Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Rich-from-birth Donald Trump never faced deprivation, a lack of dental or medical care, economic hopelessness, a bare and shameful caged life, separation from parents or children and a complete unknowing future that could entail indefinite incarceration… all because of desire to escape violence or seek a life where his children could find food, shelter and education.

I am equally shocked at that evangelical portion of his base that wishes to ban abortions but favors military intervention in the Middle East, the death penalty and seems to deny the New Testament’s charitable mandate and admonition to “love thy neighbor”... as they champion an immigration policy that is both cruel and ill-conceived. What would Jesus do? Read the Bible and find out! “Love thy neighbor” is not an allusion to your immediate neighbor! Opening your heart and pocketbook is not relegated to support whites born in the U.S. only!

The fact of the matter is that Donald Trump stumbled on a sensitivity to blue-collar workers’ belief that foreigners and undocumented aliens were taking their jobs away – maybe valid 10-20 years ago but long since replaced by automation. His shoot-from-the-hip campaign somehow took a “how about building a wall” ad hoc statement, found the audience loved that… and turned it into an immigration policy that not only slams the poor fleeing violence and seeking a better life for their families… but excludes highly-educated scientists and engineers needed by American industry… the real job creators.

What underscores Trump policies is how little thought goes into the obvious impact his shoot-from-the-hip invectives have across the board, that implementation requires expensive and careful preplanning, and that caring about human values has to be a component of every decision he makes. But none of that seems to happen, a factor so clearly evident with his “zero tolerance” immigration policies that still separate little children from their families or force those youngsters into terrifying detention facilities. He literally shifted hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer and AIDs research into building more detention facilities!

“The Trump administration botched the implementation of its ‘zero tolerance’ border policy this year and failed to adequately prepare for the consequences of separating immigrant children from their parents, according to a report released Tuesday by federal investigators.

“The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general found that separated children were routinely held for five days or more in detention centers that were not equipped for long-term stays. In one case, a child remained in such a detention center for 25 days.

“Once families were detained, the report says, the administration routinely lost track of the locations of separated parents and minors. A central database the administration said it built to help reunify families was, in reality, a hastily thrown together spreadsheet that was incomplete and full of errors.

“The Department of Homeland Security “struggled to identify, track and reunify families separated under zero tolerance due to limitations with its information technology systems … raising questions about the government’s ability to accurately report on separations and subsequent reunifications,” the report found.

“It marked the federal government’s first independent assessment of the ill-fated zero-tolerance policy and resulting fallout, which sparked widespread protest this year when more than 2,600 immigrant children were separated from their parents and placed into government custody. The outcry was so loud that President Trump issued an executive order halting the practice on June 20.

“Soon after, a federal court ruled the separations were illegal and ordered families reunified within 30 days. But even then, the administration struggled to comply. By late last month, hundreds of detained children were still not back with their parents.

“In a written response to the investigators, the Department of Homeland Security took issue with several of the findings. It said investigators did not take into account complicating factors that delayed the placement of children into long-term facilities, such as medical issues. And the department objected to the report’s characterization of its efforts to keep track of families and reunify them as disorganized and technologically incompetent.” Los Angeles Times, October 3^rd. Hey Homeland Security folks, you should have anticipated the obvious!!!!

But if that cruelty is not enough, there are adults in detention facilities that should shock the conscience of every American. Take for example this report, also in the October 3^rd Los Angeles Times, of one such facility, Adelanto ICE Processing Facility, in Southern California: “When federal officials arrived in May of this year for a surprise inspection of the privately-run immigration detention facility, they found nooses made from bedsheets in 15 of 20 cells.

“When we asked two contract guards who oversaw the housing units why they did not remove the bedsheets, they echoed it was not a ‘high priority,’ officials with the Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s office wrote in a scathing report made public Tuesday [10/2] detailing dangerous conditions found at the facility during their unannounced visit.

“The nooses are just one of many problems posing ‘significant health and safety risks’ identified by federal inspectors at Adelanto, which can house nearly 2,000 detainees as they await the outcome of their immigration cases.

“Detainees reported waiting ‘weeks and months’ to see a doctor, and inspectors met with a dentist who dismissed the necessity of fillings, and suggested that detainees use string from their socks to floss, the report said.

Inspectors also said they found that detainees were commonly subjected to disciplinary segregation before being found guilty of violating rules.

“The report is the latest from government inspectors to document significant deficiencies at Adelanto since it opened in 2011… It comes one year after immigrant advocates raised alarms about conditions at the facility following the deaths of three detainees in a three-month period in 2017.

“The Times reported in August 2017 that there had been at least five attempted suicides at the facility in less than one year, according to a review of 911 calls…

“Some detainees arrive at the facility soon after crossing the border; others after having lived in the U.S. for decades. They can stay in detention for months, and in some cases years, as their cases are decided… Pablo Paez, a spokesman for GEO Group, referred questions about the inspector general’s report to ICE.

“According to the report, in the months after Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba, 32, of Nicaragua was found hanging from bedsheets in his cell and later died, ICE compliance reports documented at least three suicide attempts by hanging at Adelanto, two of which specifically used bedsheets.

“Still, when inspectors visited the facility, they found braided sheets that both staff and detainees referred to as nooses hanging from the vents in 15 of the approximately 20 male detainee cells that they visited in four housing units.

“The guard who escorted the inspectors began removing the nooses but stopped after realizing how many there were, the report said. Some detainees said they use the unfurled sheets for privacy, while others said they used them as clotheslines.

“One detainee, however, told inspectors that he had seen ‘a few attempted suicides using the braided sheets by the vents.’… ‘The guards laugh at them and call them ‘suicide failures’ once they are back from medical,’ the detainee told officials.”

For those of us who believe in God and a moral mandate, perhaps even the existence of heaven and hell, these moral, legal and ethical choices by our government, especially the support they are drawing from people who seem to think they are committed Christians, is nothing short of some of the worst human conduct imaginable. Unjustified by any explanation. Immoral under virtually any religious code. And, most of all, deeply un-American!

I’m Peter Dekom, and if good people do not stand up and fight a system that even permits such activity, the United States will continue to sink into a moral abyss that would send shudders of shame if our forefathers could only witness this horrific abuse of the most fundamental principles of a once-democratic nation.