GOP congressman: It's not fair to call the cages we use to hold children 'cages'

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), the top Republican on the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, has an interesting way of trying to defend the Trump administration’s practice of caging children, which he shared during a hearing Wednesday called, “Kids in Cages: Inhumane Treatment at the Border.”

“I’ve seen the facilities and I’ve not seen a single ‘cage’ in the way that it is being depicted,” Roy said at the hearing, challenging everyone who has ever visited the facilities or even seen images of chain-link holding cells. “I’m seeing ways to try to separate people and keep them safe.”

Roy went on to say that “we demean the process,” and law enforcement agents like those working for Border Patrol, “when we call them cages.”

Roy even objected to the hearing’s name, despite the widespread availability of images of children and other migrants being kept in caged facilities.

The congressman claimed the cages are being used for children to “keep them safe,” despite recent reports of widespread abuse and neglect, including sexual assault.

On Wednesday morning, just a few hours before his claim that families were being kept safe, reports from children who said they have been sexually assaulted in U.S. custody emerged.

The attacks reportedly occurred at a U.S. border facility in Yuma, Arizona.

“A 15-year-old girl from Honduras described a large, bearded officer putting his hands inside her bra, pulling down her underwear and groping her as part of what was meant to be a routine pat down in front of other immigrants and officers,” NBC News reported.

The outlet noted “dozens” of accounts from children who said they faced retaliation for protest in addition to sexual assault.

The new report echoes previous findings from government investigators who disclosed substandard conditions at border facilities in a report released last week.

Like Trump, Roy is denying reality to defend immigration policy that is mistreating children and their families. The cages are real, and families are not safe, no matter what the congressman claims.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.