“Toddlers are being detained.”
AP: “Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border to at least three “tender age” shelters in South Texas. … Doctors and lawyers who have visited the shelters said the facilities were fine, clean and safe, but the kids — who have no idea where their parents are — were hysterical, crying and acting out.”
“The thought that they are going to be putting such little kids in an institutional setting? I mean it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around it. Toddlers are being detained.” — Kay Bellor, vice president for programs at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which provides foster care and other child welfare services to migrant children.
On Monday DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen dodged questions about the whereabouts of these children.
NYT Transcript:
REPORTER: A couple of questions. One, why is the government only releasing images of the boys being held? Where are the girls? Where are the young toddlers?
NIELSEN: I don’t know. I’m not familiar with those particular images so I would have —
REPORTER: Do you know where they are? Do you know where the girls are? Do you know where the young toddlers are?
NIELSEN: We have children in D.H.S. care both, but as you know, most of the children after 72 hours are transferred to H.H.S. So I don’t know what pictures you’re referencing but I would have to refer you to H.H.S.
REPORTER: We’ve seen images of boys but we just haven’t seen any of the girls, any of the young toddlers and you’re saying they are being well cared for. So how could you make that claim if you don’t know where they are?
NIELSEN: It is not that I don’t know where they are. I’m saying that the vast majority of children are held by Health and Human Services. We transfer them after 72 hours. I don’t know what pictures you’re speaking about. But perhaps they’re —
REPORTER: Pictures have been released to the public, they’ve been aired all over national television.
NIELSEN: O.K., by D.H.S. or H.H.S.?
REPORTER: By [inaudible] .H.S.
NIELSEN: So let’s find out from H.H.S. I don’t think there is anything other than [cross talk] the pictures —
REPORTER: [cross talk] released by your department. I mean, they’ve have been aired all over national television throughout the day, the kids being held in the cages. We’ve only seen the boys.
NIELSEN: I will, I will look into that. I’m not aware that there’s another picture. Yes.
