The administration’s adoption of a zero-tolerance policy on border crossing, which includes separating children from parents, is bursting the seams of the American penal system. As McClatchy reported on Tuesday, “The Trump administration is looking to build tent cities at military posts around Texas to shelter the increasing number of unaccompanied migrant children being held in detention.”
The building of incarceration camps for children follows on the heels of a report last Friday from AP that the administration was sending 1600 immigrants to federal prisons because of a lack of other space in which to confine them.
The planned tent city for children is an extreme policy that could easily facilitate all sorts of abuse. Leading Democrats have been quick to denounce the program:
Let’s call this what it is — a human rights abuse being committed by the United States government. Congress cannot let this go on. We need to take immediate action to stop the Trump Administration from indiscriminately breaking up families at the border. https://t.co/l52JPyoh2D
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 13, 2018
Trump is taking Joe Arpaio's cruel, dehumanizing policies and nationalizing them, with an emphasis on punishing kids. Truly monstrous. https://t.co/JsxnIrRO64
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) June 12, 2018