Thread by @kazweida

Tonight, you’ll hear Trump address the nation about his immigration crisis.
Despite his lies, Trump is right about one thing.

We do have a crisis on our border.
A humanitarian crisis involving the mass incarceration of families seeking asylum.
#BoycottTrumpPrimeTime

(THREAD)

(2) First, let’s address Trump’s manufactured crisis.

In 2017, immigrants entering illegally at the southern border hit their lowest level in 46 years.

America’s current immigration rate is net zero since more people leave than currently enter.

washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2…

(3) In fact, recent government data confirms that most of the illegal immigration that occurs in this country doesn’t come across the Mexican border at all, but from those overstaying their visas.

cnbc.com/2019/01/08/des…

(4) In fact, in a 6-month period, CBP data shows they only detained 6 people from the national security watchlist that were non-US citizens at the southern border compared with 41 detained at the northern border.

The WH claims of 4,000 detained is a lie.

nbcnews.com/politics/immig…

(5) So immigration rates are down and we’re not encountering security risks flooding across the border. Why incur huge costs by detaining migrant families?

Trump and his administration appear to be trying to target and punish asylum seekers.

humanrightsfirst.org/press-release/…

(6) One inhumane effect of zero-tolerance policies has been the detention of children, seized from parents & held in camps. While public outrage forced the administration to "officially" stop family separations, huge numbers of children are still detained.
qz.com/1516566/migran…

(7) Today, while Trump spouts his racist rhetoric about walls and fallacies about migrant crime, I want to draw your attention to the real humanitarian crisis on our borders.

The systemic abuse of men, women, and children imprisoned for seeking asylum.

thedailybeast.com/doctors-warn-m…

(8) Let’s start with just a few of the 22 immigrants who died in ICE detention centers in the past two years.

We can start with one of the most egregious cases that appears to have involved violent assault and abuse- Roxana Hernandez

nbcnews.com/politics/immig…

(9) Roxana Hernandez was a 33-year-old transgender woman from Honduras who arrived at the U.S. border seeking asylum as part of a migrant caravan. She died within two weeks of entering ICE custody as she awaited deportation.

thecut.com/2018/12/roxana…

(10) While the initial cause of death was listed as pneumonia, dehydration, and complications from HIV, an independent autopsy indicates Roxana had been abused and beaten before her death.

Democrats in Congress have called for an investigation.

cnn.com/2018/05/31/hea…

(11) Some of the recent deaths have been of children like Jakelin Caal Maquin (7) and Felipe Alonzo-Gomez (8).

Jakelin died of dehydration within 24 hours of being in government custody, something a simple health screening could have detected.

vox.com/2018/12/18/181…

(12) The heartbreaking death of Felipe Alonzo-Gomez on Christmas Eve may have been from influenza, but it provided further evidence of the lack of proper medical care and callous treatment employed by the CBD to discourage asylum seekers.

cnn.com/2018/12/26/us/…

(13) Recently, Mergensana Amar hung himself in a Northwest Key detention facility. He was one of 74 who have died since 2010 inside these facilities for immigrants and echoed concerns about conditions, particularly medical and mental-health treatment.

seattletimes.com/seattle-news/r…

(14) As the administration separated families at the border, these suicides spiked.
Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba. Marco Antonio Munoz.

In 2017, Jean Jimenez-Joseph hanged himself at a facility after 19 consecutive days in solitary confinement.

wapo.st/2sOatTu?tid=ss…

(15) That’s just a small glimpse at the sorts of deaths that occur in this massive for-profit system that is incarcerating migrant families.

There is also widespread, systemic sexual abuse, most notably of teenagers and children.

propublica.org/article/boysto…

(16) There are even allegations of the torture of teens in facilities in Virginia, where children as young as 12 were starved, strapped down with bags over their heads for hours on end, and appeared to suffer broken bones and bruises from abusive guards.

commondreams.org/news/2018/06/2…

(17) And there is the lasting trauma for children, separated from their parents at the border, shuttled about to camps or foster homes.

Some of them as young as 10 months old. Others teens destroyed by the separation from their families and suicidal.

propublica.org/article/trump-…

(18) There is an immigration crisis at our southern border.

And it’s being perpetuated by a xenophobic administration who is inflicting, with gleeful cruelty, a zero-tolerance border policy that is resulting in the deaths of asylum seekers.

(END)
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