https://www.washingtonpost.com/immi...a39790-e15f-11e9-b199-f638bf2c340f_story.html Federal judge blocks Trump administration from detaining migrant children for indefinite periods A federal judge in Los Angeles has blocked the Trump administration from activating new regulations that would have dramatically expanded its ability to detain migrant children with their parents for indefinite periods of time, dealing a blow to the president’s efforts to tamp down unauthorized border crossings. U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee issued the permanent injunction Friday, hours after hearing arguments from the Justice Department and advocates for immigrants in a long-running federal case in the Central District of California. Lawyers for the Justice Department had urged Gee to allow the Trump administration to withdraw from the Flores Settlement Agreement, a 1997 federal consent decree that sets basic standards for detaining migrant children. The decree led to a 20-day limit for holding children in detention facilities that have not been licensed by the states for the purpose of caring for minors.
https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...n-to-begin-dna-testing-on-detained-immigrants Trump administration seeks to begin DNA testing on detained immigrants The Trump administration is planning to begin collecting DNA samples from detained immigrants to be entered into a national criminal database. Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security told reporters in a conference call Wednesday that the Justice Department was readying a federal regulation that would grant immigration officers the power to collect DNA samples in federal detention facilities that are holding over 40,000 people, according to The New York Times. The policy will mark a significant expansion of the use of an existing database maintained by the FBI which has mostly been limited to holding genetic data collected from people who have been arrested, charged or convicted in connection with serious crimes. Officials would be allowed to collect DNA from children as well as migrants at legal points of entry who are seeking asylum. The change sparked concern among immigration and privacy advocates who say the policy could further endanger immigrants, many of whom already face profiling or discrimination. “That kind of mass collection alters the purpose of DNA collection from one of criminal investigation basically to population surveillance, which is basically contrary to our basic notions of a free, trusting, autonomous society,” Vera Eidelman, a staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told The Times. Homeland Security officials defended the policy Wednesday, saying the initiative was legal under the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005. Detained immigrants have so far been exempted under an Obama administration policy. T The rule was reportedly prompted in part by a pilot program conducted over the summer in which immigration officials used rapid DNA sampling technology to identify “fraudulent family units,” or adults suspected of falsely claiming children they were traveling with were their own so that they could be granted special protections designated to families. The program would be more expansive than the pilot in that it will provide a comprehensive DNA makeup rather than simply determine lineage. Officials did not lay out a timeline for the policy’s rollout but said that a working group was meeting weekly to plan its introduction. The proposal is part of a series of hardline policies from the Trump administration meant to curtail asylum claims and curb both legal and illegal border crossings.
Fight fire with fire. These people think they can continue to outsmart the system. Well, not so much. Maybe they will be 1/1024th Elizabeth Warren
https://www.newsweek.com/caliburn-i...oliday-party-trump-virginia-golf-club-1474080 COMPANY THAT HELPS U.S. DETAIN MIGRANT CHILDREN CALLS OFF PLANS TO HOLD HOLIDAY PARTY AT TRUMP GOLF CLUB A contractor responsible for housing detained migrant children across the U.S. has reportedly axed plans to host its holiday party at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia. According to CBS News, which broke the story, Caliburn International leadership sent out an email to workers on Monday notifying them that there would be a change in venue for their annual holiday party. "Our team leaders have made the decision to change the venue so that our employee holiday event is focused on the spirit of compassion and thankfulness to our employees who work every day supporting missions of humanitarian service, national security, and medical care around the world," the email said. RELATED STORIES African Asylum Seekers Had Claims Rejected Due To 'Lack Of Interpreters' The holiday party had been slated for December 6, according to CBS, which obtained an invitation outlining the initial plans. Guests had been asked to RSVP by November 19, according to the invite. Caliburn's initial decision to hold its holiday party at a Trump golf club reignited debate around whether it is ethical for a government body or contractor to host an event at a Trump property. The question is one that has repeatedly come up under the Trump administration, with it recently coming to light that the Secret Service had spent more than $250,000 at Trump properties over a five-month period in 2017, while the U.S. Air Force has also faced scrutiny over repeated stops made at president's Turnberry resort in Scotland.
Trump leading in dead migrant kids in custody by a large number #winning https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/us/border-migrant-death-carlos-vasquez.html Migrant Teen Lay for Hours in His Cell Before He Was Found Dead A video shows the boy in severe distress. He was discovered by his cellmate, not immigration officials, as they originally claimed. Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez collapsed onto the concrete floor of his Border Patrol holding cell early one morning in May. He lay still, next to a toilet in his sweatshirt and jeans for four hours before his cellmate woke up and found him dead. Mr. Hernandez Vasquez, a 16-year-old from Guatemala, had arrived in the United States six days earlier. At a federal processing center in McAllen, Texas, a nurse practitioner determined he had a 103-degree fever and the flu, and recommended that he be re-evaluated and hospitalized if his condition worsened. Instead he was left in his cell. The account of a young man’s life cut short — obtained first by ProPublica through public records — appears to contradict the government’s assurances about how Mr. Hernandez Vasquez was cared for. And it raises bigger questions about improvements federal authorities claim to have made to the health care provided to migrants in custody. Following Mr. Hernandez Vasquez’s death, a news release stated that he was discovered by federal agents during a welfare check. But a video recording provided by the Police Department in Weslaco, Texas, which initially investigated the case, shows that his death was flagged by his cellmate. Customs and Border Protection officials have not explained why the recording — in which the teenager vomits blood on the floor, his body crumpling and squirming in apparent distress — has a four-hour gap or why the nurse practitioner’s advice was ignored. In the last year, tens of millions of dollars have been poured into providing better care for sick migrants in federal custody, but problems persist. Mr. Hernandez Vasquez is the sixth migrant under 18 to have died in federal custody since President Trump took office. Though migrant children have crossed the southwestern border in large numbers during the past decade, none had died in federal custody until last year. A spokesman for Customs and Border Protection who asked not to be named said in a statement that the investigation into Mr. Hernandez’s death was proceeding, but did not comment on the specifics of the case. In the last year the number of medical practitioners along the southwestern border has increased more than tenfold, to 250 from 20, the statement said, and it noted that most of the agency’s facilities that process large numbers of migrants have medical support available 24 hours a day. An examination by The New York Times this year found that most of the Border Patrol’s facilities along the border did not have sufficient staffing or protocols to assess the health of migrants, and that years of warnings from both inside and outside the government had largely been ignored. The agency has historically seen its primary mission as law enforcement, but a record number of migrant families, many with young children, have created a new set of demands for caretaking. The agency has argued that it has been overwhelmed by the large numbers, and has had no choice but to hold detainees for much longer than the 72-hour stays the facilities are designed for because it does not have enough workers to process all the newcomers. Mr. Hernandez Vasquez entered the United States during the busiest month on record, when more than 144,116 people attempted to cross the border without authorization. Migrants are often sick or injured when they reach the American border — a problem that is exacerbated twice a year, by flu season in the colder months and by scorching heat in the summer. Many have walked for days or weeks by the time they arrive and are severely dehydrated and malnourished. Some traverse rocky terrain, scale walls and cross through coursing rivers full of debris. Shelter workers who receive migrants after they are processed by federal authorities say the care the migrants appear to have received is so minimal that they often have to be sent immediately to a hospital. Another migrant boy, Felipe Gómez Alonzo, 8, was also on his sixth day of detention in a Texas border facility and also had a 103-degree fever. He was taken to a hospital but discharged several hours later and returned to a holding cell at a Border Patrol highway checkpoint in December 2018. His condition worsened, and he died. His death, along with that of Jakelin Caal Maquin, 7, a migrant girl who died three weeks earlier, touched off an angry backlash from the public and lawmakers, who held hearings demanding answers. The Coast Guard and federal Public Health Service sent temporary medical help to border facilities in response. And an agencywide evaluation that followed led the Department of Homeland Security to introduce new policies requiring Border Patrol agents to conduct more thorough interviews of incoming migrants. The department also announced a $47 million contract for migrant medical care. The pressure on Border Patrol agents in recent months has waned because of new, more restrictive policies that have effectively blocked many migrants from entering the United States to request asylum. Apprehensions have dropped by nearly 100,000 since Mr. Hernandez Vasquez entered the country, to 45,250 in October, the most recent month available. Records provided by the Weslaco Police Department detail what investigators learned after local paramedics were called in response to Mr. Hernandez Vasquez’s death. When the teenager arrived on May 13, his incoming medical screening from immigration authorities said he was healthy, calm and alert. No concerns were raised about his health. He began waiting to be placed in a children’s shelter overseen by the Health and Human Services department. The facilities are designed to house young migrants for weeks or months until they can be released into the care of a family member or other sponsor, but the system was backed up in May, causing delays in placement. Three days into his wait, according to the records, an agent helped Mr. Hernandez Vasquez contact a friend or family member by phone. A shelter placement was identified on May 19, the records show, but by then Mr. Hernandez Vasquez was beginning to show signs of illness. An emergency medical treatment report shows he was given Tylenol after a fever diagnosis. The nurse practitioner requested that he be evaluated again in two hours, if not sooner, and that if his condition worsened, he be sent to an emergency room. The second evaluation never happened. He got his last hot meal just after midnight. In the hours before he died, Mr. Hernandez Vasquez could have been seen through a window in his cell as he collapsed onto a concrete bench and later onto the floor, where Mylar blankets, crackers and brightly colored juice bottles lay scattered. Four welfare checks were documented during that time, but the abridged video recording does not show anyone going into or out of his cell, and Mr. Hernandez Vasquez does not appear to move during the unexplained four-hour gap in the recording. After he was discovered by his cellmate, a physician assistant performed a single chest compression, according to the report, but stopped when blood started to pour out of his ear and his arms stiffened, showing signs of rigor mortis. He had no pulse. Investigators found a pool of blood around his head, though he did not appear to have cut himself. The trash can next to him contained a half-eaten sandwich and two unopened frozen burritos. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is looking into the young man’s death. Joel Rivera, Weslaco’s police chief, said the department closed its inquiry after it established there had been no foul play. He said the four-hour gap in the video was not explained by Customs and Border Protection officials. “What we’ve released is what we’ve got,” he said.
So you pulled it out of your ass. I kinda figured that was the case but wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. My guess is that sometimes kids in immigration hold have died from a variety of different causes, and did so under Obama and even before. Its just that the NYT, you and a host of other "actors" are drawing attention on this unfortunate case to continue to drive The Narrative. Happy to be proven wrong with hard data if you can find it.