This isn’t an ambiguous issue: Children at the border are living in inhumane conditions. This is according to a National Public Radio interview with Warren Binford, a law professor sent to check on the conditions where the children are living, under the terms of the federal Flores settlement.
I have called Sen. Susan Collins’ office twice to ask if she would be willing to lead a Maine delegation to personally see what is happening. Apparently she needs more time to think.
Children are sleeping on concrete floors and eating the same unhealthful prepackaged foods every day; they have little to no access to showers, toothbrushes or water to wash their hands. Sometimes there is an open toilet in the room. This is where the children are eating. And Sen. Collins is thinking about what to say.
The children are sick and filthy and there is little adult supervision. And Sen. Collins needs time to formulate her thoughts.
In a facility that is supposed to house 105 children for only three days, over 300 children are being housed for weeks. The vast majority of these children have family who could care for them, but the bureaucracy is bogged down for some mysterious reason. From Susan Collins: nothing.
According to Ms. Binford, many laws are being broken. According to my moral compass, this is a form of torture. Of children. Silence. Silence. Silence.
When the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance debacle was instituted a year ago, Sen. Collins said that enforcing immigration laws must be done “in a way that is consistent with our values and ordinary human decency.”
That was a year ago. Now the unthinkable conditions are of such horrific proportions that what was said a year ago means nothing.
Jo Trafford
Portland
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