An American businessman specialized in Russian investments, but when President Vladimir Putin came to office, things went very bad. Putin threw this guy’s Russian attorney Sergei Magnitsky into jail and tortured him to death. The tactics they used to torture him include many Donald Trump has been using on immigrant children. It gets worse.
Right now, the administration has been following Putin’s torture playbook for the man the Magnitsky Act was named after. This law sanctioned Russia for how they treated people. For Magnitsky and American refugee children, this included lights on 24/7, isolation from family, limited to no medical treatment, way overly crowded conditions, the ability to only sleep in shifts due to that, inadequate food, rooms too cold, few showers, no windows, and no soap.
Now the White House has been trying to end a rule that protected immigrant and refugee children, the Flores Act. Trump wanted to keep families, including children, in indefinitely and keep the children’s attorneys and other protectors out.
Twenty states have formed a coalition and announced they have filed a lawsuit against 45’s administration’s attempts to hold children for unlimited amounts of time until the immigration courts hear them. Once children step across the country’s borders, they step into America’s arms.
California and Massachusetts have been leading the charge. Attorney General (AG) for the state of California Xavier Becerra released this statement The Los Angeles Times reported:
‘This new Trump rule callously puts at risk the safety and well-being of children. It undermines a decades-old agreement reached in court by the federal government to prevent the unlawful detention of immigrant children.’
AG Becerra continued, saying that the Trump administration’s actions would cause “irreparable harm to the children:”
‘No child deserves to be left in conditions inappropriate and harmful for their age. We’re taking the Trump Administration to court to protect children from the irreparable harm caused by unlawful and unnecessary detention. With our partners across the country, we will fight for the most vulnerable among us.’
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan released a statement announcing the administration’s upcoming change. He did say the courts would not go lightly on the rule change.
The states’ lawsuit charged that Trump’s White House will “endanger minors by removing state licensing requirements for family detention centers,” according to The Times.
In July, California sued the federal government, saying it was “not providing soap, clean water, or toothbrushes to detained refugee children:”
‘This has become a very frequent sight, but we’re not going to stop doing what we need to do unless the federal government stops trying to change the law by breaking the law.’
Becerra noted the state was “filing a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s public charge rule:”
‘The state has interest in this. California, its economy, its people, will be impacted. We’re going to go in as a party because the interests of our state are at stake.’
The states’ lawsuit argued that creating significantly larger numbers of children in detention would mean for-profit detention companies would just have a greater incentive to detain people. In addition, The Times wrote:
‘Prolonged detention under any circumstances has negative long-term medical (and emotional) consequences for children.’
The lawsuit claimed that the Trump rule violated the “Administrative Procedure Act and the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
McAleenan asserted that the detention centers provided good health care and met education standards:
‘Furniture, bedding, towels, clothing and toiletries are provided.’
The results of a 1997 lawsuit, the Flores agreement, resulted in better and more expedient treatment of immigrant families. In 2015, the government amended it to include the children of those families.
The White House proposed another rule change that was to take effect in October. It would impede immigrants who used Social Security or any other government benefits from being able to get permanent citizenship later.
California’s Governor Gavin Newsom (D) said:
‘Public charge is nothing but family separation by any other name.’
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
