Trump’s Child Detention Camps Spark Global Outcry

Date: 20 June 2018 - 21:13

News ID: ۵۴۲۱۶

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- The Wikipedia entry "List of concentration and internment camps" has seen the addition of the Trump administration's child detention centers which are being used to house immigrant children. The extensive list includes concentration camps used by the Nazi regime.
"As part of the 2018 Trump administration family separation policy, nearly 2,000 immigrant children have been taken from their parents and placed in 'detention centers,'" the Wikipedia entry currently reads under a section titled 'Separation of immigrant children.'
"These centers have been described by those in opposition to the policy as 'concentration camps.' The centers had previously been cited by Texas officials for more than 150 health violations," the entry reads.
"Several government officials disputed accusations of detention centers being concentration camps. Both White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the policy by citing the Bible,” the Wikipedia page continued.
"Sessions specifically cited Romans 13, saying, ‘I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes.’”
Mexico strongly condemned Trump's administration on Tuesday for its policy of separating immigrant children and parents detained after crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, calling it "inhuman".
"In the name of the Mexican government and people, I want to express our most categorical and energetic condemnation of this cruel and inhuman policy," Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray told a press conference.
"We call on the United States government, at the highest level, to reconsider this policy and give priority to the well being and rights of these boys and girls, regardless of their nationality and immigration status."
The Trump administration faces a growing swell of condemnation at home and abroad for the separations, the product of a "zero-tolerance" policy on undocumented migrants. The United Nations, international rights groups, Christian evangelicals, the pope, former U.S. first ladies and prominent figures in the president's own Republican party have all criticized the policy. Guatemala expressed its "concern" Tuesday over the policy and its effects.
U.S. officials say more than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents or guardians since early May, when the "zero-tolerance" policy was announced. Lawmakers who visited minors in detention in Texas and California have described crying children held in cage-like conditions behind chain-link fencing, with no idea when they will see their parents again.
A defiant Trump has vowed to prevent the United States from becoming a "migrant camp" and accused the opposition Democratic party of causing the crisis by blocking immigration reform legislation.
The vast majority of separated families come from Central America, where brutal gangs have made their countries among the most violent in the world. Around one percent of the detained children are Mexican, said Videgaray.