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On Friday Mike Pence visited two “detention centers” in Texas. Inside of the first, the Donna Processing Center, Pence, reporters and other members of the administration discovered a large, comfortable facility. It was air conditioned and had cots where families were watching animated movies.

They moved on to McAllen. “It was a much different scene: Pence toured a swelteringly hot room called a sally port with hundreds of men, a strong smell of sweat and overcrowding so extreme there was no room for cots, the migrants left to sleep on concrete beneath mylar blankets.” Some of the detainees had been in the concentration camp for more than 40 days and claimed that they had not had access to showers or even a toothbrush throughout their confinement.

A reporter asked Pence if he believed the conditions in McAllen were acceptable.

“No, it’s not. That’s the reason why we demanded that Congress provide $4.6 billion in additional support to Customs and Border Protection.”

Let’s get to the truth. Our nation has laws governing individuals seeking asylum. There is no excuse for these families to remain imprisoned for lengthy periods of time. The reason the United States of America is operating concentration camps is because our country’s illegitimate president is a racist.

Trump announced that in a few days his personal gestapo called “ICE” will begin “rounding up” as many Hispanics as possible, place them in concentration camps, and eventually deport them.

Until Pence’s visit Republicans and Fox Noise claimed that these “detention” centers were “pleasant and clean” facilities. They denied reports by Democratic congressmen that they were actually camps intended to punish human beings whose only crime was seeking a safer and better life.

Democrats oppose giving Customs and Border Patrol, CBP, or ICE additional funds. Recent revelations exposed an extreme level of bigotry and prejudice by both disreputable government-controlled institutions. I, and many others have called for our government to disband ICE. This agency was formed as a knee-jerk reaction to the attacks on 9/11 after the unconstitutional Patriot Act became law.

Finally, both CBP and ICE must be reformed. If they continue to exist, they must be retrained, agree to psychological evaluations, and required to treat detainees as human beings. This would never have become such a serious problem if Trump had not become the illegitimate President of the United States. Sadly, Trump’s supporters share his views of white supremacy and we understand why American has never been a great country.

“The Truth Lives Here”

Op-ed by James Turnage

SOURCE

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