11,786 Children

Notwithstanding Donald Trump’s executive order suspending that part of the “zero tolerance” policy separating children from parents who are arrested for illegal border crossings – effectively placing those children with their parents in criminal detention facilities – it appears that the ruling is primarily being applied prospectively. So far there is no plan to reunite all the children – approximately 2,000 – who have been separated already from their folks.

And exactly what is the U.S. government going to do with the 11,786 children – according to Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Service’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF) – currently held (as of 6/19) as minors who crossed the border without their parents? They are housed mostly in 100 “shelters” in 17 states, where they are provided with food, clothing, lodging, medical care, recreation and classroom instruction.

But when it comes to putting kids into the criminal detention with their parents, courts have ruled that keeping minors in such facilities for more than 20 days is illegal, so Trump’s executive order acknowledges that after that date, the children may be separated again or deported or... Theoretically, this is supposed to give Congress time to pass the statutes necessary to deal with the underlying issue, but competing factions within that legislative body are already making a timely solution anything but certain.

Strange how we have lived with the now abandoned “catch and release” program for decades, how illegal immigration had already reversed over the recent economic crises and how so many businesses – from farming to construction and food services – are faced with severe labor shortages due to immigration policies that do not fit with the realities of our economy. Republican and Democratic administrations to date, all of which have tried (unsuccessfully) to goad Congress into comprehensive immigration reform, have been able to keep stasis without Trump-administration-mandated cruelty that has been uniformly globally condemned.

The government has severely limited press access to any of these detention facilities, so most of the information we have is generated from government spokespeople, anecdotal evidence from those who have been inside, and the occasional photo or video that slips through. Even members of Congress have been denied access. And most interesting is the reality of Trump-world – outsourcing government functions to big corporations whose primary if not sole priority is profitability with lucrative contracts.

Yahoo News (6/19) decided to see what they could find, starting with data on government websites and “posted on the site GovTribe.com, which provides “real-time federal contract marketing data.” This information gives a glimpse of the recent growth of the government’s shelter system for young migrants and some of the companies who have lucrative contracts to participate in the program.

“Contract vehicles are one of the mechanisms the U.S. government uses to award contracts to vendors. The data reviewed by Yahoo News was for a contract vehicle called ‘Shelter Care for Unaccompanied Children 2022.’ This included 10 different contracts for up to approximately $92 million that were awarded to five different vendors starting in September 2017. The contracts include plans to operate the shelters through September 2022.”

The June 21^st FastCompany.com summarizes some of Yahoo’s findings: “Yahoo News has identified five companies that are operating the shelters used to house the children taken in President Trump’s controversial child separation policy. They are:

• Comprehensive Health Services Inc.: $65 million
• Dynamic Service Solutions: $8.7 million
• Southwest Key Programs: $1.8 million
• Dynamic Educational Systems: $5.6 million
• MVM: $9.5 million”

And all is not rosy in some of those shelters if current pleadings in a filed lawsuit are to be believed: “Migrant children in US custody are being involuntarily drugged to the point they cannot walk, stay awake, or maintain their physical or mental health, court filings allege.

“A class action lawsuit concerning the government's treatment of unaccompanied migrant children in their care was filed shortly after the government implemented its ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards illegal arrivals in April. But many of the abuses alleged in the filings go back years… The complaints don't strictly relate to children who have been separated from their parents at the US border, but shed new light on the government's ability to care for these children.

“Government contractors, including Texas' Shiloh Treatment Center and Virginia's Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center, have been accused of abusing children and overprescribing psychotropic drugs, with court documents saying one child was taking 18 drugs and 3 meal replacement shakes a day.” Business Insider, June 21^st.

Whatever the result, the level of inhumanity expressed by the Trump administration is staggering. Asylum-seekers are routinely placed into facilities with those who have admitted illegal crossings, contrary to U.S. law which requires such requests to be processed through the immigration courts. And while the DOJ has stated that domestic abuse is no long a rational for asylum, ICE is also routinely and illegally ignoring requests from immigrées from ultra-violent countries with genuine fears. Like those from San Salvador, El Salvador where gang members outnumber police two-to-one, daily shootings are routine, now producing one of the highest murder rates on earth. A recent outrage included sealing the doors of a passenger bus and setting it on fire to emolliate the occupants.

As many in Trump’s base, purportedly heavily evangelical (apparently with so many people who are obviously unfamiliar with the compassionate dictates of the New Testament), cheer the zero tolerance policy and think we should deal with those children harshly to deter others, I am sickened by the immorality, the lack of empathy particularly for little children, that has made the United States one of the most despised nations on earth today.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as I look at these governmental acts of violence and abuse against helpless children, I am ashamed to be an American; this is not the America I grew up in, the America I love.