Is the Trump Administration Neglecting the Health of Migrant Children as a Deterrent?
Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) alleged that Homeland Security’s lack of care for undocumented minors is “intentional” during a hearing on Wednesday
By Ryan Bor
Concertina razor wire tops the border wall in San Luis, Arizona.
The Washington Post/Getty Images
Hours after President Trump declared in the White House Rose Garden that he doesn’t “do coverups,” his administration revealed that it had been hiding the death of a migrant girl at the border for the past eight months. On Thursday evening, CBS News reported .. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/migrant-children-death-a-10-year-old-migrant-girl-died-last-year-in-government-care-officials-acknowledge-exclusive/ .. that a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador died last September while under the care of the government. The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the death, which had not been previously disclosed.
HHS spokesman Mark Weber explained that the girl had a history of heart problems and was in a “medically fragile” state when she arrived at an Office of Refugee Resettlement facility last March. The girl’s name was not released, and it’s unclear why the death was not previously reported. “I have not seen any indication that the Trump administration disclosed the death of this young girl to the public or even to Congress,” Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-TX) told CBS. “And if that’s the case, they covered up her death for eight months, even though we were actively asking the question about whether any child had died or been seriously injured. We began asking that question last fall.”
Yes. Tough measures as a deterrent is virtually all of the policy.
Yes, There’s a Crisis on the Border. And It’s Trump’s Fault.
"Donald Trump’s Central America strategy is both cruel and incompetent" .. and the two back .. "Inside Trump’s Disastrous ‘Secret’ Drug War Plans for Central America "The Border Patrol Was Monstrous Under Obama. Imagine How Bad It Is Under Trump."" [...] Despite the administration’s attempts to shift blame for the chaos, make no mistake: It is Donald Trump himself who is responsible. Through misguided policies, political stunts and a failure of leadership, the president has created the conditions that allowed the asylum problem at the border to explode into a crisis. The solution to our current border troubles lies in reforming the U.S. asylum system and immigration courts and helping Central America address its challenges—not in a “big beautiful” wall or shutting down the border. Yet effective action on these issues has been missing. And the president has now so poisoned the political well with his approach that there is little hope of meaningful congressional action until after the next election. Unless the administration changes course, the immigration crisis will only continue to worsen.
Senate Approves $4.6 Billion for Border With Fewer Restrictions
Yes, There’s a Crisis on the Border. And It’s Trump’s Fault. "Donald Trump’s Central America strategy is both cruel and incompetent" .. and the two back .. "Inside Trump’s Disastrous ‘Secret’ Drug War Plans for Central America "The Border Patrol Was Monstrous Under Obama. Imagine How Bad It Is Under Trump.""
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California rejected the Senate’s bill even before the vote was taken. Tom Brenner for The New York Times
By Emily Cochrane and Julie Hirschfeld Davis
June 26, 2019
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday approved $4.6 billion in emergency humanitarian aid for the southwestern border, rejecting House legislation approved on Tuesday .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/us/politics/border-funding-vote.html?module=inline .. that sought to rein in President Trump’s immigration crackdown by setting much stronger conditions for how the money could be spent.
The action set up a stalemate over the border spending, even as tragic images of the migrant crisis and reports of children and families in squalid and overcrowded detention centers fueled an urgent push to reach an agreement.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California rejected the Senate’s bill even before the vote was taken, setting up a clash over immigration policy just days before Congress leaves Washington for a weeklong July 4 recess. Ms. Pelosi on Wednesday afternoon called Mr. Trump, who has threatened to veto the House bill, to discuss how to reconcile the dueling measures.
“They pass their bill; we respect that,” she said. “We passed our bill; we hope they would respect that. And there are some improvements that we think can be reconciled.” Sign Up for On Politics With Lisa Lerer
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In a 15-minute telephone call, Mr. Trump appeared to indicate to the speaker that he was willing to consider some changes to the Senate measure, according to a senior Democratic aide who described the conversation on the condition of anonymity.
Ms. Pelosi has found herself in a difficult spot: Many liberal lawmakers in her ranks agreed to support the House measure on Tuesday only because she added strict new conditions on the money. If those provisions are dropped in a compromise with the Senate and the White House, the resulting measure could pass with Republican votes, but it would badly divide her caucus, where many lawmakers fear the humanitarian aid package only enables Mr. Trump’s harsh immigration agenda.
After huddling with lawmakers in her office, Ms. Pelosi said late Wednesday that House Democrats would move on Thursday to modify the Senate bill by adding some provisions that members on her liberal flank had insisted upon earlier this week as a condition of supporting the aid.
The revisions include language setting stricter health and safety standards for facilities, a requirement that migrant children be released from temporary shelters after three months, a provision allowing lawmakers to visit facilities without notice and an assurance that the funding cannot be reprogrammed elsewhere.
[Lawmakers should be able to visit without notice unless the administration has something to hide.]
Tents outside the border station in Clint, Tex. Reports of children and families in squalid and overcrowded detention centers fueled an urgent push for Congress to reach an agreement. Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times
The overwhelming margin of the Senate vote, 84 to 8, underscored the contention by Senate Republicans that only their bill stood a chance of winning the president’s signature. Six Democrats and two Republicans voted against it.
“The House has not made much progress toward actually making a law, just more resistance theater,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. “The Senate has a better and more bipartisan way forward.”
“It’s a productive compromise that would go a long way to begin to address the border crisis,” Mr. McConnell added. “No poison pills, just a clean bill.”
Mr. Trump voiced his displeasure with the House bill on Wednesday morning, saying on Fox Business Network that he was “not happy with it because there is no money for protection.”
To make their point, Republican Senate leaders put the House’s $4.5 billion bill to a test vote; it failed, 37 to 55, with three Democrats voting against the measure. Seven Democrats, all presidential candidates, were not present ahead of the first Democratic debate in Miami on Wednesday night.
But Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, suggested a few changes to the Senate bill could win support among House Democratic leaders in time for quick final passage.
The Senate legislation would allocate about $1.3 billion to improve facilities at the border and $2.9 billion for the care of migrant children. The measure prohibits the Department of Homeland Security from adding more beds at detention centers or migrant processing facilities, ostensibly to slow the immigration crackdown. The Senate would require the department to allow congressional visits to facilities housing unaccompanied children with two days’ notice; the House bill would permit them with no notice at all.
House Democrats say the Senate measure does too little to ensure that conditions improve at detention facilities or at centers caring for children that are run by government contractors. The House bill includes language that would require Customs and Border Protection to establish plans and protocols to deliver medical care, improve nutrition and hygiene, and train personnel to ensure the health and safety of children and adults in custody.
It would mandate that the secretary of health and human services disclose which requirements were being temporarily waived to deal with a sudden influx of migrants. And the bill would limit the detention-center stay of any unaccompanied child to 90 days unless written notification was submitted to Congress attesting that no other facilities were available.
“No poison pills, just a clean bill,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said of the Senate bill. Tom Brenner for The New York Times
Democrats also attached requirements for translators at Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“The problem we’re having is that we keep giving money to an administration that doesn’t use it for the purposes we gave it to, or they steal money from other things and say that they’re going to use it for their priority,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington and the co-chairwoman of the Progressive Caucus, who pressed for stricter standards before agreeing to support the House bill.
“It was very clear that some of the things we got shouldn’t be revolutionary,” Ms. Jayapal added. “Should we have to say to an administration that you’ve got to get food and water to a child, or a medical exam, within 48 hours? That’s what they’re objecting to? I mean, let’s just point out the absurdity of that.”
Republican senators remain adamant that the emergency aid, widely seen as a temporary response to a more complex immigration crisis, needs to be stripped of policy provisions.
“Our goal is to get a good bill, keep it clean as we can and try to have the president on board,” said Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “If it’s loaded up with a bunch of House amendments, he will not sign it.”
Mr. Shelby said that Vice President Mike Pence had been designated as a point person for the White House in the final negotiations.
Even as they promoted their bill, Ms. Pelosi and Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, acknowledged publicly and privately that the Senate bill was not necessarily a nonstarter in their chamber.
“The Senate has a good bill,” Ms. Pelosi told her caucus during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, according to a senior Democratic aide who was not authorized to discuss the private meeting. “Our bill is much better.”
Mr. Schumer noted in floor remarks that while the House version “is a much better bill than the Senate version,” the broad bipartisan support in a Senate committee vote last week indicates that “there is room for compromise to get something done here.”
The Democratic-led House passed a $4.5 billion supplemental bill for humanitarian aid and border operations, setting up tough negotiations with the Senate as lawmakers race against the clock before the holiday recess. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=149604497
"Yes, There’s a Crisis on the Border. And It’s Trump’s Fault. "Donald Trump’s Central America strategy is both cruel and incompetent" .. and the two back .. "Inside Trump’s Disastrous ‘Secret’ Drug War Plans for Central America "The Border Patrol Was Monstrous Under Obama. Imagine How Bad It Is Under Trump."""
03.11.2020 03:32 PM
Donald Trump's latest pitch for the wall ignores basic science—and might only make things worse.
Photograph: Jim Watson/Getty Images
Responding to a tweet about the Covid-19 pandemic on Tuesday, President Trump wrote, "We need the Wall more than ever!" Trump had made a similar assertion during a rally in South Carolina at the end of February. "One of the reasons the numbers are so good: We will do everything in our power to keep the infection and those carrying the infection from entering our country," he said. "You've all seen the wall has gone up like magic."
Despite Trump's hard-liner immigration rhetoric, infectious diseases do not, in fact, respect or abide by borders. And the physical barriers at the southern United States border can't perform any magic when it comes to stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus.
In fact, research has shown that travel bans in general have limited impact .. https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/92/12/14-135590/en/ .. on slowing the spread of disease unless transmission is also on the decline within a community itself. The Trump administration has touted its move in January to bar foreign nationals who had recently visited China, the epicenter of the outbreak, from entering the US, and to mandate two-week quarantines for US citizens returning from China. Analysis of flu data, including details about the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak .. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016591 , indicate that while air travel restrictions can delay the spread of a disease—a worthwhile goal—they typically don't halt transmission. This is partly because air travel bans often go into effect too late and aren't strict enough to truly halt all movement. Meanwhile, transmission often expands in affected communities as a result of ground travel.
----- [INSERT: The Facts on Trump’s Travel Restrictions
[...]
* Trump has referred to the travel restrictions as a “travel ban.” There isn’t an outright ban, as there are exceptions, including for Americans and their family members.
* Trump said he was “bold” in imposing travel restrictions even though “everybody said, it’s too early, it’s too soon” and “a lot of people that work on this stuff almost exclusively” told him “don’t do it.” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the decision stemmed from “the uniform recommendations of the career public health officials here at HHS.”
* Trump said Democrats “loudly criticized and protested” his announced travel restrictions, and that they “called me a racist because I made that decision.” Trump is overstating Democratic opposition. None of the party’s congressional leaders and none of the Democratic candidates running for president have directly criticized that decision, though at least two Democrats have.
* Trump said the travel restrictions “saved a lot of lives” and reduced U.S. COVID-19 cases to “a very small number.” But experts say there isn’t enough data to make that determination. A study in the journal Science found the various travel limitations across the globe initially helped to slow the spread, but the number of cases worldwide rose anyway because the virus had already begun traveling undetected internationally.
New research .. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/03/05/science.aba9757 .. on Covid-19 in particular found that international travel restrictions in and out of China during December and January may not have ultimately minimized spread. An international team of researchers found that China's lockdown of Wuhan delayed the epidemic's progression by just three to five days within China. It had a larger effect internationally, but still only added a delay of a few weeks. Again, buying whatever time you can matters so that you can "flatten the curve" of infections to avoid overwhelming the health care system. But the idea that a literal wall would stop coronavirus is fanciful at best.
"The construction of additional wall or fencing along the US–Mexico border is essentially irrelevant to the management of Covid-19," says Christopher Wilson, deputy director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center.
There are both general and specific reasons that the barrier wouldn't play a significant role in the US's pandemic mitigation. For one thing, the US–Mexico border has not been a focal point in the virus's spread into the United States. On Monday, as the number of confirmed infections approached a thousand in the US, Mexico's Ministry of Health had confirmed only seven cases.
Doctors within Mexico are increasingly raising the alarm .. https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/doctor-questions-why-mexico-has-so-few-cases-of-coronavirus/ .. that this number likely under-represents the true number of cases in the country. But even if a wall were helpful in slowing the spread of disease, continuing to build out the US's southern border defenses would help Mexico far more than the US. If anything, advancing the physical wall would make people less likely to get screened in the first place.
"The effectiveness of mass quarantine is disputed in general," says Laurent Hébert-Dufresne, a researcher at the University of Vermont's Complex Systems Center focused on contagion modeling. "Barriers, whether physical or legal, make it harder to track and test people, which is never a good idea. The quarantine that is a good idea is self-imposed isolation, like people staying home or canceling social events."
Instead of prioritizing physical barriers at all, especially at the southern border, researchers say that the US should be focused on limiting Covid-19 spread at ports of entry around the country through screening and home quarantine orders. "There are over a million legal border crossings happening every day at the US–Mexico border," says Wilson. "In fiscal year 2019 there were just under a million unauthorized border crossings apprehended all year."
Airports and land borders also have existing infrastructure and staff, Wilson argues, to screen for high-risk travelers. "This is an important tool and, in the context of coronavirus, once again points in the direction of focusing border spending at the ports of entry as the most cost-effective way to strengthen border security," he says.
Meanwhile, border wall construction has moved slowly. Federal data obtained by The Washington Post .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/immigration/border-wall-progress/ .. in February, shows that the Trump administration is aiming to overhaul and add 450 miles of border barriers by the end of 2020. But this would require crews to construct 30 miles of new barrier per month, which is more than double the pace at which construction has been moving. Even if a wall did help fight the spread of Covid-19, which it does not, it wouldn't be done anywhere near in time to do so. In fact, it's been too late for weeks.
When asked at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday whether physical barriers at borders are part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendations for disease control efforts, CDC director Robert Redfield said, "Not that I’ve seen."
There are no easy solutions for dealing with a pandemic that disrupts daily life and threatens people's safety around the world. But as the international community mobilizes in an attempt to minimize suffering and death, there's no time to be distracted by ineffective measures.
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