have access to legal counsel or understand the U.S. immigration or judicial systems.

Children who stay in the foster system for lengthy periods of time may become wards of the state and finally adopted.

“You could be creating thousands of immigrant orphans in the U.S. that one day could become eligible for citizenship when they are adopted,” Sandweg explained.

Sandweg says he has seen permanent separation happen when a parent is deported without his or her child.

“This is why family unity was critical for us. With the numbers of families crossing ticking up, [the] Obama administration was concerned about children being left behind,” said Sandweg.

Speaking on Fox News Tuesday, White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp insisted the separations were short term.

“We have come to understand that these families who are separated, it is for a limited period of time between five to ten days,” Schlapp said.

Much more at the link.

Mercedes Schlapp, the daughter of Cubans who sought refuge and asylum in the US after her father was imprisoned and tortured for six years by the Castro government, is a liar and a hypocrite, but we already knew that.

I’ve spent a lot of time working with internally displaced Iraqis, on issues dealing with internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees in the Levant, and with USAID’s Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) officers. No one, not Mercedes Schlapp’s father in fleeing Cuba, nor people fleeing the collapse of the state and society in Guatemala, Honduras, and Venezuela, as well as other places, leaves everything behind, grabs their children, and walks hundreds and thousands of miles overland or traverses the same distances on the ocean, just because they want a chance to earn a few more dollars. The people that take these most desperate of measures, do so because as dangerous as it is, it is less dangerous than staying where they are. And they do so with only these thoughts in mind: at the end of the journey is safety, at the end of the journey is hope, at the end of the journey is the United States!

This was the belief that drove Stephen Miller’s maternal grandparents as related by his maternal uncle (emphasis mine):

“The Glosser family escaped Europe as dirt poor immigrants, joined the community, built businesses, and honestly sold goods to their fellow Johnstowners,” Glosser wrote. “My nephew and I must both reflect long and hard on one awful truth. If in the early 20th century the USA had built a wall against poor desperate ignorant immigrants of a different religion, like the Glossers, all of us would have gone up the crematoria chimneys with the other six million kinsmen whom we can never know.“

I’m sure Stephen Miller’s maternal grandparents would be so proud that their grandson grew up to be exactly the kind of person they fled to the United States to get away from!

It was this same belief behind Senator Cruz’s father’s flight to safety from Castro’s Cuba. All so that Senator Cruz, a Latino-Canadian, could grow up to be a white supremacist from Texas! America truly is the land of opportunity…

Leaving the hypocrisy aside, the more important takeaway here is that a significant number of these children will never see their parents again as a result of a decision made by a Republican president. That not a single Republican senator or congressperson will do anything significant to stop. You know, the Republican Party – the party of family values! And given the size and scale of this new policy put in place by the President and Attorney General Sessions at the urging of Stephen Miller, as well as the haste and lack of planning that went into it’s implementation, we should expect that this number will be far, far higher than the failures that former Acting Director Sandweg related.

At least HHS employee being honest – on briefing call, HHS’ Steven Wagner says “***This policy is relatively new***, we’re still working through the experience of reunifying parents with their kids after adjudication.”

— Erin Burnett (@ErinBurnett) June 19, 2018

The simple truth here is that because of the size and scope of the President’s policy of separating children from their parents, significantly more children will never see their parents again. Moreover, because DHS and HHS know they can’t afford to let Americans, including US senators and representatives, see what is actually happening in real time, they are doing everything they can to control access and the flow of information; especially pictures, video, and audio. It reeks not just of covering their asses, but of Theresienstadt. And it should because the size and scope of implementing this policy is way beyond the ability of HHS to implement safely and effectively.

The more children they separate, the more they’re going to rely on contract solutions. I know a lot about contract solutions – I am one. And I can tell you that as they rush to do this in a hurry HHS is going to wind up defaulting to the lowest bidder who can argue effectively that they can provide the contract solution required. Or they’ll award a no bid to one of their existing omnibus contractors. Even if those companies have no idea how to do any of this work. Those companies will then quickly move to hire whoever is willing to do the work, regardless of actual/real qualifications. Instead of hiring a large cohort of social workers and licensed child care professionals and pediatric nurses and kindergarten, primary, and secondary teachers, you’re going to get whatever bodies they can hire, for the minimum amount of pay they can possibly offer, thrown at the problem. Children are going to suffer as a result of this. Beyond just the trauma of being forcibly separated from their parents. Children will suffer from neglect, from negligence. Some of these children will die. All in the name of putting America First in order to Make America Great Again. And so that Stephen Miller can own the libs…

This is going to get much, much worse before it get’s better.

Stay informed. Stay angry.

Open thread.

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Reader Interactions

172Comments

  1. 1.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 6:24 pm

    @CNNSitRoom
    Watch the head of ICE pause when asked by @wolfblitzer if the policy of separating children from their parents is humane. https://cnn.it/2yoNtAH
    https://twitter.com/CNNSitRoom/status/1009195233890979840

  2. 2.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 6:25 pm

    @rachaelmbade
    Trump tells House Republicans now that Ivanka talked to him about family separation at the border and that the images are not good.

    5:08 PM – 19 Jun 2018

  3. 3.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:25 pm

    @lamh36: Homan is a big toe in human form. And one with toenail fungus too boot!

  4. 4.

    burnspbesq

    June 19, 2018 at 6:25 pm

    Miller is the equivalent of a war criminal. One can hope that someday he will get what he deserves.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:26 pm

    @lamh36:

    Who wore it better children imprisoned in Texas or Ivanka Trump? pic.twitter.com/VG60umTRSV

    — Rogelio Garcia Lawyer (@LawyerRogelio) June 18, 2018

  6. 6.

    burnspbesq

    June 19, 2018 at 6:28 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Homan needs to be sued under section 1983 and stripped of immunity. Let his house become a shelter for refugees.

  7. 7.

    debbie

    June 19, 2018 at 6:28 pm

    The fact that they thought they could palm off photos from 2016 doesn’t bode at all well. Is there any way the ACLU or some other group could sue on behalf of the parents?

  8. 8.

    trnc

    June 19, 2018 at 6:29 pm

    They’ll probably hire undocumented migrants for the contract work.

  9. 9.

    Mary G

    June 19, 2018 at 6:29 pm

    Thank you for this righteous rant, Adam. The fact that they want two days to get photos of girls and toddlers is damning. The fact that these families won’t be reunited because ICE, HHS, and ORR can’t be bothered to even write down a name just makes me want to vomit all over a Border Patrol agent’s shoes. And I know where to find some.

  10. 10.

    MagdaInBlack

    June 19, 2018 at 6:29 pm

    ‘a significant number of these children will never see their parents again as a result of a decision made by a Republican president. ”

    I dont have any coherent words at the moment

  11. 11.

    jl

    June 19, 2018 at 6:29 pm

    ” That not a single Republican senator or congressperson will do anything significant to stop. ”

    They’ll do something to stop it if they can pass bills that contain poison pills that will do something or somethings else just as bad.
    BJers should challenge their Congress GOPers and media when they spout BS about ‘solving’ the problem with the BS GOP partisan bills that will produce other results just as bad. And from polling, things that over 80 percent of the US population disagrees with, like stomping on legal immigration to US. Or rushed immigration process, or permanent immigration gulags for families.

    Don’t let the skunks and con people off the hook with dishonest BS and schemes.

  12. 12.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 6:30 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Wolf asked him the question 2x…and dude long paused both times…smh.

    I know jobs are sacarse for some but my gawd…there has to be someone who works at any of these faciities where the kids, esp the girls and toddlers are housed.

    Hell…someone has google spy glasses or something?

    Like I said on the previous thread…my money says, DHHS/HSA have no idea where the girls and toddlers are, or at the very least, they have no real accounting of where they are and how many

    That’s why they need “two more days” watch then it’ll be Friday or a news dump late Friday. or it’ll be we’ll have it after the weekend

  13. 13.

    Gin & Tonic

    June 19, 2018 at 6:31 pm

    @lamh36: If/when this shitshow is over, I want Jared and Ivanka to be afraid to go out in company for fear they will be spat on by one of us humans with an actual conscience.

  14. 14.

    ruemara

    June 19, 2018 at 6:31 pm

    I can’t tell you the damage the decision to come here alone did to any sort of mother daughter relationship I could’ve had with my mother. It’s not just the lack of bonding. It’s the failure to protect. It’s the way being isolated from the person who’s supposed to care for you makes you vulnerable to being a target. I despise these people for what they’ve done and if it’s ever in my power to do so, I will ensure that they carry the shame of it every day of their lives. I have no doubts that some of these children are in danger and it’s the American government’s fault. Considering Donald and the people he surrounds himself with, it may be by design.

  15. 15.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:33 pm

    @debbie: Here you go:
    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/border-crossing-guatemalan-mom-sues-trump-admin-not-saying-where-n884821

    A mother from Guatemala whose 7-year-old son was taken from her after they were detained for crossing the border illegally sued Trump administration immigration officials Tuesday, saying they will not tell her where her son is, even though she has now been released from custody.

    Beata Mariana de Jesus Mejia-Mejia said in the lawsuit that she and her son crossed the border near San Luis, Arizona, on May 19 and sought asylum. They were detained by Border Patrol agents, her complaint said, and two days later, her son was taken from her.

    After she was transferred to the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, she was told her son was in Phoenix at a facility run by HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. She spoke to him once on the phone, she said, and he cried, “‘Mama! Mama! Mama!’ in a distressed voice over and over again.”

    She was released from custody on June 15 after posting bond, her legal filing said, but as of four days later, did not yet have her son back.

    Her lawsuit asked the judge to order the government to reunite mother and child and other relief related to her case. She did not ask the court to declare the government’s current overall practices illegal.

    Her lawyer, John Shoreman of Washington, D.C., said her case “challenges the United States government’s forcible separation of a parent from her young child, notwithstanding the threat of irreparable psychological damage that separation has been universally recognized to cause young children.”

    Based on the facts laid out in her complaint, it appeared she was not subjected to the entire “zero tolerance” policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, because she was never charged with a criminal offense for entering the country illegally.

    More at the link.

  16. 16.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 6:34 pm

    @JakeSherman
    2m2 minutes ago
    More
    IN THE GOP MEETING … Trump has spoken about immigration.

    “I am behind you so much. We need the wall.” Trump said the combination of wall w DACA is a great idea. Whose idea was that, he asked.

    reminded it was Mario Diaz Balart. Trump says, “I like him more than his brother”

  17. 17.

    Mary G

    June 19, 2018 at 6:34 pm

    @ruemara: It is very definitely by design. Both to try to scare other people from coming and to satisfy their sadistic instincts by ruining the lives of helpless children.

  18. 18.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 6:35 pm

    @JakeSherman
    11m11 minutes ago
    More
    WOW!

    Trump: “Is Mark Sanford here? I just want to congratulate him on running a great race.”

    Room goes silent. Trump then called him a nasty guy and the room booed, a bit.

  19. 19.

    Gravenstone

    June 19, 2018 at 6:35 pm

    Someone in Congress needs to nail Nielsen’s hide to the wall under oath and threat of perjury. Produce a complete and current list of all facilities housing both the children and their parents. Include numbers on site and who has day to day responsibility for the immigrants. Delay on providing the information to be met with escalating fines and/or jail time.

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    June 19, 2018 at 6:36 pm

    @lamh36: “I am behind you so much. We need the wall.” Trump said the combination of wall w DACA is a great idea. Whose idea was that, he asked.

    That was pretty much the deal trump, egged on by Miller and Kelly, blew up back in IIRC March

  21. 21.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 6:36 pm

    @JakeSherman
    17m17 minutes ago
    More
    This meeting is not sticking to immigration, per sources in the room. Trade. Fighter jet contract.

    @JakeSherman
    Follow Follow @JakeSherman
    More
    INSIDE THE GOP MEETING Trump has talked about the following things in his immigration meeting with House Republicans:

    Trade
    Fighter jet contract
    “Rebuilding the military”
    Tax cuts
    Regulatory cuts
    Opioid legislation.

    5:20 PM – 19 Jun 2018

  22. 22.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    June 19, 2018 at 6:36 pm

    The people that take these most desperate of measures, do so because as dangerous as it is, it is less dangerous than staying where they are. And they do so with only these thoughts in mind: at the end of the journey is safety, at the end of the journey is hope, at the end of the journey is the United States!

    My father, well-meaning (against family separation and Trump in general), asked me why aren’t they seeking refuge in Canada or other countries. I didn’t have a definitive answer but it boiled down to they didn’t have the ability/resources to reach Canada and other safer places for asylum. He said they should just walk to the consulate in their country and apply there. I told him it wasn’t that simple but didn’t know why. Could someone enlighten me a little?

  23. 23.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:37 pm

    @lamh36: Nothing like real time leaks from a closed door meeting.

  24. 24.

    Yarrow

    June 19, 2018 at 6:37 pm

    Why can’t they get a judge to sign off on a search warrant for the facilities? Potential child endangerment should be a good enough reason to search.

    Edit: By “they” I mean someone like Senators or Representatives.

  25. 25.

    Gravenstone

    June 19, 2018 at 6:38 pm

    @lamh36: did anyone mention to Shitgibbon that Sanford lost his primary, before Trump turned on him? Or did his two functional neurons actually find each other across the morass of his empty skull and he actually remembered that little detail his own self?

  26. 26.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    June 19, 2018 at 6:39 pm

    @lamh36:
    Trump probably thinks his brother is named Luigi.

  27. 27.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:40 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: We’re 1/2 a continent closer to them than Canada is. It is simple geography.

  28. 28.

    debbie

    June 19, 2018 at 6:40 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Thanks, I will be trying to follow this. i don’t think Cuomo stands a chance with his lawsuit, but anything that keeps this horrific situation in the headlines can’t be all bad.

  29. 29.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 6:40 pm

    FUQ it…Chelsea Clinton for PREZ!!!

    Chelsea Clinton’s poise and grace with her clapbakcs on twitter are fabulous!

    @ChelseaClinton
    2h2 hours ago
    More Chelsea Clinton Retweeted Meech
    Hi Meech- 1) Elián González speaks for himself and, I am not my father. 2) My current political aspiration is stop President Trump & his administration from ripping children from their families, thank you for asking. 3) I’ve never met my namesake. Please introduce us, thank you!
    https://twitter.com/ChelseaClinton/status/1009181384605356032

  30. 30.

    ruemara

    June 19, 2018 at 6:40 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: They’re running from a kakistocracy and to get to Canada would require paperwork, money and giving up secrecy. Seriously, you’re fleeing gangs that actually are the police at times. Do you think your attempt to go to a consulate, apply for asylum there, get passports and then fly out, would just happen for Luz, who’s maybe earning $80 US a week?

  31. 31.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:41 pm

    @lamh36:

    We’re getting livestream leaks. This is ridiculous https://t.co/GLVRhHkjVm

    — Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) June 19, 2018

  32. 32.

    schrodingers_cat

    June 19, 2018 at 6:41 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Embassies/Consulates are in the capital or major cities not in each town. These people are desperate or they wouldn’t take their life in their hands and make the perilous journey.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:42 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: No, his brother is a correspondent at CNN.

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    June 19, 2018 at 6:42 pm

    @lamh36: Dueling leaks

    Josh Dawsey @ jdawsey1
    -Trump just mockingly offered congratulations to Rep. Mark Sanford in front of a conference of House Republicans. Called him “nasty” per source in room. Awkward.
    -Trump is not talking about immigration at the House meeting on immigration, per two sources in room. Seems interested in everything but.
    -Source says Trump came to House to talk immigration but has spent most of his time on trade and North Korea, telling members how successful the administration is.

    The Sanford comments are pure dominance politics– “I can take any one of you out at any time”, even though a lot of reporting suggests Sanford kind of gave up campaigning a while ago

  35. 35.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:42 pm

    @debbie: This is separate from Cuomo’s lawsuit, but the more pressure that can be brought from as many directions as possible, the better.

  36. 36.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    June 19, 2018 at 6:44 pm

    I’m so fucking sick of these soulless shits. The one thing that might save us is how stupid and incompetent they all are. God knows what kind of shit we’d be in if they knew what the hell they were doing. I hate these people.

  37. 37.

    schrodingers_cat

    June 19, 2018 at 6:45 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Spineless Republican congress critters deserve it.

  38. 38.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 6:47 pm

    Throw Trump and his minions to the Hague.

    From the plane in mid-flight, if necessary.

  39. 39.

    Calouste

    June 19, 2018 at 6:47 pm

    @Yarrow: You’d think considering the general incompetence of the regime that some of these facilities would be covered under state law, not federal law, and the local police can just search them on suspicion of child abuse.

  40. 40.

    debbie

    June 19, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I wonder if his own party likes being lied to? Has that even dawned on them yet?

  41. 41.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    He said they should just walk to the consulate in their country and apply there. I told him it wasn’t that simple but didn’t know why. Could someone enlighten me a little?

    Consulates won’t let them in. And are not designed to protect that many people.

  42. 42.

    jl

    June 19, 2018 at 6:49 pm

    Very important tweet from Josh Marshall.

    @joshtpm
    Very careful abt saying Congress needs to do a “legislative fix”. No “fix” is needed or possible. This is purely a White House decision. They just decided to do it. The “fix” is Congress providing some ransom to Trump for the kids.
    https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1009203916003823617

    Anyone sees a Trumpster or Congressional GOPer, or ConservaDem or media peddling BS about Congress ‘has’ to do something, then contact them and call them on their BS.

    The appropriate and clean ‘fix’ is for Trumpsters in WH to knock of the criminal policy. Period. Full Stop. End of Story.

  43. 43.

    trollhattan

    June 19, 2018 at 6:49 pm

    @lamh36:
    There’s one difference between somebody who bothered to go to class and whatever the hell Kris Kobach did with daddy’s money at Harvard, Oxford and Yale. Chelsea is one smart cookie.

  44. 44.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 6:50 pm

    HHS is going to wind up defaulting to the lowest bidder who can argue effectively that they can provide the contract solution required. Or they’ll award a no bid to one of their existing omnibus contractors. Even if those companies have no idea how to do any of this work. Those companies will then quickly move to hire whoever is willing to do the work, regardless of actual/real qualifications. Instead of hiring a large cohort of social workers and licensed child care professionals and pediatric nurses and kindergarten, primary, and secondary teachers, you’re going to get whatever bodies they can hire, for the minimum amount of pay they can possibly offer, thrown at the problem.

    Sex slaves and mass graves is how this horror story ends.

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:51 pm

    @Calouste: There is an argument being made that even as (makeshift) Federal facilities they are subject to state laws pertaining to child welfare and therefore state officials have the ability and the requirement to make no prior notification site inspections, write citations, and take people into custody. It will be interesting to see if any of the states with Democratic governors and attorneys general decide to make these moves.

  46. 46.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 6:51 pm

    @debbie:

    Is there any way the ACLU or some other group could sue on behalf of the parents?

    Federal Fucking Immunity.

  47. 47.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    June 19, 2018 at 6:52 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    “I decided to come to the United States with my wife and two children because if I stayed in Brazil they would kill my entire family,” he told Torres, who looked on with dismay.
    In the moments available to him, the 38-year old Brazilian laborer told the court through an interpreter why he fled his hometown of Vitória, some seven hours north-east of Rio de Janeiro.
    “I wanted to go file a complaint against a drug house in my neighborhood,” he said. “So I went to the police station to complain about this drug trafficking spot and they told me if I filed a complaint I would be killed. That’s when I decided to flee with my wife and children to the United States. I learned yesterday they killed my landlord because he helped us flee to the United States.
    “Please forgive me. I came with my entire family because I did not want us to be killed.”

  48. 48.

    Mike in NC

    June 19, 2018 at 6:52 pm

    Maybe when they’re old enough a bunch of these missing kids will be allowed to join Fat Bastard’s gonzo “Space Force”.

  49. 49.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    June 19, 2018 at 6:52 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    @schrodingers_cat:
    @ruemara:

    I knew the part about the geography. That was pretty obvious. I can’t believe I didn’t think of the fact that the consulates are in major cities. Thanks!

  50. 50.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 6:52 pm

    @lamh36:

    there has to be someone who works at any of these faciities where the kids, esp the girls and toddlers are housed.

    The people left who work at the internment camps want to be there.

  51. 51.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 6:52 pm

    Adam an update:

    @jacobsoboroff
    Follow Follow @jacobsoboroff
    More
    Just heard from @HHSGov again:

    Of the 11,786 minors currently in the unaccompanied alien children program, 3,280 are female and 8,506 are male.

    We still don’t have photos of or acces to any girls or toddlers.

    5:21 PM – 19 Jun 2018

  52. 52.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 6:53 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    a bunch of these missing kids will be allowed to join Fat Bastard’s gonzo “Space Force”.

    Only as rocket fuel.

  53. 53.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:53 pm

    @TenguPhule: Don’t forget executive bonuses and offshored profits!

  54. 54.

    Brickley Paiste

    June 19, 2018 at 6:53 pm

    @lamh36: What’s she talking about meeting her namesake? I didn’t see reference to that in the twitter feed. (I hate twitter)

  55. 55.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 6:53 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I want Jared and Ivanka to be afraid to go out in company for fear they will be spat on by one of us humans with an actual conscience.

    You think it will stop at just spitting?

  56. 56.

    jacy

    June 19, 2018 at 6:53 pm

    Maybe we should stop concentrating on getting rid of trump and instead concentrate on getting rid of Stephen Miller. Not kidding.

  57. 57.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 6:54 pm

    @lamh36: What dafuq are they hiding!

  58. 58.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 19, 2018 at 6:54 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Per the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is someone who is outside his or her country of origin owing to a well founded fear of persecution. Subsequent UN actions and US law have tinkered around the edges, but the basic principle stands.

  59. 59.

    Mary G

    June 19, 2018 at 6:54 pm

    Central Americans will be posting things like this on FB soon, if they aren’t already, so no, the bad old days are not behind us in the least,

    Spent Juneteenth rereading ads taken out by formerly enslaved ppl searching for their family. Freedom was often accompanied by so much grief pic.twitter.com/bpvxAN74bu— Clint Smith (@ClintSmithIII) June 19, 2017

    Here is the site where the letters are collected. They were looking for transcribers so I signed up. Better to work usefully than read twitter all day fuming.

  60. 60.

    Yarrow

    June 19, 2018 at 6:54 pm

    @Calouste: That was what I was thinking. There are facilities in a lot of states. Some of those states have Dem Governors. Can’t some of them order that welfare checks be done or somehow get a judge to issue a search warrant?

  61. 61.

    Roger Moore

    June 19, 2018 at 6:55 pm

    @Mary G:

    The fact that these families won’t be reunited because ICE, HHS, and ORR can’t be bothered to even write down a name just makes me want to vomit all over a Border Patrol agent’s shoes.

    I’m waiting for someone to suggest tattooing a number on their arms as a way of guaranteeing the kids will be able to find their parents.

  62. 62.

    debbie

    June 19, 2018 at 6:56 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’d almost bet they won’t have any detention facilities in even slightly blue states. It would be foolish to think Miller hadn’t already gamed this out.

  63. 63.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 6:56 pm

    @Yarrow:

    Why can’t they get a judge to sign off on a search warrant for the facilities?

    Lack of jurisdiction and not knowing where some of the facilities actually are.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:56 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The US already had exceedingly stingy interpretations of how and when to grant asylum. Largely because we have the immigration courts within DOJ as opposed to within the regular Federal courts system where refugees and asylum seekers would have greater protections and legal options and opportunities. Rather than be at the whim of whomever is attorney general. One of the things that will have to be done after the interregnum is to legislatively move immigration issues to the regular Federal courts and take this all away from DOJ and out of the hands of the attorney general.

  65. 65.

    wjs

    June 19, 2018 at 6:57 pm

    This is a great article, and it goes further than most to point out the hypocrisy of these descendants of desperate immigrants who are now “pulling up the ladder behind them” so that no one else can have the opportunities they currently enjoy.

    I’m wondering if, at some point, it will be illegal to identify someone’s genealogical heritage and use that against them in public. It is very effective to point out that many of the supporters of the Trump Regime escaped in one way or another from Cuba and are now part of a monstrous effort to make sure no one else who has Latin American heritage can come to this country and make a life for themselves.

    It’s also important to own up to America’s history of helping murderous regimes in Central America (Trump’s personal heroes in the banana republics of old) up until the present day. Why is there no sympathy for anyone from Honduras or Guatemala or El Salvador, to name a few, given our own complicity in making those countries the kinds of failed states that Trump seems to admire these days? We should own up to our shame and give these people a home here in this country.

    It is the least we could do.

  66. 66.

    Chet Murthy

    June 19, 2018 at 6:57 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
    I’m not qualified, but here’s some starters. I’m sure Adam has much better info, as do others who comment here.

    Warsan Shire (award-winning British poet of African descent)

    no one leaves home unless
    home is the mouth of a shark
    you only run for the border
    when you see the whole city running as well

    [more at the link]

    It follows in a pretty straightforward manner, that if you’re ready to become a refugee, waiting to be approved where you live is dangerous. It’s well-known that in the case of the US, it takes a long time to be approved as a refugee by the government, right? I mean, the numbers are pretty stark: 85k in 2016, a cap at 50k in 2017. That’s for the entire *world*. So if you’re a refugee, knowing that there’s an international treaty guaranteeing that if you present yourself at a port of entry and make a claim of asylum, they have to allow you to stay until your case is adjudicated, what should you do? Remain in El Salvador, the murder capital of the world? Or hoof it?

    And just in case the next question is “why are we responsible for their inability to run their governments?”:

    Nicaragua: perhaps your father knows the history of the Somozas and Sandinistas? The pe’re of the Somozas was the National Guard commander when United Fruit ran the place; Sandino was the leader of the rebels who beat those National Guard. Somoza and Sandino met for a parley, and was assassinated by Somoza. Of course after that, there was the Contras, etc, etc, etc.

    Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador: we’ve repeatedly invaded and destabilized their governments. Right into this century.

    And of course, our insatiable appetite for illicit drugs has done a number on those countries. Honestly, I don’t know how they recover, EVEN IF they were to legalize all the drugs. B/c it’s hard to knit back together a failed state.

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 19, 2018 at 6:58 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Correction: country of nationality, not origin. FYWP won’t let me edit.

  68. 68.

    jl

    June 19, 2018 at 6:58 pm

    Big problem with a Congressional ‘fix’ is that if the Trumpster can bald face lie and do whatever they want with current law, they will do the same thing with whatever Congress does in next few weeks. Anyone peddling BS about this, politician or local or national media, needs to hear about the truth from you and told to say it out loud. Media needs to report out the truth, or go down in history with a very bad crowd. Might mention that to them.

    Of course, the Congressional side of this plot is to pass an unneeded ‘fix’ that sneaks in other policies just as bad and just as unpopular with the vast majority of the country. Or, to BS around and not do anything (which is most likely) and use that to smear the Democrats.

    And of course, even if Congress does something, Trumpsters in WH free to lie about that and move on to some other enormity.

  69. 69.

    Holaitsmonica

    June 19, 2018 at 6:58 pm

    The crying you hear on that recording is terror and trauma. We as a nation are responsible for that. I am a social worker, a mandatory reporter of abuse and the abuser is my nation. I am so sad and mad. Children have to be protected from my government.

  70. 70.

    debbie

    June 19, 2018 at 6:58 pm

    @Yarrow:

    There are facilities in a lot of states. Some of those states have Dem Governors.

    Do you know this for sure? I’ve heard about expanding onto military bases, but those sites wouldn’t have to comply with state requests (as far as I know) (which I know isn’t very far).

  71. 71.

    Calouste

    June 19, 2018 at 6:58 pm

    @lamh36: So asylum seekers to the US produce 75% sons and 25% daughters, compared to the 50/50 of the rest of the human race?

    Or maybe we have to go with the other explanation, that 5,000 girls have been sex-trafficed.

  72. 72.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 6:58 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    We’re getting livestream leaks. This is ridiculous

    The calls are coming from inside of the room!

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 6:58 pm

    @lamh36: Thanks!

  74. 74.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 6:59 pm

    @debbie:

    I’d almost bet they won’t have any detention facilities in even slightly blue states.

    We have confirmation that at least some of them are in New York. We just don’t know where in the state they are.

  75. 75.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 7:00 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: And, as you know, the convention was ratified by the US Senate, so has the force of US law.

  76. 76.

    BoDiddleySquat

    June 19, 2018 at 7:00 pm

    @lamh36: At this point, given Trump’s Russian oligarch connections, I think it’s fair to ask if some of these children, especially those whisked off to Homestead, aren’t in the pipeline to becoming sex slaves. Ponder this while recalling KKKirstjen’s happy bullshit about how they’re keeping the kids well-fed and sheltered. They’re not doing that for the kids’ sakes.

    They’re doing it as an investment in the biological chattel; a little bit now ensures a higher ROI later.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 7:02 pm

    @debbie: Apparently there is one in NJ and one in Massachusetts.

  78. 78.

    debbie

    June 19, 2018 at 7:02 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    In the very, very red part of the state, no doubt.

  79. 79.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 19, 2018 at 7:03 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Yes, it was, and, yes, it does.

  80. 80.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    June 19, 2018 at 7:03 pm

    Is it wrong that I want to start beating defenders and excuses of separation to a dead pulp with a baseball bat? It would be wood, not aluminum…

  81. 81.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 7:03 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    so has the force of US law.

    How many divisions can the Eagles of the Supreme Court muster?

  82. 82.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 7:04 pm

    @debbie:

    In the very, very red part of the state, no doubt.

    We don’t know. HHS is not releasing that information.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 7:05 pm

    @TenguPhule: Of course they are.

  84. 84.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    June 19, 2018 at 7:05 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Our AG is running on being a check on Trump’s policies.

    ETA: He’s also the only person that Gov. Jerry cut commercials for in the primary.

  85. 85.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 7:05 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: As long as you don’t get caught and remember to remove any traces of evidence.

  86. 86.

    NotMax

    June 19, 2018 at 7:06 pm

    Tattooing them (say, on the inside of the forearm) would make it so much easier to keep track. And kids love tattoos. //

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 7:07 pm

    @TenguPhule: That’s the Marshal of the Supreme Court. The legions are his Eagles of Justice. Can you hear them? They’re winging around and around in Louise Mensch’s head…//

  88. 88.

    Brachiator

    June 19, 2018 at 7:07 pm

    The only reason that the government can’t or won’t provide photographic and documentary evidence immediately and will not allow journalists to take those pictures and make those videos themselves is to control the narrative.

    Propaganda. Call it what it is. It’s like the Nazis showing how well those incarcerated in concentration camps were being treated when the Red Cross or other observers showed up.

    ETA. I spent most of the day in the dentist’s chair. Going on to the Internet again, reading about the evil that Trump is doing, how he is doubling down on cruelty is heart breaking. But it is damned good to see people fighting back, and the best of the press bearing witness.

  89. 89.

    Mandalay

    June 19, 2018 at 7:07 pm

    @debbie:

    There are facilities in a lot of states.

    There’s at least one in Florida. Senator Bill Nelson (D) tweeted this earlier today:

    Just learned from HHS that there are 94 children in the Homestead, Florida facility who were separated from their families. The Trump administration’s actions today to block us from checking on these kids is inexcusable.

    I don’t know whether having a Dem governor would necessarily help in getting access to the children since it is HHS who is doing the blocking.

  90. 90.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 7:07 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I’d heard that.

  91. 91.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 7:08 pm

    Even the fuq’n number they supplied even fishy…2x as many boys as girls…REALLY

    Like I said before…they are showing the boys instead of the girls because MAGA white folk see boys and they think M-13 gang members.

    FUQ’ers…

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b3/7f/19/b37f19656c8a724f0c3e1790931640b7.gif

  92. 92.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 7:08 pm

    @Brachiator: Hence my Theresienstadt reference.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    June 19, 2018 at 7:08 pm

    @Calouste:

    While I don’t give the administration any benefit of the doubt, if we’re talking about unaccompanied minors rather than minors kidnapped from their families by the administration, it would necessarily surprise me to learn that they are disproportionately male.

  94. 94.

    Amir Khalid

    June 19, 2018 at 7:09 pm

    @debbie:
    Trump’s experience with the Republican party so far has been that he do or say anything to them, and either they don’t dare fight back or they suck at it. I doubt they enjoy being humiliated and repeatedly fucked over like this. But he’s the most popular Republican leader right now, he’s the only one out there who might have coattails to cling to come November, and they’re going to follow him like those hypnotised kids followed the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

  95. 95.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    June 19, 2018 at 7:09 pm

    @debbie: They have a facility in Oregon.

  96. 96.

    jl

    June 19, 2018 at 7:11 pm

    head thug of ICE lies on national TV that Trumpsters are following the current law. Needs to be big pushback on that. Media too afraid to challenge them on that lie? I think needs to be a big fuss about that particular lie.

    https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1009210699074154496

  97. 97.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    June 19, 2018 at 7:12 pm

    Hey Adam, not to get all Alex Jonesy, but can you speak to Dyncorp sex trafficking in Serbia and the fact they have current contracts with ICE?

  98. 98.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 7:13 pm

    @ABC
    1h1 hour ago
    More
    “Why does Donald Trump think it’s okay to leave kids from their moms?”

    Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas faces outraged crowd, including a question from a young child, at town hall amid national uproar over families separated at the border. https://abcn.ws/2JOQ3oM

  99. 99.

    ruemara

    June 19, 2018 at 7:14 pm

    @debbie: They have them in NY

  100. 100.

    NotMax

    June 19, 2018 at 7:15 pm

    Anyone happen to know

    1) Does the Walton family still own the property in Texas?
    2) If so, how much the Fed is paying them to use it?

  101. 101.

    Yarrow

    June 19, 2018 at 7:16 pm

    @TenguPhule: We know where some of the detention facilities are: ICE detention facility locator.

    @debbie: See above. There are facilities in blue states.

  102. 102.

    SiubhanDuinne

    June 19, 2018 at 7:17 pm

    @lamh36:

    Jesus.

  103. 103.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 7:18 pm

    @Alex_Lily
    3h3 hours ago
    More
    One major challenge of the child separation policy is legal representation for young kids. How do lawyers help kids, some of them preverbal, who have been taken from their parents? I spoke with a lawyer in Arizona who explained her work to me:https://twitter.com/Alex_Lily/status/1009174218242654209

  104. 104.

    SiubhanDuinne

    June 19, 2018 at 7:20 pm

    @lamh36:

    Jesus Christ. What a hateful, petty little man.

  105. 105.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 7:21 pm

    @Yarrow: Dollars to donuts the kids are not in those official facilities. They’d have to have the paperwork for them there.

  106. 106.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    June 19, 2018 at 7:23 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    There’s literally a mountain of shit we’re going to have to fix when we regain control. Too much has been revealed to be easily broken and destroyed because one man has too much power in our system. The presidency is too powerful and has been for a while, mostly a relic of the Cold War (though presidents have often pressed the boundaries of their powers long before). Full presidential republics don’t have a great track record of stability.

    It took Trump to make me realize this

  107. 107.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    June 19, 2018 at 7:23 pm

    @lamh36: This is compounded by the fact that many of the parents (especially if they are from Guatemala) speak only their indigenous language. It’s been difficult finding enough translators to help them communicate effectively with lawyers.

  108. 108.

    Inventor

    June 19, 2018 at 7:26 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: In many cases, they have to LEAVE NOW or risk death. If they went to any country’s consulate and applied for asylum, there would be months to years wait to get through interviews, applications, etc. By the time they’ve completed the process, they’re dead. So is their family.

  109. 109.

    SiubhanDuinne

    June 19, 2018 at 7:26 pm

    @lamh36:

    INSIDE THE GOP MEETING Trump has talked about the following things in his immigration meeting with House Republicans:

    Trade
    Fighter jet contract
    “Rebuilding the military”
    Tax cuts
    Regulatory cuts
    Opioid legislation.

    I call Fake News. I see nothing, NOTHING, about the overwhelming awesomeness of his Electoral College win, nor about the unprecedented size of his Inaugural crowd.

  110. 110.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    June 19, 2018 at 7:28 pm

    Just sent a contribution to RAICES. Signed up for the Denver Keep Families Together march on the 30th. Resistbotted Cory Gardner (R-Chickenshit).
    Now taking a break for the rest of the night before I turn into a screaming ragemonkey.

  111. 111.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    June 19, 2018 at 7:30 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    size of his Inaugural crowd

    So that’s what the kids are calling it these days.

  112. 112.

    Betty Cracker

    June 19, 2018 at 7:30 pm

    Great post, Adam. I’m so pissed off I have to remind myself to breathe sometimes. Nothing less than the utter defeat of these monsters and cowards can save us now.

    @wjs: Excellent point. Even among folks who lack the historical context to understand the moral obligation (and Googling “United Fruit Company” should vaporize that complacency in any human being with a conscience), just as a practical matter, our government should be working with other governments to improve the situation.

    AFAIK, nothing like that is happening. Has Trump even nominated ambassadors? Incompetent fools, grifters and sociopaths all around, it seems.

  113. 113.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 7:32 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    So that’s what the kids are calling it these days.

    If the size of the crowd remains expanded when retelling the story over 18 months, seek medical help immediately as this may be a sign that you are fucking insane. //

  114. 114.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 7:33 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Has Trump even nominated ambassadors?

    The Vatican and Germany immediately come to mind.

  115. 115.

    SiubhanDuinne

    June 19, 2018 at 7:36 pm

    @lamh36:

    The more I see of Chelsea Clinton, the more impressive I find her. She seems to combine the best qualities of both her parents, with — as far as I can judge — few of their drawbacks. Being human she assuredly has her faults, but I find her a most admirable person.

  116. 116.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 7:39 pm

    @Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: I cannot. I’ve never worked for Dyncorp. And while I’m sure I know someone who has, I’m not familiar with this at all.

  117. 117.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    June 19, 2018 at 7:41 pm

    @TenguPhule: I’m sure he talked to Adm. Dr. Jackson about this and he told him it was the biggest Inaugural crowd he’s ever seen.

  118. 118.

    James Powell

    June 19, 2018 at 7:41 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    How about appoint a guardian ad litem and file a habeas petition? Or like 11,000 of them.

  119. 119.

    VeniceRiley

    June 19, 2018 at 7:42 pm

    @Calouste:

    @lamh36: So asylum seekers to the US produce 75% sons and 25% daughters, compared to the 50/50 of the rest of the human race?

    Or maybe we have to go with the other explanation, that 5,000 girls have been sex-trafficed.

    Everyone, and I do mean everyone who actually does it, needs to stop conflating the kids that show up unaccompanied at the border (what we are talking about in this number mix – where there is NO SURPRISE because boys are more likely to be let go by their parents to make a journey across 3 countries than girls or toddlers, obviously! And I don’t want them found unless they’re in detention.) and children of whatever age and sex who have been separated from their parents right at the point of entry or border. Those are the kids they’re holding indefinitely, and those toddlers and girls need to be shown and accounted for as SAFE.

  120. 120.

    Brachiator

    June 19, 2018 at 7:50 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Hence my Theresienstadt reference.

    I’m still a little groggy from dental anesthetic and missed it the first time through. Absolutely spot on.

    I cannot believe that no one in the Trump administration realizes what memories they are invoking. And don’t they teach military officers about this?

    I cannot say that I am entirely surprised, but it is nonetheless chilling to see the leaders of the federal government revelling in the cruelty they are inflicting on children.

    Imagine an alternate universe in which Ike and JFK openly supported Southern segregationists.

  121. 121.

    Jeffro

    June 19, 2018 at 7:51 pm

    Wingnuts shoot up pizza places based on false accusations of child abuse.

    Lefties follow the process, bang on the door, try to rouse the press and public.

    I sure better not EVER hear again that “all the violence is on the Left”

  122. 122.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    June 19, 2018 at 7:52 pm

    @VeniceRiley: Thank you, there seemed to be some (intentional) confusion being sowed here(by the mal-administration, not commenters here).

  123. 123.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 7:55 pm

    @Brachiator: From the reporting, Kelly has basically given up. I also don’t know him, so I have no idea how deep a thinker he actually is.

    My guess is that everything on this is walled off from the folks on the National Security Staff and DOD, so those senior military personnel don’t have any input on this.

  124. 124.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 7:55 pm

    @James Powell:

    How about appoint a guardian ad litem and file a habeas petition? Or like 11,000 of them.

    Why do you think they’re not keeping written records?

    “I’m sorry, there is no “Name X” at this facility. You have to go refile in that other state….”

    Around and around and around.

  125. 125.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 7:56 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    From the reporting, Kelly has basically given up.

    I think the reporting is self-serving bullshit. S_C is right about this, he’s one of the Nazis.

  126. 126.

    Mnemosyne

    June 19, 2018 at 7:57 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    I’m now enjoying the vision of Callista Gingrich being called into long, frosty meetings with Pope Frankie and his translator — because Pope Frankie speaks Spanish as his first language since he’s from Argentina. ?

    As Charlie Pierce likes to say, Don’t fuck with the Society. Jesuits have probably been the most vocal Catholics criticizing this clusterfuck.

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne

    June 19, 2018 at 8:00 pm

    @lamh36:

    Of the 11,786 minors currently in the unaccompanied alien children program, 3,280 are female and 8,506 are male.

    That is the strangest gender-demographic I’ve ever seen.

    And I don’t believe it for a minute.

  128. 128.

    Brachiator

    June 19, 2018 at 8:00 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    The more I see of Chelsea Clinton, the more impressive I find her.

    Totally agree with you. I also admire her for the way that she deals with the crap that right wing dopes throw at her. And she is a saint compared to the worthless spawn of Sarah Palin and other supposed “good” Americans.

  129. 129.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 8:00 pm

    @Mnemosyne: For once, the church’s traditional conservative sexism is working for us.

  130. 130.

    Felony Govt (Formerly Old Broad in California)

    June 19, 2018 at 8:03 pm

    Michael Avenatti is now representing a mother who has been separated from her 6 year old son. He posted a heartbreaking letter she wrote to him. Good. He knows how to ramp up the publicity machine.

  131. 131.

    Yarrow

    June 19, 2018 at 8:06 pm

    Interesting.

    In a letter to @satyanadella, Microsoft employees are asking the company to terminate its contract with ICE https://t.co/ZVParowmr5— kate conger (@kateconger) June 19, 2018

  132. 132.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    June 19, 2018 at 8:06 pm

    @RWPUSA
    How much more corruption, how much more cruelty, before Congress does it’s Constitutional duty and removes this President?

    Border Patrol Kicked, Punched Migrant Children, Threatened Some With Sexual Abuse, ACLU Alleges

  133. 133.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 8:06 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Booman Tribune has a post up about the story about Kelly giving up.

    Booman says he’s not sure if coward is the right word for it, but I think it is. John Kelly may be “brave” on the battle field in his military capacity, but on moral ground…he hasn’t a leg to stand on .

    Someone said he’s a “moral coward” and I’d say I agree with that description.

    Also too, that like Sessions this is what he believes, it’s just that the messenger, in this case Chump is soo undisciplined and unpredictable.

    Also too, he a coward because I suspect he doesn’t want to be asked the hard questions that he will most certainly be asked if/when he gets out.

    And all this leaking about how he “really feels” is bullshit cowardice!

  134. 134.

    SiubhanDuinne

    June 19, 2018 at 8:06 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    We have confirmation that at least some of them are in New York. We just don’t know where in the state they are.

    Well, then, it's a good thing that NYS is so small and sparsely populated.

  135. 135.

    smintheus

    June 19, 2018 at 8:11 pm

    A question for lawyers: Now that Trump has stated that he is taking these children to hold them as political hostages, is that a legal basis for indicting him? If so, are there any states under whose laws he could be indicted, or would charges have to be filed by the DOJ?

    It certainly rises to the level of an impeachable offense in my opinion.

  136. 136.

    Yarrow

    June 19, 2018 at 8:12 pm

    @TenguPhule: So use the list of official facilities and get warrants to get inside those. When the kids are not there, use that for a court order to force ICE to produce information immediately about where the kids are. Use the system to our advantage.

    I’m sure there are other ways to pressure ICE to tell us where they’ve put the kids, especially the girls and babies, but we have to start somewhere. This is one of those places.

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    June 19, 2018 at 8:12 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    From the reporting, Kelly has basically given up. I also don’t know him, so I have no idea how deep a thinker he actually is.

    From a May 2018 CNN story.

    Kelly says undocumented immigrants ‘don’t have the skills’ to assimilate into US society….

    Kelly, who is seen inside the Trump administration as a “hardass” on immigration, was previously accused of degrading undocumented immigrants in February, when he suggested that some were “too afraid” or “too lazy” to sign up for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

    And Kirstjen Nielsen is Kelly’s creature.

    I really hope that the other military folk in the Trump administration are better.

    Link

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/11/politics/john-kelly-immigration-education/index.html

  138. 138.

    JPL

    June 19, 2018 at 8:16 pm

    Trump is a sick, sick person

    Trump told confidants that tough immigration stance will be a winning culture war position – and made comparison to how he used NFL players kneeling during anthem

    You just can’t do this to children Let me rephrase that he will use this.

  139. 139.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 19, 2018 at 8:17 pm

    @TenguPhule: I am not going to write a 20 paragraph explanation of Habeas litigation, but that shit would not fly. Produce the person or make a valid legal argument to explain why you have the person in custody.

  140. 140.

    Mnemosyne

    June 19, 2018 at 8:17 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I think VeniceRiley is correct — the Trumpistas are deliberately giving the number of ALL minors in custody, not just the ones who were taken from their parents. If that number includes kids who arrived as truly unaccompanied, it makes sense that most of them would be boys.

    That said, where the fuck are the girls and toddlers?

  141. 141.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 8:19 pm

    @TenguPhule: I’m not saying he’s not. The two also aren’t mutually exclusive.

  142. 142.

    Groucho48

    June 19, 2018 at 8:20 pm

    CNBC headline…

    Senate GOP pushes for bill to end Trump’s family separation policy, but Schumer says ‘the president alone can fix it’

    Followed by around a dozen paragraphs discussing how many Republicans in Congress want to put a stop to this but passage of a bill will be tough because Dems want Trump to do it. Then, towards the end of the article they mention that there is a bill all Dems and no Reps have signed. The only discussion of the Dem bill is that “some” people consider it too broad. The only quotes are from Republicans Collins and Cotton.

    Cotton :

    Democrats don’t oppose family separation at border, they oppose immigration enforcement at border. ALL 49 Dem Senators support a get-radical, extreme open-borders bill. Simple solution: change law to let DHS keep families together at border. But Dems WANT them released into US.

    Then, back to the Republican efforts.

    Our liberal media at work.

  143. 143.

    Brachiator

    June 19, 2018 at 8:22 pm

    O/T Breaking news. More rats deserting the SS Trump.

    The White House aide who led the planning for President Donald Trump’s meeting last week with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has decided to leave the Trump administration to return to the private sector.

    Joe Hagin, the White House deputy chief of staff for operations, has served in every Republican White House since the Reagan administration. He held the same title in George W. Bush’s White House.

    Hagin’s departure comes as the Trump administration continues to set records for staff turnover. More than 60 percent of those who served in senior positions at the beginning of the administration have exited.

    Time and other media.

  144. 144.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    June 19, 2018 at 8:28 pm

    @Mnemosyne: It’s also to muddy the water as to what they’re doing and what previous administrations have done. Previous have detained unaccompanied minors for a limited period until they could be placed(usually with relatives). Separating children from their parents is something unique to this mal-administration.

  145. 145.

    lamh36

    June 19, 2018 at 8:29 pm

    @passantino
    Follow Follow @passantino
    More
    .@Zac_Petkanas says on Fox News a 10-year-old girl with Down Syndrome was separated from her mother at the border.

    Corey Lewandowski responds: “Womp womp.”

    https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1009228255994540033

  146. 146.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 8:32 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I am not going to write a 20 paragraph explanation of Habeas litigation, but that shit would not fly.

    Have you seen the quality of lawyers these Nazis are using these days? Not the best or brightest.

  147. 147.

    SiubhanDuinne

    June 19, 2018 at 8:35 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    That said, where the fuck are the girls and toddlers?

    I want every GOP MoC, and every member of the WH Press Corpse, to ask this question over and over and over again, ad infinitum, until they get a decent answer from ICE/CBP/HHS/DHS and the Trump maladministration. In those exact words.

  148. 148.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 8:35 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Hagin had been thinking about leaving for the last few weeks. Yesterday, we revealed he had previously worked with key backers of an alleged "sex cult" and was one of a dozen to be invited to one of their events in the Alps called an "intensive" https://t.co/dBambr08vx https://t.co/8ZGMtRbOsZ

    — Tarini Parti (@tparti) June 19, 2018

  149. 149.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 8:36 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    until they get a decent answer from ICE/CBP/HHS/DHS and the Trump maladministration.

    So until the end of time, in other words?

  150. 150.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 8:37 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: This can’t be a coincidence. And we are officially living in a really bad B movie.

  151. 151.

    cthulhu

    June 19, 2018 at 8:39 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    My father, well-meaning (against family separation and Trump in general), asked me why aren’t they seeking refuge in Canada or other countries. I didn’t have a definitive answer but it boiled down to they didn’t have the ability/resources to reach Canada and other safer places for asylum. He said they should just walk to the consulate in their country and apply there. I told him it wasn’t that simple but didn’t know why. Could someone enlighten me a little?

    Some are though these are people generally already in the US. Also , not surprisingly, Canada takes a different approach to refugees.

  152. 152.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 19, 2018 at 8:45 pm

    @TenguPhule: Then there is an order to produce the kid by a certain date. Then there are motions to show cause why they shouldn’t be held in contempt. Then people sit in jail because of the contempt order. It’s not like federal courts haven’t dealt with shitbirds before.

  153. 153.

    Yarrow

    June 19, 2018 at 8:46 pm

    @Brachiator: I guess you missed this part of it when I posted about that earlier:

    Hagin had been thinking about leaving for the last few weeks. Yesterday, we revealed he had previously worked with key backers of an alleged "sex cult" and was one of a dozen to be invited to one of their events in the Alps called an "intensive" https://t.co/dBambr08vx https://t.co/8ZGMtRbOsZ— Tarini Parti (@tparti) June 19, 2018

    More on the sex cult. Igtet was Hagin’s Libyan client:

    Igtet, however, had other interests outside recovering Libyan riches, including one at the center of a major sex-trafficking case. Igtet was deeply involved in NXIVM, the celebrity “sex cult” whose leadership is now under federal indictment, two sources said.

    The best people.

  154. 154.

    Peale

    June 19, 2018 at 8:48 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: and it’s nowhere near a sufficient deal, since subsequently his administration has added to the number of people who were here legally but are now subject to deportation.

  155. 155.

    Mnemosyne

    June 19, 2018 at 8:51 pm

    Schumer says ‘the president alone can fix it’

    I don’t care what any of you jackals say — I love Schumer for throwing Twitler’s words right back in his fucking face.

  156. 156.

    Brachiator

    June 19, 2018 at 8:53 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Sex cult? Yikes.

  157. 157.

    JPL

    June 19, 2018 at 8:54 pm

    @TenguPhule: It’s a horror film.

  158. 158.

    rikyrah

    June 19, 2018 at 8:57 pm

    @lamh36:
    John Kelly ain’t shyt ?

  159. 159.

    Brachiator

    June 19, 2018 at 8:59 pm

    @Yarrow:

    I guess you missed this part of it when I posted about that earlier:

    Spent most of the day in the dentist’s office getting repair work done. Hard to keep up with the crazy.

    Sex cult aside, it appears that this Hagin guy compared the Trump administration unfavorably to earlier Republican regimes. That had to get under Trump’s skin. Trump would likely overlook the sex cult stuff.

  160. 160.

    japa21

    June 19, 2018 at 9:10 pm

    @Brachiator: You could be spending all day here and still not keep up with the crazy.

  161. 161.

    TenguPhule

    June 19, 2018 at 9:13 pm

    @japa21:

    You could be spending all day here and still not keep up with the crazy.

    Needs to be a rotating tagline.

  162. 162.

    Brachiator

    June 19, 2018 at 9:15 pm

    @japa21:

    You could be spending all day here and still not keep up with the crazy.

    And I’m not sure which would be more painful, dental work or trying to keep up with the crazy.

  163. 163.

    Yarrow

    June 19, 2018 at 9:25 pm

    @Brachiator: As others have said, it’s just not possible to keep up with the crazy no matter how much time you spend on it. Agree that Trump would not allow anyone who criticizes him to stay.

  164. 164.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 10:01 pm

    @TenguPhule: I’d like to know how he got a clearance.

  165. 165.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 19, 2018 at 10:02 pm

    @Brachiator: With whats her name from Smallville!

  166. 166.

    sukabi

    June 19, 2018 at 10:04 pm

    @TenguPhule: there is at least 1 that was set up in Sea-Tac, but I think it’s for women separated from their kids. And there is the one in Sheridan Oregon.

  167. 167.

    sukabi

    June 19, 2018 at 10:12 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t one of drumpf’s “demand-a-clearance” hires. He’s been in the background till now, not like he was high profile like his daughter F.C. or her worthless husband.

  168. 168.

    Steeplejack

    June 19, 2018 at 10:21 pm

    @Brickley Paiste:

    Chelsea’s antagonist seemed to be trying to make the point that the name “Clinton” is tainted but infelicitously (and incorrectly) used the word namesake to get there. Chelsea was alluding to that by saying that she had not met her namesake, i.e., another person named Chelsea Clinton.

  169. 169.

    J R in WV

    June 19, 2018 at 11:00 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You know who else had a home/retreat in the Alps? Of course you do!!!

    His name was Adolph something.

    You know who that Joe Hagin dude looks just like? He looks like a younger, still on his first heart, former VP Dick Cheney. Exactly like that old nazi. Sex cult, huh… and people wonder where the refugee girls are?

  170. 170.

    sgrAstar

    June 20, 2018 at 12:06 am

    @trollhattan: kris kobach has mystifyingly (to me) blown his education. He was a Marshall Scholar to Oxford, where he did a PhD before he returned to the US for a law degree at Yale. I’ve read that KK was deeply influenced by Samuel Huntington when he was an undergrad at Harvard. Maybe Adam knows something about that, and whether that influence could explain how someone with Kobach’s potential ended up on the dark side.

  171. 171.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    June 20, 2018 at 1:01 am

    Excellent, just what we need. Our own generation of Los Desaparecidos. But don’t let Trumpov know he’s joined the ranks of Pinochet. He’d enjoy it far too much.

  172. 172.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 20, 2018 at 1:28 am

    @sgrAstar: My understanding is that Kobach was largely moderate until he went into politics. Then he made the decision to go full hard core movement conservative as he determined he couldn’t get elected in Kansas as a moderate. His pet issue, of course, was voter fraud. I have no idea if he has convinced himself by now that he actually believes this stuff or if he’s just acting because doing so has brought him power and wealth.

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