Chuck Holton, a hardline conservative and correspondent for the National Rifle Association’s television channel, has stated that the Trump administration’s immigrant detention centers are “too nice.” The detention centers are currently holding thousands of children who were forcibly separated from their parents after they attempted to seek asylum in the United States by entering through the border without documentation.
The comments came during an interaction with the NRA-TV program’s host, Grant Stinchfield, who stated that the children’s parents should not be dubbed asylum seekers because they were not fleeing an oppressive regime, according to a Newsweek report. Stinchfield noted that the United States must give asylum to people who are truly running away from places where their lives are at risk, such as North Korea, where the ownership of a Bible could become grounds for imprisonment.
The NRA-TV host noted that many immigrants crossing over from Mexico are just MS-13 members who are trying to “sneak” into America, where they can get citizenship and eventually, vote for Democrats.
Responding to the NRA-TV host’s words, Chuck Holton remarked that he has actually seen the facilities that were being used to hold the children. Holton further claimed that the pictures of children in cages lying on thin mattresses and using survival blankets pertain to temporary facilities that were used to house them before they were moved to other, better detention centers, as noted by liberal media outlet Media Matters .
Heading into this massive jail in San Diego where ICE incarcerates immigrants and asylum seekers. Met last night with three moms who’ve been held here going on two months, their children torn from them at the border. We cried together. Their bravery astounds. pic.twitter.com/hiAsr6St13
— Heidi Altman (@heidiraltman) June 22, 2018
“Again, I’ve visited those facilities. Those facilities, if anything, are too nice. Now, we’ve seen the pictures of the children in cages, wrapped up in foil, that was a temporary solution for just maybe a matter of hours as the children were brought into America, when they were caught after crossing illegally. And then they were moved to a place like Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where they were put up in basic training barracks on the military base.”
Holton further remarked that once the children are moved to other facilities, the conditions upon which they are kept improve significantly. Holton described the conditions as safe, secure, with games to play, and education and health screenings. The NRA-TV correspondent also noted that the facilities even have hot showers, something that the children probably have never had before coming to the United States.
The Trump administration’s policy of separating asylum-seekers’ children at the border has triggered widespread condemnation both from within and outside the country. High-profile individuals in the United States, such as former President Barack Obama, have condemned the policy, citing the cruelty involved in the practice. The United Nations has also warned the United States last Friday that detaining children “may amount to torture.”
https://www.facebook.com/barackobama/posts/10155952276261749
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order stopping the practice of separating children from their asylum-seeking parents at the Mexican border. Trump’s executive order, however, does not include provisions that would address the immigrant children that have already been separated from their parents.
