We are all understandably outraged at the Tr*mp administration’s policies and treatment of immigrant children. But that photo at the top… that’s from a 2011 Frontline documentary about a similar camp during the Obama administration. The group that operates the facility in Brownsville, TX that has everyone in an uproar operates 5 more in the same county; nearly a dozen more throughout the state. And they have been in operation for 20 years. So while Twitler has made things worse — a lot worse — he isn’t alone in bearing the responsibility. Republicans have been working to make this nightmare for a long, long time.
The roots of the problem go back, to where else, the Reagan administration when it decided to start privatization of immigration services. Some more ugliness occurred during the final years of the Bush Sr. administration. But the real horror started under Bush the Lesser and his horribly malignant Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. In 2005 the policy known as “catch and release” was ended. This meant that immigrant populations at these camps were going to increase and increase dramatically. A boon to the various companies running the facilities… and a boondoggle for tax payers that would be sending huge amount of money to them.
Unfortunately any and all attempts at correcting the problem during the Obama administration were met by insane resistance and foot dragging in Congress all driven by xenophobia and attempts to appease the white nationalists in the GOP. And now we’ve got an administration that not only doesn’t care about the problem it seems hellbent on making it worse by the day.