Eliabeth Warren FB post after a visit to a detention center on June 26, 2018

[ehrnst]

Sunday morning, I flew to McAllen, Texas to find out what's really happening to immigrant families ripped apart by the Trump administration.

There's one thing that's very clear: The crisis at our border isn't over.

I went straight from the airport to the McAllen Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing center that is the epicenter of Donald Trump's so-called "zero-tolerance" policy. This is where border patrol brings undocumented migrants for intake before they are either released, deported, turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or, in the case of unaccompanied or separated children, placed in the custody of Health and Human Services.

From the outside, the CBP processing center looks like any other warehouse on a commercial street lined with warehouses. There's no clue about the horrors inside.

Before we could get in, CBP insisted we had to watch a government propaganda video. There's no other way to describe it – it's like a movie trailer. It was full of dramatic narration about the "illegals" crossing our border, complete with gory pictures about the threats that these immigrants bring to the United States, from gangs to skin rashes. The star of the show is CBP, which, according to the video, has done a great job driving down the numbers.

Then an employee described what we were about to see. "They have separate pods. I'll call them pods. I don't really know how they name them." Clearly they had gotten the memo not to call them what they are: cages. Every question I asked them had a complicated answer that led to two more questions – even the simple question about how long people were held there. "Nobody is here longer than 24 hours." "Well, maybe 24-48 hours." "72 hours max." And "no children are separated out." "Well, except older children."

The warehouse is enormous, with a solid concrete floor and a high roof. It is filled with cages. Cages for men. Cages for women. Cages for mamas with babies. Cages for girls. Cages for boys.

The stench – body odor and fear – hits the second the door is opened. The first cages are full of men. The chain link is about 12-15 feet high, and the men are tightly packed. I don't think they could all lie down at the same time. There's a toilet at the back of the cage behind a half-wall, but no place to shower or wash up. One man kept shouting, "A shower, please. Just a shower."

I asked the men held in cage after cage where they were from. Nearly all of them were from El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras.

Then I asked them how long they had been there – and the answers were all over the map, from a few days to nearly two weeks (72 hours max?). The CBP agents rushed to correct the detained men, claiming that their answers couldn't be right. My immigration specialist on the trip who speaks fluent Spanish made sure the men understood that the question was, "How long have you been in the building?" Their answers didn't change.

Cage after cage. Same questions, same answers.

Next we came into the area where the children were held. These cages were bigger with far more people. In the center of the cage, there's a freestanding guard tower probably a story or story-and-a-half taller to look down over the children. The girls are held separately in their own large cage. The children told us that they had come to the United States with family and didn't know where they had been taken. Eleven years old. Twelve. Locked in a cage with strangers. Many hadn't talked to their mothers or fathers. They didn't know where they were or what would happen to them next.

The children were quiet. Early afternoon, and they just sat. Some were on thin mats with foil blankets pulled over their heads. They had nothing – no books, no toys, no games. They looked shell shocked.

And then there were the large cages with women and small children. Women breast-feeding their young children.

When we went over to the mamas with babies, I asked them about why they had left their home countries. One young mother had a 4-year-old child. She said she had been threatened by the gangs in El Salvador. She had given a drink of water to a police officer, and the gang decided she must be in with the police. The longer she spoke, the more agitated she got – that she would never do that, that she understood the risk with the gangs, but that the gangs believed she did it. She sold everything she had and fled with her son to the United States.

One thing you won't see much of in the CBP processing center? Fathers caged with their children. After pressing the CBP agents, they explained that men traveling with children are automatically released from the facility. They just don't have the cages there to hold them. Women with small children, on the other hand, could be detained indefinitely. I pressed them on this again and again. The only answer: they claimed to be protecting "the safety of the mother and children."

CBP said that fathers with children, pregnant women, mothers of children with special needs, and other "lucky ones" who are released from the processing center are sent over to Catholic Charities' Humanitarian Respite Center for help. That was my next stop in McAllen. Sister Norma, her staff, and volunteers are truly doing God's work. Catholic Charities provides food, a shower, clean clothes, and medicine to those who need it. The center tries to explain the complicated process to the people, and the volunteers help them get on a bus to a family member in the United States.

Sister Norma introduced me to a father and his teenage son from Honduras. The father said that a gang had been after his son, determined that the boy would join the gang. The only way for the boy to escape was to run. The man left his wife and four daughters in Honduras to bring his son to the United States. His only plan is to find work here to send money home to his family. His cousin lives in New Jersey, so CBP sent their paperwork to the local ICE center in New Jersey, and they would soon begin the long bus ride there.

Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley provides a lifesaving service to people of all faiths and backgrounds, but with a humanitarian crisis in their backyard, they're clearly stretched as thin as it gets. With more money and volunteers, they would gladly help more people.

I asked Sister Norma about the women and babies who were in indefinite detention. She said her group would open their arms and take care of them, get them cleaned up and fed and on a bus to a family member – if only ICE would release them.

"This is a moral issue. We are all part of this human family," they say.

Next, I met with some of the legal experts on the frontlines of this crisis – lawyers from the Texas Civil Rights Project, the Border Rights Center of the Texas ACLU, and the federal public defenders.

I gave them a rundown of everything I'd seen so far in McAllen, particularly when it comes to reuniting parents and children, and they raised some of my worst fears:

The Trump administration may be "reunifying" families, but their definition of a family is only a parent and a child. If, for example, a 9-year-old crosses with an 18-year-old sister – or an aunt or uncle, or a grandparent, or anyone who isn't the child's documented legal guardian – they are not counted as a family and they will be separated.

Mothers and children may be considered "together" if they're held in the same gigantic facility, even if they're locked in separate cages with no access to one another. (In the world of CBP and ICE, that's how the 10-year-old girls locked in a giant cage are "not separated" from their mothers who are in cages elsewhere in the facility.)

In the process of "reunifying" families, the government may possibly count a family as reunited by sending the child to a distant relative they've never met – not their parents. Some relatives may be unwilling to claim these children because it would be inviting ICE to investigate their own families.

Parents are so desperate to be reunited with their children that they may be trading in their legal right to asylum.

The system for tracking separated families is virtually unknown, if one exists at all. One expert worries that for some families, just a simple photo may be all the documentation that the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health and Human Services have to reunite them. (I sincerely hope that's not true.)

The longer the day went on, the more questions I had about how the Trump administration plans to fix the crisis they've created at the border. So my last stop of the day was at the Port Isabel Detention Center, about an hour east of McAllen. It's one of the largest detention facilities in Texas.

The Department of Homeland Security had released some details on its plan to reunify families. The release noted that Port Isabel will be the "primary family reunification and removal center for adults in their custody."

Let's be clear: Port Isabel isn't a reunification center. It's a detention center. A prison.

There's no ambiguity on this point. I met with the head of the facility. He said several times that they had no space for children, no way to care for them, and no plans to bring any children to his locked-down complex. When I pressed on what was the plan for reunification of children with their parents, he speculated that HHS (the Department of Health and Human Services) would take the children somewhere, but it certainly wasn't going to be to his facility. When I asked how long HHS would take, he speculated that it would be weeks, but he said that was up to them. He had his job to do: He would hold these mothers and fathers until he received orders to send them somewhere else. Period.

So let me say it again. This is a prison – not a reunification center.

We toured the center. It is huge – multiple buildings isolated on a sun-baked expanse of land far from any town. We didn't go to the men's area, but the women are held in a large bunk-bed facility with a concrete outdoor exercise area. It's locked, double-locked, and triple locked. Tall fences topped with razor wire are everywhere, each backed up by a second row of fences also topped with razor wire.

An ICE official brought in a group of nine detained mothers who had volunteered to speak to us. I don't believe that ICE cherry-picked these women for the meeting, because everything they told me was horrifying.

Each mother told us her own story about crossing the border, being taken to a processing center, and the point that they were separated from their child or children. In every case, the government had lied to them about where their children were being taken. In every case, save one, no mother had spoken to her child in the days since the separation. And in every case, no mother knew where her child was.

At the time of separation, most of the mothers were told their children would be back. One woman had been held at "the icebox," a center that has earned its nickname for being extremely cold. When the agent came to take her child, she was told that it was just too cold for the child in the center, and that they were just going to keep the child warm until she was transferred. That was mid-June. She hasn't seen her child since.

One mother had been detained with her child. They were sleeping together on the floor of one of the cages, when, at 3:00am, the guards took her away. She last saw her 7-year-old son sleeping on the floor. She cried over and over, "I never got to say goodbye. I never got to say goodbye." That was early-June, and she hasn't seen him since.

Even though the CBP officials at the processing center told me that mothers with children that have special needs would be released, one of the mothers I spoke with had been separated from her special needs child. She talked about her child who doesn't have properly formed legs and feet and walks with great difficulty. One of the mothers spoke of another mother in the facility who is very worried because her separated child is deaf and doesn't speak at all.

The women I met were traumatized, weeping, and begging for help. They don't understand what is happening to them – and they're begging to be reunited with their kids.

Detainees can pay to make phone calls, but all of their possessions are taken from them at the processing center. The only way they can get money for a call is for someone to put money on their accounts. I asked if people or charities could donate money so that they'd be able to make phone calls to their family or lawyers, but they said no – a donor would need the individual ID number for every person detained at the center, and ICE obviously isn't going to release that information.

Three young lawyers were at Port Isabel at the same time we were. The lawyers told us that their clients – the people they've spoken to in the detention center – have strong and credible cases for asylum. But the entire process for being granted asylum depends on one phone call with an immigration official where they make the case for why they should be allowed to stay. One of the first questions a mother will be asked is, "Have you been separated from a child?" For some of the women, just asking that question makes them fall apart and weep.

The lawyers are worried that these women are in such a fragile and fractured state, they're in no shape to make the kind of detailed, credible case needed for themselves or their children. They had no chance in our system because they've lost their children and desperately want them back.

We stayed inside at Port Isabel for more than two hours – much longer than the 45 minutes we had been promised. When I finally went to bed that night, I thought about something the mothers had told me – something that will likely haunt me for a long time.

The mothers say that they can hear babies cry at night.

This isn't about politics. This isn't about Democrats or Republicans. This is about human beings. Children held in cages today. Babies scattered all over this country. And mamas who, in the dark of night, hear them cry.

I'm still working through everything I saw, but I wanted you to know the full story. The fight for these children and families isn't over – not by a long shot.

https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethWarren/posts/10155822214623687

[lapfog_1]

1. much like Germany after the war

The Trumpanzees need to be forced to tour these facilities and talk to the desperate people locked up inside.

Thousands of buses from Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio... everywhere there are Trump voters.

[erronis]

15. The "trumpanzees" would smirk with glee on a tour. Better to stick them and their spawn

into the cages for an indeterminate time. Well, not completely indeterminate - put the lower bound at 10 weeks.

[sheshe2]

2. Heartbreaking read.

Thanks to my Senator for speaking the truth and America and the world need to listen.

[Turin_C3PO]

3. So sad.

What have we become?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. This information needs to be shouted from the rooftops!

HORRIFYING.

OBSCENE.

WRONG.

PAINFUL.

DISGUSTING.

AND THEY'RE DOING IT IN OUR NAMES. ALL OUR NAMES.

[Laelth]

76. +1 n/t

-Laelth

[Ohiogal]

5. I am wiping away tears after reading this.

This is just so cruel, so wrong. How can this be going on in America in the year 2019?

[progressoid]

6. And the Trump fascists will say that these people have done this to themselves.

They shouldn't have forced their children to break the law.

[nocoincidences]

7. This is unforgivable.

This should be treated with the same level of punishment as a war crime. It is a crime on refugees seeking asylum. And the Trump administration and the Republican party are the criminals who should be tried, just like Nuremberg.

[dixiegrrrrl]

38. It is genocide, pure and simple.

Genocidal intent requires that acts must be committed against members of a group specifically because they belong to that group

Genocide is one of the greatest crimes under international law, often called the "crime of crimes" after the Nuremburg Trials. According to Article 2 of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
1.killing members of the group;
2.

causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

3..deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
4.. .imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and]
5..forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Under most legal constructions of genocide (e.g., under the statutes for the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda), liability for genocide extends to those who “planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution” of one or more of the aforementioned genocial acts [ICTY Art. 7(1)]. In general, both public and private individuals are punishable [ICTY Art. 7(2)]. Leaders can be held accountable for the criminal actions of their subordinates if they knew or should have known about the actions and failed to prevent or punish them [ICTY Art. 7(3); Krstic, ICTY, Appellate Judgment § 140].

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/genocide

[dixiegrrrrl]

40. 8 Disturbing Stages of Genocide

1. Classification
Classification refers to a division of the population into racial, religious and ethnic divisions. In Rwanda, the population was divided into Tutsi and Hutu, an ethnic divide in which the Tutsi were considered nobility. The stark divide between culture and ethnicity in Rwanda created an environment prone to conflict. According to Genocide Watch, recognizing this, finding and closing the divide is a successful preventative to genocide.
( Trump and others have done with the signaling out Hispanics to lock up
and his ban on Muslims)

2. Symbolization
Symbolization refers to labeling the classified group. The groups dividing society are identified by a certain name, language, type of dress, uniforms or religious symbol. In Cambodia‘s Khmer Rouge, people from the Eastern Zone were required to wear blue scarfs. Similarly, Nazi Germany required Jews to wear a yellow star. The symbolization of a certain ethnicity, race or religion easily and visibly differentiates that group, and the gap between two groups widens.

3. Dehumanization
Dehumanization, as the word suggests, is a process by which a particular group is marked as sub-human. This includes describing them as animals or disease. The process of dehumanization often involves negative propaganda campaigns. The U.N. provides the example that a Rwandan newspaper labeled the Tutsis as “cockroaches.” Currently, the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are referred to as illegal immigrants, and many government leaders refuse to recognize even the existence of the Rohingya. The process of dehumanization allows the government to violate the human rights of the targeted group without the widespread criticism of the country’s people, just as long as the propaganda efforts are successful.
( Trump started this early by calling Hispanics "animals,rapists, criminals,)

4. Organization
Organization refers to the planning of action, as genocide requires both collective action and group identification. In the case of Nazi Germany, the Nazi’s created a “final solution.” However, the level of organization differs by group. For Nazi Germany, the genocide was highly bureaucratic. Genocide also argues that states employ militias, such as the Janjaweed in Darfur and Interahamwe in Rwanda, in order to avoid blame.
( Obviously organized, as warren's report shows)

5. Polarization
In the polarization stage, groups are further driven apart by extremists. Those who did not participate in the previous stages are forced to separate themselves by the targeted group through intimidation by extremists. The U.N. cites Kristalnacht, when hundreds of synagogues were burned in 1938, as an example. In this stage, Dr. Stanton argues, moderates are key to preventing the furtherance of genocide. Involvement of outside groups would include providing security for these moderates and combating the extremists.

6. Preparation
In preparation, further planning takes place. For instance, “death lists” are created or people are segregated into camps. At these camps, the targeted groups are subjected to starvation and disease, mimicking the consequences of extreme poverty. Weapons are stored and, as the U.N. states, death camps are built. In this stage, Stanton recommends international military intervention but notes this only occurs if there is significant political will. In many instances, intervention, if any, only occurs during the extermination stage.

7. Extermination
The extermination stage is genocide. In Rwanda, almost 1 million moderate Hutus and Tutsis were killed in 100 days. During the Holocaust, five to six million Jews were killed. The Khmer Rouge killed nearly 2 million people in Cambodia. According to the UN, there have been over 70 million deaths due to genocide and politicides since its founding. These numbers evidence the importance of prevention in the first six stages of genocide. The willingness to intervene and political will must overcome doubts or fear of political costs.

8. Denial
In the final stage, the perpetrators attempt to cover up their crimes or refer to reports of genocide as overstated. In some cases, those who violated the human rights of another group refer to the conflict as a “civil war.” The failure of international crime tribunals or individual nations to refuse to recognize the denial perpetuates future genocides. Hitler justified his extermination of the Jews by referring to the unpunished Armenian genocide.

In many cases, those who are not subjected to direct violence by the perpetrators of violence are victims of extreme poverty, as their economic prospects are extremely limited by government abuses and bias. The key to preventing further genocides is to both punish perpetrators after they occur and intervene as the initial stages are occurring. However, this requires the political will to combat human rights abuses before violence and “extermination.”

https://borgenproject.org/eight-stages-of-genocide/

[pangaia]

8. "This isn't about politics. This isn't about Democrats or Republicans."

OH YES IT IS, Liz.
This is a out Republicans.

Vicious, greedy,despicable, hate-filled, arrogant, murderous republicans.
These are modern day Nazis. Make no mistake about it..

Propaganda films.....


gestapo...cheka, NKGB, stasi... take your pick...

[ehrnst]

10. I believe that she was saying that this was not about political points, it was about kids

and doing what is best for them, and not putting political points like "not caving" before the welfare of actual human beings.

[pangaia]

17. Yes, of course I agree.

But, our 'leaders' MUST start laying the blame exactly where it is...

[Ligyron]

23. What I find disturbing is the number of gov. workers eagerly participating in this horror.

Many seem to be enjoying their work too much. Way, way too much in some cases.

[pangaia]

26. The gestapo and stasi enjoyed it too, I assume...

[tblue37]

35. "Good Germans.". nt

[ehrnst]

56. As we now know about in graphic detail from their secret FB page.

I guess someone got invited to that group who was new, and not one of their ilk, and they leaked it.

[backtoblue]

9. .

Unforgivable!!!

[Arkansas Granny]

11. How can anyone deny that these are concentration camps?

[gordianot]

12. Anyone who works for this organization is a criminal.

Crimes against humanity. Every single supporter of Donald Trump is complicit.

[Duppers]

20. YES! Yes, yes.

Complicit and Criminal.

"...don't think they could all lie down at the same time."

And imagine the terror in the minds of these children that will remain the rest of their lives.

[bucolic_frolic]

13. Maybe a situation

for the International Red Cross to explore

[murielm99]

14. I would like to share this more widely.

It should be read and published on television, radio, and newspapers.

[AlexSFCA]

54. Americans at large react only to visuals not words

we need some hidden footage

[llmart]

16. Painful to read, but not nearly as painful as what these asylum seekers have lived through.

I could not be more ashamed of my country at this point. We just have to find a way to get rid of trump and the GOP enablers as soon as we can in any way we can. We have to find a way to show the rest of the world that we will not stand for this. Every one of us that cares has to find something we can do. We cannot remain silent in how we feel about what has happened to our country.

Elizabeth Warren is an amazing woman and I thank her for this honest report. Is there even ONE Republican Senator who is speaking out about this?

[The Figment]

18. For the first time in US history

Save the Children has set up a shelter here in the US...unbelievable!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. Good for them! It's about time. n/t

[KatyaR]

21. Oh my god, I want to break something after reading this.

How dare that monster who sits in the White House say that he has "brought families together?" I want to scream.

It's a good thing I live alone, but I really want to punch the fucking wall right now.

[pazzyanne]

46. I want to punch the monster in the White House in the face,

and I am a pacifist! Nothing to awful can happen to this inhumane creature and his minions!

[Leith]

22. This is a crime against humanity

I'm fighting back the tears as I type.

Those vicious bastards have to be stopped.

[Moostache]

24. Oh my god... forgive us all for this egregious sin.

Trump and his minions DO NOT ACT IN OUR NAMES unless we allow it.
It's time to end this a abomination root and stem

[vlyons]

25. For those wanting to actually DO SOMETHING

Please consider donating a few bucks to Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. Here's the link

http://www.catholiccharitiesrgv.org/Home.aspx

[backtoblue]

27. Thank you nt

[pazzyanne]

30. Donation sent!

Thank you for the link, vlyons. Now on to writing scorching letters to my representatives (who are already supporting the efforts, but maybe not hard enough).

[pazzyanne]

28. One of the important take-aways - people willing to get

involved to make lives of these immigrants better ARE. NOT. ALLOWED. TO. HELP! Another take-away from another article that I read is that the CBP has stated that they have the money they need and they have the supplies they need - BUT. WHERE. ARE. THOSE. SUPPLIES? Why are those people warehoused in the concentration camps not allowed to have the supplies that CBP have said they have enough of? This nothing more than torturing human beings, adults and children. THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY! THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY! THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY! THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY! THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY! THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY!
AMERICA. IS. NO. LONGER. GREAT! AMERICA. IS. NO. LONGER. GREAT! AMERICA. IS. NO. LONGER. GREAT!
AMERICA. IS. NO. LONGER. GREAT! AMERICA. IS. NO. LONGER. GREAT! AMERICA. IS. NO. LONGER. GREAT!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

45. Another: tRump govt HIDING the TRUTH from the American PEOPLE. . . . nt

[pazzyanne]

47. Yes, that too!

[sinkingfeeling]

29. I want the orange monster hung by his balls in front of the Lincoln memorial!!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

49. Cruelty for cruelty is NO solution. I want to see him die in jail. . . . nt

[pazzyanne]

48. Mods, or not. No one is supporting these horrific acts in our name!!!

[Auggie]

32. K&R. Thank you Senator Warren!

[Stuart G]

33. The very last thing the Trumpers expected was a detailed report like this.

This report by an honest person, detailed and complete, and showing how horrendous this situation is exposes Trump for what he is. A dictator and evil asshole. This report will be in newspapers and outlets with the guts to expose Trump. It is horrific. Fucking horrific assholes. The federal government can do better, but Trump doesn't care. He doesn't give a damn about these people.
..If someone gave a damn, these conditions would not exist, There would be no smell. There would be no cages, there would be beds. Clean water in bottles for everyone.
..If these people were supporters of Trump, this would not exist. Even if it were the same numbers living in the same place, conditions would be so much better that this would not be a problem.
...The federal government can borrow money to take care of this. But Trump ain't going to do that for these people or these children. It doesn't have to be in the budget, taking care of these people is an "emergency expenditure
.....It is that simple. The federal government could get a billion to fix this up, but Trump doesn't care. This report by Warren is the truth.. So, Trump will attack the source, but it won't work. The source has without doubt told the Truth

...When Trump tries to defend himself and his goons, who will be believed. Senator Warren a professor of economics with an outstanding reputation for truth...
...Or the biggest liar in the entire world, who is despised by most people. And Trump will call Warren a liar. Who is the truth teller here? Trump or Warren's report? You tell me?

[tblue37]

34. Big K&R. nt

[bdamomma]

36. this is on

all of us. Stephen Miller should be arrested and tried for Crimes Against Humanity. Wise ass punk. This is his horrendous order.

[Martin Eden]

37. Heartbreak and Outrage

This can't be America.

Can it?

[Uncle Joe]

39. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread ehrnst.

[58Sunliner]

41. Thank you Senator Warren.

[wiggs]

42. should be full page ad in every newspaper. should be on billboards. should be read in congress. nt

[mnhtnbb]

43. Senator Warren's report is a year old.

This has been going on for over a year.

When are the Dems going to begin impeachment? When are they going to realize that TV sets need to be turned to impeachment hearings day in and day out? It's the only way to generate the attention needed to get rid of that traitorous sack of orange $hit and retake the Senate. The Republicans have to also be held accountable.

Impeachment inquiry needs to start NOW.

[ehrnst]

53. How does impeachment solve this problem? It won't shorten his stay in office by even a day.

We've seen that McConnell isn't going to budge an inch to get him out.

It's the only way to generate the attention needed to get rid of that traitorous sack of orange $hit and retake the Senate.

So you didn't see any attention in the media to this? Everyone else certainly did.

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/01/737535965/border-community-remembers-a-father-and-daughter-who-drowned-crossing-the-rio-gr

So, tell us - if that photos of the dead father and daughter doesn't get Trump fans mad at him, you think that impeachment by Democrats will? Seriously?

The Republicans have to also be held accountable.

Can you explain what that means? "Held accountable" by whom? "Held accountable" in what way - specifically? Other than being voted out by their constituents, there isn't any 'punishment' for actions that are not criminal.

A year ago we didn't have the House - we've had it less than six months, and finally there is some action being done, and attention directed by the House to address the crisis in the detention centers.

Impeachment hearings won't do a damn thing for those kids. Why is it brought up as the solution for everything that the GOP is doing, when it's clear they don't think that their constitutents are upset about things?

I understand that impeachment is something that everyone who understands how horrific Trump is will enjoy watching, but there are negative consequences to that, and it won't stop or change anything that Trump is doing. In fact, we know that he lashes out when he's cornered. I think that starting hearings will impel him to take any military action he can.

I will forego an impeachment watch party with my friends if that that means fewer innocent people will die as a result of him losing it, and Democratic Senators in swing/red states won't be ousted by angry Trump fans if they vote to remove him, or angry Democrats if they vote not to.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

44. Funny how tRump manufactures an immigration crisis on his watch for his re-election purposes. . . nt

[hughee99]

50. Didn't Warren call this very same situation a "fake crisis" on March 14th of this year?

https://mobile.twitter.com/i/web/status/1106302258923343874

[ehrnst]

51. Not at all. She's talking about Trumps' fake crisis **at the border**

which was "we have no room left in the country" and that is was "criminals and child sex traffikers" who were flooding in, so that he needed money for a big tall wall RIGHT NOW. That was the fake crisis.

She was not talking about the situation in dentention centers and at the CBP stations.

Is that clearer?

[hughee99]

52. Actually, in the OP, the crisis she seems to be discussing is the larger flood of immigration

Of which, the detention centers are only one (though a major) aspect of it. She discusses a number of other serious issues that have nothing to do specifically with detention centers.

[ehrnst]

55. Actually, you were confused thinking that she switched her position

because you mistakenly thought that her recent "fake crisis" tweet was referring to what she saw last year.

I pointed out that it was due to POTUS's false claims about the "dangerousness" of immigrants who were crossing the border, and that the only solution was a big tall wall right now.

Is that clearer?

I understand that for some people, it's irritating to be corrected. But a simple "thank you for clearing that up" is more appropriate than moving the goalposts so that the person who corrected you appears to have misunderstood your incorrect assumption.

[hughee99]

57. Yes, being corrected does seem to irritate you.

While Trumps “big ass wall” solution is wrong, it’s the large numbers of immigrants that is the crisis. It’s clear from the OP that the government isn’t handling the situation well, and the large numbers are only making the problem worse.

Though I don’t expect you to thank me for clearing that up.

[ehrnst]

58. So you really do think that Warren "changed her mind" and now thinks "that very same situation"

in the FB post is a "fake crisis" because the more recent tweet you referenced?



Good to know where I 'got it wrong.'

[hughee99]

59. No, I don't think she changed her mind at all.

I think she always recognized that there was an immigration problem and that on their best day, the government doesn’t handle a relatively small number of immigrants very well, let alone a large number of them.

I think when she called this a “fake crisis” it was because it was politically expedient to do so at the moment, not because she believes it. I don’t think that was the best way to handle it, though. I didn’t think so then and I haven’t changed my mind either.

[ehrnst]

60. So you just think that she was lying when she tweeted that she disagreed with Trump.

I think when she called this a “fake crisis” it was because it was politically expedient to do so at the moment, not because she believes it. I don’t think that was the best way to handle it, though. I didn’t think so then and I haven’t changed my mind either.

[hughee99]

61. I think she thought the idea of the wall was stupid and wouldn't address

The actual problem. Instead of saying that, she attacked his assessment that there was a problem at all, even though she knew there was one.

[ehrnst]

63. So you think that she was lying in April when she said she disagreed with Trump

about the 'crisis" criminals and child sex traffikers were coming across the border, instead of refugees and asylum seekers because it was 'politically expedient."

So she agreed with him, except about the "wall" which she thinks is "stupid."

Gotcha.

[hughee99]

64. You can keep trying to rephrase what I said into something else,

But it doesn’t make it accurate.

How about if I ask YOU this...

Do you think that the large number of people arriving at the border is a crisis? Do you think the government should try to do something about it?

If you think they should, you agree with me and with what Warren said in your OP. Hell, we even agree with Trump, although Trumps “solution” to the problem won’t do anything to fix it, and will only make it worse. The problem itself isn’t “fake” though.

[ehrnst]

78. Wrong, I'm pointing out that you said she lied, even after being corrected on her tweet

Her response in her tweet was NOT to a question: "Do you think that the large number of people arriving at the border is a crisis?"

She was responding to Trump's claim that the crisis at the Southern border was that American citizens were 'in danger" because:

“It’s a great thing to do because we have an invasion of drugs, invasion of gangs, invasion of people,” the president said in seeking to justify the need for an emergency declaration.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the top two Democrats in Congress, said they would use “every available remedy” to overturn the emergency declaration.

“The president’s unlawful declaration over a crisis that does not exist does great violence to our Constitution and makes America less safe,” they said in a joint statement. “The president is not above the law. The Congress cannot let the president shred the Constitution.”

Trump's declaration made these false claims to stoke fears of a 'crisis" of huge numbers of "nefarious brown criminal rapist drug dealers" crossing the southern border that justified him declaring a "national security emergency" that would necessitate building a wall immediately to protect US citizens:

Violent smugglers are exploiting our laws and porous borders for their own gain.

Illegal aliens often use children to pose as families and gain entry into the country.

One in three women is sexually abused on the journey to our southern border.

The southern border is the primary entry point into the United States for deadly drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.

Tens of thousands of innocent American lives are being lost every year as drugs pour across our border – with more than 70,000 overdose deaths in 2017 alone.

Criminal aliens and gang members have used our weak borders to gain entry into our country.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-stands-declaration-national-emergency-southern-border/


That is what she stated was a "fake crisis" - 'dangerous immingrants coming to do us harm is a national security emergency" not the situation of the people currently in detention INSIDE the US that she observed a year ago. The tweet was about the lies that Trump was telling about the demographics of the immigrants....

Even after being told that, you continue to claim that her tweet wasn't sincere, it was political pandering - in other words, a lie.

I think when she called this a “fake crisis” it was because it was politically expedient to do so at the moment, not because she believes it.

[treestar]

67. The numbers of not unusually large

Before Dump, they were not all detained and children separated from parents only if there was evidence they were not their children but trafficking victims.

[treestar]

66. No, the fake crisis the Dump's claim that there are so many entrants

that we are being "flooded" and his making much of the caravans, which are normal, right before the 2018 election, so as to gin up fear. That is what she is talking about there. This is before the separation and detention policies.

[treestar]

65. Parents are so desperate to be reunited with their children that they may be trading in their legal

right to asylum. "

That's exactly what Dump wants.

Dump calls them members of gangs, yet in reality, they are the ones that don't want to be in gangs.

[Jakes Progress]

68. Millionaires becoming billionaires.

That's why we keep caging children and asylum seekers. They charge the government $750 a day per child. Spend $5 per child per day. Donate $10 per child per day to the soulless politicians who keep the scam going. Pocket millions per week as crooked, immoral, lying politicians (even some Democrats) keep voting to keep this system going as long as it lines their pockets and fills their campaign coffers. It appears that the majority of those elected to office are scum.

[zentrum]

69. Thank you Elizabeth

Every single Democrat in Congress needs to visit. And expose it.

[Bayard]

70. "The mothers say that they can hear babies cry at night. "

Why hasn't Congress started an investigation into these camps? Subpoena Alex Azar, head of Health & Human Services, which oversees them and sets policy. Even if tRump keeps him from testifying, wouldn't Congress still be allowed to do inspections, reports, and take photos? Open sessions. Get emergency court orders.

[TommyCelt]

71. Oh my gods...

Children in cages. Tanks in the streets.

This is not my country.

[MarianJack]

72. The Donald Trump/Steven Miller Concentration Camps.

Detestable,

RESIST!

[Demsrule86]

73. Thank you Sen. Warren...a very detailed report. Let's just say what is the truth...these are

concentration camps..disgusting. As An American I am appalled.

[gldstwmn]

74. Can the House cease to fund ICE?

[corbettkroehler]

75. Fear Of Truth Equals Loss Of Liberty

When we relinquish our humanity to goons paid with our tax dollars to exploit the most vulnerable among us, we become no better than the exploiters.

I struggle to determine whether the Statue of Liberty or the Sweet Lord Jesus Christ, whom Trump claims to worship and fear, finds these atrocities more despicable.

In the chaos which was the overcrowded first Democratic debates, a few candidates tried to focus attention on the forces driving the tidal wave of economic refugees north through Mexico. Alas, the format only allowed for a brief mention or two.

It's our trade policies which have shredded democracy in once proud Latin American nations in favor of bedlam! Leaving their citizens to flee for their lives.

[Buzz cook]

77. These are crimes against humanity.

There is no more apt description of what is happening on the border. Trump and his cronies need a Nuremberg trial.