https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0NQkLeM0r8
Here, there are 1,469 boys, ages 10 to 17, housed inside the 250,000-square-foot shell of a former Walmart superstore. None of the 313 bedrooms have doors. Or ceilings, so that children lying in their beds look up past where their walls end to the scaffolding of the superstore roof high above.
I have to agree with this commentator. This story also rocked my world and shifted my reality.
A quick summary:
There are thousands of children being held in cages in the US. Their crime: born to parents who decided to illegally cross the border. The parents are sent back home but the US separates them from their children and keeps them in detention camps where they are "treated like dogs". The children are escorted to the bathroom, hands tied behind their backs.
"This story is a test. The NSA and CIA watch and monitor everything. They are monitoring the public's reaction to this story. This is when thousands of people need to be on the street with signs - this is the test! If we let this happen, if we do nothing, if don't scream STOP RIGHT NOW!, ten years from now it might be YOU."
It only takes them 8 hours to flip a WalMart from a functioning store to one of these detention centers. Nothing's bolted down in a WalMart. So they can easily convert them into detention centers. This is even on Wikipedia.
"This isn't about the left and the right. It's to see if American's will finally get outraged."
He argues that boycotting WalMart would get them to change their actions. I have to disagree. I think WalMart has likely always been a government operation with this use as the intention all along. It does not rely on your dollar to stay afloat.
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lamplight ago
This is a real problem but after doing a little research, I found different sides to the story. " HHS can place unaccompanied children in an appropriate setting while a sponsor is identified who can care for the child while their immigration case proceeds. It helps protect the border but also prevents vulnerable kids to fall into the hands of traffickers, officials said.
“The lack of parental protection, and the hazardous journey they take, make unaccompanied alien children vulnerable to human trafficking, exploitation and abuse,” the HHS official said.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article213026379.html
I'm sure you all know there is a battle for the truth from the news sources. Each side being political in telling their particular slant on each story. We need to be careful and not assume one source is right and all others are wrong. This information war is mind boggling.
TrendyCantina ago
Regarding the first bit above, apparently these kids have been living there for four years. So the wording sounds a bit flowery compared with reality.
Factfinder2 ago
??
Why are you saying this stuff? The kids couldn't have been living there for four years. The center was only opened last year.
From the CNN article:
"At the Casa Padre shelter, which opened last year..."
...
"The boys at Casa Padre stay there an average of 49 days before being placed with a sponsor -- usually a relative -- reunited with parents or deported, said Sanchez, Southwest Key's president. The average for all ORR shelters is 56 days and rising."
TrendyCantina ago
Sorry, I meant in the detention camp(s). Did you watch the video? This isn't the only one. That's why Trump tweeted that this policy goes back to the Obama era. There are 10,000 kids in these camps at this time.
Factfinder2 ago
Okay, so you're not saying any one child would have been held for four years.
I have to say that if the conditions reported by news media inside Casa Padre are typical, I'd rather have the kids taken care of there than handed over to CPS and the corrupt foster system where their chances of being sexually abused skyrocket.
What is the alternative if the parents who brought them here are in jail for breaking the law? The kids obviously can't go to jail with their parents. Congress needs to change the law and allow immediate deportation for parents and kids who cross the border illegally so they're not caught up in our long legal process. But so far Congress won't take action.
TrendyCantina ago
Have you watched the video? I know it's long but it would make this back and forth easier. I said that the four years was not in regard to this location, the guy in the video is talking about multiple similar facilities. He did not say no one was being held 4 years.
The parents are not being jailed, they are being deported, back to their country. This is no justification for the U.S. To separate them from their children and keep the children here, no matter what conditions.
The Independent article I linked you, that was used as a reference in the video, says that these kids only get two hours of outdoor free time per day, where they are allowed outside. They rest of e time they are locked up inside the WalMart. This is just like jail.
This situation can't be made right by comparing it with child care services, in my opinion. Your argument relies on he assumption more trafficking and pedophilia exists in CPS than we would see at this WalMart. I would have to see proof of this, it doesn't sound accurate. The fact that a U.S. Congressman was disallowed from entering when he came leads me to believe what is going on inside (unless they are prepared for cameras) is not good, certainly no better than CPS.
My alternative, not that it changes this story or the need for us to react, would be to send the families back to their homeland INTACT.
Factfinder2 ago
You've removed the video from your post, so I can't rewatch. There's only your summary of it.
I have not read anywhere a news report that says parents are being deported while their children remain in a detention center in the U.S. If this is true, of course it is abominable! Do you have a link to a news report or govt. document/report that supports this allegation?
TrendyCantina ago
Why are you saying I've removed the video? It's at the top and still plays fine.
Factfinder2 ago
That's weird. I just tried again, and I saw it for a split second before it disappeared. I'll have to look into my settings. In any event, I did rewatch using the save by derram, and it hasn't changed from what I saw before--some guy passionately sharing his beliefs but not backing up anything he says.
I guess you and I are just different. I generally don't believe something just because someone says it's true unless they're in a position to know that it's true. So, for instance, why can't this YouTuber take the time to find the video for us that he says shows children being escorted to the toilet with their hands behind their backs? Why does he keep showing old photos from the Obama admin. and saying that's what's going on now? Maybe it is, but he's not showing anything to support it. The photos that the Texas facility provided for the news stories don't show cages or even kids sleeping on floors. He calls the photos fake, but many news reporters have actually visited the facility and they're not saying the photos are fake.
If you can find something to support the allegation that parents are being deported while their kids are still being held in U.S. detention centers, that would be a bombshell.
Sorry to be argumentative, Trendy, but facts are important in this work. It's the only thing that can give credibility to our cause. I'll sign off here and wish you a good evening.