04 July, 2019

u/FatSputnik on the situation for some of those detained at the border

https://np.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/c8rjhb/a_doctor_found_malnourished_and_sick_babies_in/esqeegu/
Imagine being 9, your parents giving you willingly to border patrol because ICE told you it'd be 15 minutes, then not seeing them for endless days that stretch on because you have no concept of time in a windowless jail house. They yell at you, wake you up at 2am(but you don't know what time it is, they just switch the lights on after you fall asleep), they give you frozen blocks of microwave meals, and you've been wearing the exact same clothes you've been wearing for the last 2 weeks. You aren't given water outside of your meals and are only allowed to use the washroom once a day- but when you do you swab yourself with toilet paper, to try to clean yourself a bit within 15 minutes. You're freezing cold at every moment, because they keep your cells freezing cold to limit your movement and stop you from moving/making noise, as you try to conserve warmth by holding still, a tactic that's a war crime- illegal to use ever against prisoners of war. Imagine being surrouneded by 100 other children, at every moment. No privacy, and everyone's yelling, crying, screaming, talking, coughing, puking. Everyone smells so bad because nobody else can use the washrooms, change clothes, or bathe. Rotting frozen food is left out if nobody eats it. Imagine being a little 12 year old girl, who gets her period during this time, surrounded by dozens of other kids. Imagine that hell.
Imagine being a mom, thinking of your child going through all of this, while you're in a cell as well.