Warren Binford talks about horror of migrant child detention center

It wasn't the cheeriest City Club talk I've ever been to, but it was one of the most important.

Warren Binford, from my seat at a City Club table

Today Warren Binford, a Willamette University law professor and children's rights expert, spoke about the history of child separations at the Mexican border and her four day visit to the Clint, Texas Border Patrol Facility.

Binford told us that the Clint facility, better termed a child warehouse, was built for about 100 adults, yet housed around 400 children. 

When asked "How have you been treated," they started to cry. Binford spoke with a 14 year old girl who was holding a tiny child. A seven year old girl was with the teenager. She wouldn't talk. The 14 year old didn't know either of the other children. Children arriving at the detention center are asked to care for other children.

Shameful? Of course. Sadly, the shame has been on display for many years, though the Trump administration has raised it to new heights. 

Binford described the lengthy history of what led up to, and followed, the Flores order -- a Supreme Court decision regarding the detention and release of unaccompanied children at the border. 

She started off her talk by asking people to read the testimony of some of those children, which had been printed on postcards, all with a different testimony, that had been left on City Club tables. I brought three cards home. 

Here's what those children said:

"At La Perrera, I was separated from mother over our objections. I was very worried and frightened because I was put with strangers." -- Maybeline, 13, El Salvador

"I let my mom know that I was getting sick. But there was nothing she could do." -- Ducesa, 12, Romania

"On the second day we were at the Hielera, they took my mother away from me and had her speak to someone on the phone, but they were speaking Spanish to her and my mother does not speak Spanish. I tried to go to her to translate for her, but they would not let me help my mom. They kept me away from her so she could not communicate our claim for asylum." -- Karla, 15, Guatemala

I was surprised to hear Binford say that these words came from a 1985 lawsuit against the Reagan administration, which alleged that children were being used as bait to get their parents. That case went on for 12 years.

Thus injustices against migrant children and their parents have been occurring in both Republican and Democratic administrations. 

However, what Binford and other advocates experienced at the Clint detention center this year must be at the Worst end of the child detention outrage scale. She said that the children there got little to eat, so were always hungry. Kool-aid was given at every meal. No milk. No fruit.

"We as a nation are in danger of losing our humanity," Binford said.

There was an outbreak of lice at the detention center. The staff told children to share the brushes and combs that had been given to them, which, of course, is a terrible way to handle a lice infestation. After a comb went missing, a staff member took away their bedding and made them sleep on a bare concrete floor.

Some of the children at Clint were being held in a windowless warehouse.

Binford visited the detention center in June 2019. A July story in the New York Times, "Hungry, Scared, and Sick: Inside the Migrant Detention Center in Clint, Tex." echoes what we heard at the City Club meeting today.

Here's how that story starts out:

CLINT, Tex. — Since the Border Patrol opened its station in Clint, Tex., in 2013, it was a fixture in this West Texas farm town. Separated from the surrounding cotton fields and cattle pastures by a razor-wire fence, the station stood on the town’s main road, near a feed store, the Good News Apostolic Church and La Indita Tortillería. Most people around Clint had little idea of what went on inside. Agents came and went in pickup trucks; buses pulled into the gates with the occasional load of children apprehended at the border, four miles south.

But inside the secretive site that is now on the front lines of the southwest border crisis, the men and women who work there were grappling with the stuff of nightmares.

Outbreaks of scabies, shingles and chickenpox were spreading among the hundreds of children and adults who were being held in cramped cells, agents said. The stench of the children’s dirty clothing was so strong it spread to the agents’ own clothing — people in town would scrunch their noses when they left work. The children cried constantly. One girl seemed likely enough to try to kill herself that the agents made her sleep on a cot in front of them, so they could watch her as they were processing new arrivals.

“It gets to a point where you start to become a robot,” said a veteran Border Patrol agent who has worked at the Clint station since it was built. He described following orders to take beds away from children to make more space in holding cells, part of a daily routine that he said had become “heartbreaking.”

Binford ended her talk by telling us what we could do to help. Here's the photo I took of her slide.

Binford also encouraged people to write op-ed opinion pieces for their local newspaper.

Of course, dumping Trump in 2020 is the best long-term strategy to help migrant children, since the Trump administration has been extremely anti-migrant, goings so far as to willfully separate children from their parents in a hope that this would discourage asylum seekers and others from entering the United States.

Comments

[tucson]

So what do you expect when 1000's of people travel 1000's of miles without shelter, food and sanitation? You get lice, disease, infection (not to mention 50% of migrant women being raped). It's not the border patrol's fault when they arrive diseased en masse overwhelming personnel and facilities (which is the plan of march organizers so more can slip through and vote for democrats that promise them the world free of charge paid for by despicable privileged rich white corporate racists, right?).

Thanks to Trump's deal with the Mexican government Mexico is now picking up the ball and helping to stop the flow of "asylum seekers". Apprehensions are down and overcrowding at detention facilities is diminished. Head lice is down. Antibiotics are being distributed appropriately. Thirst is being quenched.

The BEST thing for migrants is the Wall and strict border enforcement. Instead of desperate illegal attempts resulting in hardship more migrants will have to use legal channels to get into the country and as a result will have someplace to go, a job and the basic necessities of life. This is not racist or xenophobic. It is humane, practical and in the best interest of everyone on both sides of the border.

[Skyline]

Let's just pretend for a moment that Warren Binford's portrayal of the situation at the border is accurate. What is the most humane response?
ANSWER: Fund massive, multi-media press releases in Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries showing them EXACTLY what they will face when they make the trip to Disneyland.
If conditions are THAT bad, those choosing to make the trip should be fully informed before take one single step.
Remember; they're being fed a COMPLETE different story by the profiteers assisting them on their way.
NOT OUR FAULT!!!

[Jack Holloway]

“Not our fault . . ?”

For many decades now, the US has been overthrowing democratically elected governments throughout central and south America, and replacing them with bloodthirsty dictators. Guatemala and Honduras in particular have come under the de facto control of criminal gangs as a result of US interference in those countries' internal affairs, and the accession to power of criminal national leaderships backed by the US and by local oligarchies. Gangs, protected by the criminal national leadership, continually threaten the people of poor neighborhoods with death, and carry out those threats if their demands are not meant. As result of these conditions, brought into being by brutal US interferences, thousands of victims are now fleeing for their lives, and flocking to the US border where, they believe, they can be safe from criminal rulers and criminal gangs.

In contrast there is Venezuela, now under vicious attack from the US government. where the system of Constituent Assemblies* and municipal-level “collectivos” constructed under the leadership of Hugo Chavez, actually makes Venezuela far, far more democratic than the US is or ever has been.

*US government leadership, along with the US BigLie media, have convinced many in the US that Venezuela's constituent assemblies are illegal, that they are unconstitutional, and that therefor any elections conducted after such assemblies must be overturned.

Those and a host of other claims about conditions in Venezuela are blatant, outright lies.

Don't believe it? Take a look at this:

The National Constituent Assembly was clearly defined in the country’s 1999 Constitution, and was ratified by 71.8 percent of the country through a democratic vote.

Article 347 of the Venezuelan constitution says:
“The original constituent power rests with the people of Venezuela. This power may be exercised by calling a National Constituent Assembly for the purpose of transforming the State, creating a new juridical order and drawing up a new Constitution.”

Article 348 of the constitution spells out the various ways that a National Constituent Assembly can be called:
“The initiative for calling a National Constituent Assembly may emanate from the President of the Republic sitting with the Cabinet of Ministers; from the National Assembly by a two-thirds vote of its members; from the Municipal Councils in open session, by a two-thirds vote of their members; and from 15% of the voters registered with the Civil and Electoral Registry.” 

Article 349 prohibits the government from interfering in the process or the results of the Constituent Assemblies:
“The President of the Republic shall not have the power to object to the new Constitution. The existing constituted authorities shall not be permitted to obstruct the Constituent Assembly in any way. For purposes of the promulgation of the new Constitution, the same shall be published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Venezuela or in the Gazette of the Constituent Assembly.” 

These provisions, as stated above, make Venezuela a vastly more democratic country than the United States. The people of Venezuela have far more control over their government than do the people of the US.

But you did not know that, did you? Unfortunately the US population has been deliberately kept ignorant of such facts, they believe the lies that are fed to them 24 hours of every day, and the people of central and south America continue to suffer terribly as a result of US aggression against them.

That's why they come north.

[tucson]

These marches were instigated by opportunists, exploiters and activists who want to break the system by creating chaos at the border. Fortunately Trump got AMLO's attention and the situation has improved.

Inspired by the information above, I'm packing my bags for Venezuela. Obviously a shining example of democracy at work and a great place to live.