Migrant Children in U.S. Custody Left in Vans for Days

[Content Note: Nativism; child abuse.]

When the Trump Regime tried to reunite families torn apart by their "zero tolerance" policy one night last summer, the whole operation went sideways, and children were left in vans for two days in the sweltering Texas heat.

Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley at NBC News report:

Under the blistering Texas sun last July, 37 migrant children boarded vans for what was supposed to be a 30-minute ride. At the end of the road from Harlingen to Los Fresnos lay the promise of hugs, kisses, and long overdue reunification with their parents, from whom they were taken when the Trump administration began systematically separating migrant families who crossed the border illegally.

But when the children, all between 5 and 12 years old, arrived at Immigration and Customs Enforcement's adults-only Port Isabel Detention Center, rather than seeing their parents, they saw a parking lot full of vans just like theirs, with children from other facilities who, just like them, were waiting to be processed and reunified with their parents.

It was 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 15, 2018.

Not until 39 hours later — after two nights in a van — did the last child step out of a van to be reunited. Most spent at least 23 hours in the vehicles.

...At 10:30 p.m. local time Sunday, Andrew Carter, the BCFS regional director responsible for the children, e-mailed Kevin Dinnin, the company's president and CEO, to alert him to the fact that the 37 children had been waiting for eight hours and not a single one had been processed for reunification.

...Not until 5:50 a.m. on Tuesday was the final child reunified.

Certainly part of the reason it took so long to figure out what was going on — in addition to the fact that "Despite two notifications from HHS that the children would be arriving, ICE officers kept to their regular schedule, clocking out for the day while the parking lot filled with children eager to see their parents again" — is the rather significant problem, as previously reported by NBC News, that the Trump Regime had created no way to link separated children with their parents. It was all a mad scramble to try to figure out how to reunite the families, while the children were baking in hot vans.

Again, this happened last July, and we're only finding out about it now. I am terrified about what else has happened, and what may be happening right now, that we don't know about.

And I am very sad and very angry about everything we do know.

If leaving frightened children cooking in hot vans in the Texas summer doesn't underline the urgency of impeachment, I honestly cannot imagine what the fuck would.