Editor,
As a followup to your story “county funds immigrant aid” that was published in the July 30 edition of the Daily Journal, Lilli Rey and Lia Turk of the local “I want my Mommy” group joined forces with a USF Professor and her graduate students in Marriage and Family Therapy, as the Estamos Contigo Task Force, for five days on the ground volunteering at a humanitarian respite center in McAllen, Texas.
The southernmost Texas border represents a 21st century version of Ellis Island. Tired, poor asylum seekers and refugees create a steady flow, but have committed no crime by seeking refuge here. Primarily from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, they flee serious danger, threats of death or persecution.
The center welcomes a daily stream of 100 to 200 men, women and children released from immigration detention stays of days to months. We heard similar stories echoed each day. Kids talked of staying in “dog cages.” Adults referenced “the freezer,” where a pregnant woman was forced to stay alone for days, until she fainted. Everyone complained about sleeping on concrete floors. Fluorescent lights were on 24/7, disrupting sleep in crowded quarters with rustling aluminum “blankets.” No medical services were provided.
Basic human rights are being violated in these U.S. facilities. Please investigate this inhumanity and the money-making enterprises emerging around the business of private prisons, GPS ankle-bracelet monitors, guards and charges for telephone calls. There will be a panel presentation 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, at Adcock Community Center, 535 Kelly Ave., Half Moon Bay.
Lia Turk
Berkeley
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(4) comments
This is exactly why we need to build the wall so that foreigners can't illegally step one foot into our country affording them due process and entry into our country. Our president needs to shut down government if the funding for the wall is not approved by Congress. This is why he was elected and it was his #1 promise to us. We can't afford illegal immigration anymore and we can't have the US taxpayer paying all the bills for this nonsense. It would be cheaper to build the wall, then have Mexico pay for it by taxing remittances from nationals sending money back to their real homes.
Utter, complete, racist nonsense. There is no evidence that a wall would work, plenty that it won't. And again, most of those coming to the border are asylum seekers. Presenting yourself at the border is what the law requires. All of your focus is on the Mexico border. That accounts for only half of illegal immigration. You propose nothing to control the other 50%, nor does Putin's Puppet. Nor is it even clear that we need to do more than what we had been doing before the racist in chief was elected by racist voters. This myth that the taxpayer pays all the bills for immigration is another lie, one of many that both you and the Orange Liar tell over and over. And what a fantasy about taxing remittances! Legal marijuana at work.
Look! Another day, another unhinged rant from Dan - making up facts as he goes along. Time for a new playbook, maybe a playbook where there's an action plan instead of just criticism. Perhaps you could house a few illegal aliens and asylum seekers to save some taxpayer money.
How about we make it the central election issue for the midterms and then we will find out who is right? All your insults will not work on me Dan, you should know that by now.
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