Trump threatens to veto border funding because it won't let him jail more babies
Trump issued a veto threat against a $4.5 billion House bill because it creates protections for children the Trump administration is jailing in unsafe conditions at the border.
The cruelty truly is the point.
Trump on Monday issued a veto threat against a $4.5 billion supplemental funding bill that both addresses the immigration crisis at the border and at the same time creates protections for immigrant children who are being housed in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
The added protections include creating rules that demand safer and better conditions for migrant kids, while at the same time banning funds from being used to jail more immigrant children arriving at the border, which the Associated Press reported made the measure “even less palatable” to Trump.
According to a statement of administration policy issued Monday night, the Trump administration says that the provisions to protect kids at the border “undermine child welfare.”
“Because this bill does not provide adequate funding to meet the current crisis, and because it contains partisan provisions designed to hamstring the Administration’s border enforcement efforts, the Administration opposes its passage,” the statement reads.
The conditions at the border are truly horrific.
Lawyers have described the facilities where children are jailed as “traumatic and dangerous,” with kids observed crusted in mucus and soiled clothes, going weeks without bathing or changing, and reports of them being served uncooked frozen food.
Children have also been forced to sleep on dirt and have had life-saving medications taken from them. In fact, half a dozen kids have died in U.S. custody.
And appallingly, the Trump administration has defended the horrific conditions, with a Department of Justice lawyer arguing in court that providing soap or toothbrushes to jailed kids is not necessary to meet the federally mandated rule of providing kids with a “safe and sanitary” environment. Unsurprisingly, the judges did not buy that argument.
By threatening to veto a bill that provides funding for the humanitarian crisis at the border just because it contains provisions to ensure immigrants are treated like human beings at the border, Trump is putting more lives at risk to satisfy his racist goals.
That’s about as disturbing as it gets.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
Recommended
Biden on abortion rights: President expects to give speech Tuesday on new Florida 6-week ban
‘Having the president of the United States speaking out loud and with confidence about abortion access is a great thing’
By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix - April 22, 2024Biden calls for expanded child tax credit, taxes on wealthy in $7.2 trillion budget plan
President Joe Biden released his budget request for the upcoming fiscal year Monday, calling on Congress to stick to the spending agreement brokered last year and to revamp tax laws so that the “wealthy pay their fair share.”
By Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom - March 11, 2024Biden rallies Democrats in Las Vegas: ‘Imagine the nightmare’ if Trump reelected
With a primary win all but inevitable, President Joe Biden used his Sunday appearance in Las Vegas’s Historic Westside to rally his most vocal supporters in a battleground state that delivered for him four years ago.
By April Corbin Girnus, Nevada Current - February 05, 2024