Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Says U.S. Is 'Running Concentration Camps on Our Southern Border'

[Ana_v]

So, one may disagree with the article, I think if one is talking about the “present administration”, was the press and others as vocal about what happened under Obama? It looks like holding facilities actually may be better now.

Addressing this to everyone on this thread: Believe it or not, it is possible to discuss current events and Trump’s approach to the problem of illegal immigration without resorting to What-About-Obama-ism.

As for media coverage of the Obama era handling of immigration – where do people get the idea that this wasn’t critiqued, or critiqued enough? Is it not also possible that consumers of Fox News and like minded new sources did not tune into left-leaning criticisms of Obama because they don’t rely on left-leaning media for news?

And right-leaning media had to decide which they preferred: to either acknowledge and praise Obama’s handling for its relative “stringency”, or to be quiet about it so as to not give the impression of being “supportive of Obama” and thereby give him credibility.

Sometimes, the problem with news media is selective coverage. Sometimes, the problem is with consumers and their echo chambers.

(Aug 2016)

Obama Has Deported More People Than Any Other President

Trump may be getting closer to Obama's recent policy.

abcnews.go.com

Anyone Who Says The Media Ignored Obama's Border Crisis Is Wrong

Trump's policy of taking children from their parents has made US immigration practices seem crueler than ever.

www.buzzfeednews.com

 

[Ana_v]

regard the “inhumane detention centers” as awful and wonder why people can, in good conscience, encourage people to come to the US knowing they will be subject to “inhumane detention” in disease and filth ridden camps. Why do people lie to our brown brothers and tell them that things are better in the racist and inhuman US “of KKK” A (to quote our former President’s favorite pastor)?

For the same reasons you would allow your children to be born in the U.S. instead of becoming an expat and relocating abroad and starting a new life elsewhere away from a country that permits/mandates inhumane treatment and has racism problems.

Again, no one is arguing that the reason migrants should come is so they be subjected to inhumane treatment or racism.

And you understand the distinction between forseeing and willing? A woman with a pro-life conscience who has an ectopic pregnancy forsees that having a salpingectomy means losing her child – but she doesn’t will the death of the child.

People who tolerate or encourage desperate migrants to come to the U.S. are not doing so for the possible inhumane treatment that might suffer when apprehended by law enforcement.
They are doing so with with the “greater goods” they would have here than in their home conditions (e.g. better wages).

 

[dvdjs]

progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Thank you for the links.

 

[Theo520]

As for media coverage of the Obama era handling of immigration – where do people get the idea that this wasn’t critiqued, or critiqued enough?

It’s crystal clear in how they are covering the current issues.
They aren’t critiquing the USA’s long standing practices, they are assigning full responsibility to Trump Policy.

 

[Ana_v]

They aren’t critiquing the USA’s long standing practices, they are assigning full responsibility to Trump Policy.

What are the “USA’s long-standing practices” on immigration that you are referring to? Because one of the very points that is brought up by people who defend migrants’ choice to come to the U.S. (legally or not), is a contrast between the “the America of old” and “the America of today”, e.g. Ellis Island. Not the least of these points having to do with how cumbersome the
legal-immigration process has become, which disproportionately affects those who are precisely the most desperate to immigrate but have the least economic resources and whose very livelihood/lives depends on expediency and efficiency.

As to your second point -

Executive orders issued by Trump pertaining to immigration, refugees and assylum seekers (whether interior enforcement or border enforcement) are certainly his responsibility.

What you see as people “assigning total blame to Trump”, other people see as “assigning due blame to Trump”.

 

[JonNC]

that people who sympathize with the plight that migrants face in their native countries, should regard inhumane detention centers as the “better life” that migrants aspire to. Please.

I’m not seeing that sympathy. What do you suggest we do to help them live a better life in their home countries.
I suggest make all foreign aid contingent on the government there adopt policies of limited government, the primacy of individual rights, and free markets.
Thoughts?

 

[Theo520]

I suggest make all foreign aid contingent on the government their adopt policies of limited government, the primacy of individual rights, and free markets.
Thoughts?

I’ve thought we should rate countries and it would affect their eligibility for aid. Initial focus should be institutional.

• Rule of Law, with independent judiciary
• Free and effective primary education
• ? (saw research with a list yrs ago, but forgot it)

All other aide should practice subsidiarity, where we help those who are helping themselves. Outside of natural disaster, our aide should not be supplanting what they can readily do for themselves. So we might help them build clinics and train nurses, but we wouldn’t just step in and build a slew of clinics or small schools.

This approach might be spotty in it’s application, since some countries with needs (we perceive) might not get as much help as their neighbor. But if the neighbor begins to grow and prosper, it reinforces the path.

Far too much aid is focused on fundraising optics back home, not on tangible results. Many NGO’s go around building small schools or digging wells. But these locals are also very adept at building a mud brick school room/house, or digging a well with their tools and manpower. Our role should be limited to some technical guidance or accessories for the school that they really want. We might help them pick the well location and share a design, but we don’t do it for them.

Sponsoring a child is the best worst example I can show. It’s all done for the fundraising optics rather than enabling a strong and sustainable community where the child lives. The provider pops in every few weeks or monthly with expensive shoes, clothing, money, and helps the child complete a form letter to the sponsor. This form of aid causes strife in the family and community, it doesn’t strengthen either.

 

[gracepoole]

gracepoole:

If I stood in that same spot and cried over this issue, would you mock me too?

If I catch you crying over an empty parking lot, you too will be mocked

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

"But the claim that got the most attention, pushed by viral conspiracy and junk news websites, made unfounded accusations that the photographs of Ocasio-Cortez were fake and that she was actually crying over an empty parking lot. Russian state media outlet RT and ZeroHedge were among junk news sites taking a cue from Alex Jones’ InfoWars network in that regard. The latter posted an unfounded story on June 24, 2019, that posited the “empty parking lot” conspiracy theory.

“The photos show an emotional AOC holding her face and appearing to cry. Her attention appears to be directed towards whatever is on the other side of the fence,” InfoWars reported. “However, a photo from a different angle shows there is nothing there aside from an empty parking lot and some police officers.”

The conspiracy theory was a low-effort jab that required viewers not ask what lay just beyond the camera lens or seek out additional, readily available information about the event. Police weren’t guarding an empty parking lot, and the photographs weren’t newly uncovered.

The photographs touted by InfoWars were in fact those shot by Aguirre, who posted them on his Twitter account one year prior to InfoWars’ “newly uncovering” them.

The so-called empty parking lot was in fact a roadway leading towards the Tornillo Border Patrol station, where thousands of migrant children were housed in a tent city.

“It wasn’t an empty parking lot; it’s an entrance and we [media and protesters] weren’t allowed to go past that,” Aguirre told us.

He sent us another photograph in which the roadway and the fence blocking access to the migrant camp could be seen:

[IMG ]https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2019/06/tornillo.jpg?resize=600,385[/IMG]

Courtesy: Ivan Pierre Aguirre

Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t the first or last person to get emotional after reaching that fence. “She finally got to the fence and right beyond that road, way to the left, was the [migrant tent city] camp, and it represented something that made her emotional,” Aguirre told us. “I’ve been out there, and some people get mad, some people cry, some people pray. No one questioned her [when the photographs were posted] last year.”

I’m genuinely disappointed. People here are using Alex Jones as legitimate and credible support?!

 

[kat07]

AOC didn’t even tour the facilities when there, she refused. It’s been reported she only yelled and screamed at the BCP and staff. Then the other day when asked by a reporter if she saw anyone actually drinking out toilets, she rolled up her car window and drove off without answering the question.

 

[gracepoole]

What, no criticism of her watch?

She refused to take part in a propaganda tour of the facility and demanded instead to speak with migrant women. If only the IRC had done the same in Terezin…

 

[kat07]

Well Rep. Kennedy toured and he didn’t come out saying they were drinking out of toilets. AOC said she saw them drink out toilets when she didn’t. She’s lying.

 

[gracepoole]

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[kat07]

“This was in fact the type of toilet WE SAW in the cell.” - @AOC (from the screenshot you posted)

“Now I’ve SEEN the inside of these facilities. It’s not just the kids. It’s everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members Congress.”

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"After I forced myself into a cell w/ women&began speaking to them, one of them described their treatment at the hands of officers as “psychological warfare” – waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them wh*res, etc. Tell me what about that is due to a “lack of funding?”

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Again she refused to tour the facilities, but is claiming to have see things inside the facilities. Again she’s lying. The President of the National Border Patrol Council is also demanding the videos be released to show she’s that she was treated with respect and dignity and her claims to that affect are blatant lies as well.

A CBP agent present said this about AOC’s “drinking out of toilets” narrative: “So this is what happened with the migrant and drinking water from toilet: She wanted water, didn’t know how to use the faucet in the cell, and drank from the toilet,” the agent said. The agent reiterated that the woman never told the congresswoman that she was forced to drink out of the toilet bowl. “She never told AOC that we made her drink from the toilet,” the agent added. “AOC, of course, changed it. This was when she [the migrant] was apprehended and brought into the facility.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - Washington Examiner

www.washingtonexaminer.com

 

[Theo520]

I’m genuinely disappointed. People here are using Alex Jones as legitimate and credible support?!

? I never used him, why did you add it below what I posted.

And most real news should be double checked, and alex may be reporting the facts.

 

[F_Marturana]

What a Pediatrician Saw Inside a Border Patrol Warehouse

Dolly Lucio Sevier evaluated dozens of sick children at a facility in South Texas. She found evidence of infection, malnutrition, and psychological trauma.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[Theo520]

Yes, we need to give them the resources to do their job,
and oversight to ensure it is done well.

Current conditions are not acceptable, but that doesn’t justify releasing everyone.