An audio recording that appears to capture the heartbreaking voices of small Spanish-speaking children crying out for their parents at a U.S. immigration facility took center stage Monday in the growing uproar over the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children from their parents.
“Papa! Papa!” one child is heard weeping in the audio file that was first reported by the nonprofit ProPublica and later provided to The Associated Press.
In shocking fashion, a border patrol agent is heard mocking the children. “We have an orchestra here! What we need is a conductor…”
Human rights attorney Jennifer Harbury said she received the tape from a whistleblower and told ProPublica it was recorded in the last week. She did not provide details about where exactly it was recorded.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said she had not heard the audio but said children taken into custody by the government are being treated humanely. She said the government has high standards for detention centers and the children are well cared for, stressing that Congress needs to plug loopholes in the law so families can stay together.
The audio surfaced as politicians and advocates flocked to the U.S.-Mexico border to visit U.S. immigration detention centers and turn up the pressure on the Trump administration.
And the backlash over the policy widened. The Mormon church said it is “deeply troubled” by the separation of families at the border and urged national leaders to find compassionate solutions. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, reversed a decision to send a National Guard helicopter from his state to the Mexican border to assist in a deployment, citing the administration’s “cruel and inhumane” policy.
At the border, an estimated 80 people pleaded guilty Monday to immigration charges, including some who asked the judge questions such as “What’s going to happen to my daughter?” and “What will happen to my son?”
Attorneys at the hearings said the immigrants had brought two dozen boys and girls with them to the U.S., and the judge replied that he didn’t know what would happen to their children.
Several groups of lawmakers toured a nearby facility in Brownsville, Texas, that houses hundreds of immigrant children.
Democratic Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico said the location was a former hospital converted into living quarters for children, with rooms divided by age group. There was even a small room for infants, complete with two high chairs, where two baby boys wore matching rugby style shirts with orange and white stripes.
Another group of lawmakers on Sunday visited an old warehouse in McAllen, Texas, where hundreds of children are being held in cages created by metal fencing. One cage held 20 youngsters.
More than 1,100 people were inside the large, dark facility, which is divided into separate wings for unaccompanied children, adults on their own, and mothers and fathers with children.
In Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for people trying to enter the U.S., Border Patrol officials say they must crack down on migrants and separate adults from children as a deterrent to others trying to get into the U.S. illegally.
“When you exempt a group of people from the law … that creates a draw,” said Manuel Padilla, the Border Patrol’s chief agent there.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, speaking to reporters during a tour of San Diego immigration detention facilities with Rep. Juan Vargas and other House Democrats, said family separation is a “heartbreaking, barbarian issue that could be changed in a moment by the president of the United States rescinding his action.”
“It so challenges the conscience of our country that it must be changed and must be changed immediately,” she said during a news conference at a San Diego terminal that is connected to the airport in Tijuana, Mexico, by a bridge.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas announced late Monday that he was introducing emergency legislation intended to keep immigrant families together.
“All Americans are rightly horrified by the images we are seeing on the news, children in tears pulled away from their mothers and fathers,” Cruz said. “This must stop.”
President Donald Trump emphatically defended his administration’s policy Monday, again falsely blaming Democrats.
“The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” he declared. “Not on my watch.”
(AP)
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19 Responses
It’s true. When you break the law, you get separated from your children. Ask any American prison inmate who celebrated Fathers Day behind bars.
Heartbreaking: Americans being manipulated by Mexicans who want to come here for free stuff. If the parents hadn’t brought the kids to the US illegally in the first place, none of this would have happened. Akin to human shields.
How about we should release from prison all U.S. CITIZENS that have children from prison?!?!?!? DONT DO THE CRIME SO YOU WON’T DO THE TIME!!!!
THE LIBTARDS LOVE HONDURANS & GUATEMALANS MORE THAN THIER OWN PEOPLE!!!
THAT ONLY INCREASES THE CHANCE FOR TRUMP 2020
To all idiots who compare these illegals to our grandparents situation 70 years ago: SHAME ON YOU how dare you compare someone going through the legal process seeking asylum to these wall climbers coming here for money and programs????!!!
THE AGUDA SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES & THIER CROOKED THINKING!!
the truth is they put out that statement only to find favor in coumos eyes- SAD!!
There parents should take them home, which they are allowed to do. If the parents are intent on abandoning the children, they should be sent to social services agencies in their home countries.
I agree 100% with all the above comments. I wonder, when are our elected representatives going to represent us? You know, the legal tax paying citizens. It’s terribly disturbing that the politicians are so concerned about people who are law breakers. There is a legal process to come here, if you don’t follow that process, you don’t belong here. You have no right to be here. These people know they’re breaking the law and there are , or should be consequence for their illegal behavior. Come here illegally, we have laws on the books to deal with the situation. Don’t like our laws? Don’t come in and complain that the law is being enforced. They should be refused entry and sent away. It’s not cruel, it’s the law.
Guess what happens if a couple gets caught shoplifting and has their kids with them…. they get separated from their children when they are arrested. This is totally fake news. It’s sad, the kids should be treated well, but i’m NOT sorry that we don’t have family rooms in prison. Why should criminals from other countries have more rights and better treatment then citizens that commit crimes?
Maga dittos
The charge for illegal entry is a misdemeanor. Anyone supporting this has no morals and no neshama. People seeking asylum are trying to save their children from violence and death in their own country, you wouldn’t try to save your children?
If someone is seeking asylum there are specific points of entry to go to. Not just crossing the border whenever and where ever you decide to.
Comments above are revolting. 66% of Americans are opposed to Trumps policy of seperating children from parents. Bill O’Reilly and Anthony Scarramucci have both taken to twitter to tell Trump to switch course. Trump supporters Ted Cruz, Orrin Hatch, Mark Medows have all said that this must stop. Republican stalwarts like Mitt Romney and Laura Bush have condemned this hearless policy. Agudas Yisrael issued a statement calling this policy wrong and imploring that it change. Have the writers of the comments above lost all sense of human decency? Where is there shame?
RT: Kindly keep your sanctimonious judgments about our “immorality” and “soullessness” to yourself. These people aren’t threatened. They are attempting to game our way too generous welfare system.
Arizona – wake up. You can’t get welfare anywhere in this country if you’re undocumented. The only exception is treatment in an emergency room. But food stamps, Medicaid, rent support – forget it. No valid ID – no help. Check the facts – don’t just believe what some politician tells you or something you hear on the radio.
Yes, people who go to jail in the US are usually separated from their children – except some programs for mothers with babies. However, these people have done nothing except try to cross the border, hardly a violent or threatening crime. Plenty of Jews in the 1930s had problems too, and some 100% Americans thought we were justified in sending them back to Hitler. There are plenty of ways to handle the situation, besides traumatizing kids and making us an international disgrace. And we’re Jews. At least I’m assuming that you are also. We are supposed to be merciful – rachamim bnei rachamim – but you’d never know it from some of the posts on this article.
Crazy kamoi : I don’t buy your 66% the polls were messed up and so are these numbers, the silent majority sticks with Trump all the way. MAGA 2020!!!!!
Arizona- I’ll leave the “sanctimonious judgements” to our Gedolim, the Agudah came out with a statement against this policy.
Just tell the children their parents are irresponsible idiots.
Putin- pro Trump evangelical leaders like Ralph Reed and Franklin Graham have publicly condemned Trump’s heartless policy. The 66% is pribably too low.
It’s dispicable – corrupt, hypocritical liberals grabbing for the moral highground – you should be ashamed – what nonsence. And political statements are not psak halacha. This is not Trump policy – it’s the law. Break the law and there are cosequences (see pirkei avos- Hevei mispallel lishloma shel malchus). It’s all very straightforward – reward people for criminal activity (yes, breaking into US borders is illegal as it well should be) by granting them asylum and it will continue to occur. You like MS-13; happy about what’s going on in Europe? You’re next.
Dbrim – So Orrin Hatch, TedCruz, Mark Medows, Laura Bush, Bill O’Reilly, Anthony Scarramucci, Ralph Reed and Franklin Graham are all “hypocritical liberals” now? There is a limit to how far one can engage in the senseless name calling and branding politics of Ingraham and Hannity. In any case, the “tough negotiator” Trump has apparently come to recognize that his policy is a failure and has promised executive action to stop this abuse.