Beto O’Rourke Calls for “Public Pressure” on Trump to Close Child Migrant Camp

Authored by motherjones.com and submitted by sbleezy

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Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) on Saturday urged Americans to pressure the Trump administration to close a child migrant camp run by the Department of Health and Human Services in Tornillo, Texas. More than 2,500 children, most of whom arrived unaccompanied at the border, are currently being kept there—due largely to a controversial Trump administration policy change that has made it more difficult to release the minors to adult sponsors.

There are 1,300 kids ready to leave to live with sponsors who have already been identified. But these children remain at Tornillo each day because this administration has deliberately prolonged the process of releasing them. — Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) December 15, 2018

O’Rourke called for the type of widespread activism that earlier this year helped force the administration to end its policy of separating migrant families who enter the country illegally. “The public pressure that you brought to bear after Father’s Day that ended the practice of family separation—we need that same pressure again, brought to bear on this administration, to close Tornillo,” O’Rourke said.

Joining O’Rourke were Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.). Merkley and O’Rourke are both considering running for president in 2020.

An update on Tornillo after this morning's tour: 2,700 kids are now being kept inside the camp that was originally opened for 360. Some have been there since summer. pic.twitter.com/B9AH7HeuMv — Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) December 15, 2018

The Tornillo camp opened in June amid the Trump administration’s family-separation crisis. It was originally supposed to hold only a few hundred minors, but it later expanded. Last month, an HHS inspector general report found that BCFS Health and Human Services, a nonprofit that runs Tornillo, wasn’t conducting required background checks on employees and called the level of mental health care for the children at the camp “especially worrisome.”

Merkley also criticized the facility on Twitter, calling it a “child prison camp.” He claimed officials refused to let the members of Congress speak to the children. (O’Rourke, however, said he was able to speak to some children at the facility. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Merkley’s tweet.) “The vast majority of these children have parents or other family members who are ready to sponsor them in the US,” Merkley continued, “but the Trump Administration has deliberately created a bottleneck so that it’s difficult for the children to be released.

GundoSkimmer on December 16th, 2018 at 04:40 UTC »

Just a friendly reminder congressman Ted Lieu played audio of the migrant camps while speaking on the floor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mq9bLt3r9g

Then went on twitter and said "fuck decorum" in response to the speaker's reasoning for silencing his efforts

suprmario on December 16th, 2018 at 01:12 UTC »

I don't think many people from even 2016 would believe this headline could be real.

whatwhatinthepretzel on December 16th, 2018 at 01:04 UTC »

I am so glad he hasn't let up on this. It's such a huge issue that so many people have become numb to--but not Beto. He's the only one who is consistently trying to fight it.