[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 123 (Monday, July 23, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H6634]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CALLING ATTENTION TO CHILD DETENTION RULES
(Mr. PAYNE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, it is still going on. The Trump
administration is still holding thousands of little children in jails
across this country in cages, cyclone fencing, cages.
These are babies and toddlers, preschoolers and adolescents. Their
only crime is their desire to breathe free.
And just when you think the pit of the Trump administration's soul
could get no darker, heartbreaking reports emerge from inside these so-
called detention facilities.
These children are prohibited from touching one another. No hugs, not
even from their siblings. They can't run around. They have to wake up
at unreasonably early hours, with their jailers banging and making
noise as if it is Alcatraz, for everyone to get out of bed.
Some of these children only get 1 hour to play outside a day. They
are being held in strip malls and abandoned motels.
Some are banned from sending mail to their siblings. Others have
scrubbed toilets or handled bags of unsanitary used toilet paper.
Mr. Speaker, these so-called detention facilities are nothing more
than jails for children, baby jails. Let's end this madness.
____________________