Child-Porn, Trump Style

Jeffrey St. Clair>>

The Trump administration insists that it is detaining and shipping off to Guantanamo Prison only the “worst of the worst,” undocumented migrants who’ve been swept up ICE’s dragnet. But this is far from what’s really going on. According to its own internal documents, revealed in a lawsuit filed this week by Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center on behalf of a detainee, many of those renditioned to Gitmo have committed no crimes at all and have entered the US with the government’s approval, awaiting decisions on their applications for refugee status. Most of those who ICE disappeared into the bowels of the prison camp weren’t gang members but carwashers, barbers, and landscapers. At least 39% percent of those imprisoned at Gitmo are considered “low-threat,” even by the Trump administration’s histrionic standards. Most of the detainees have been held incommunicado for two weeks and denied any contact with their families or lawyers.

+ Child Porn, Trump-style: ICE is now compiling an photographic archive and biometric database of all the migrant children it kidnapps during its raids.

+ Meanwhile, the Trump administration has pulled the plug on a program that provided lawyers to nearly 26,000 immigrant children, some too young to read or speak, who are or were under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The children face deportation, and many don’t have parents or legal guardians in the US.

+ Damon Hininger, CEO of private prison giant Core Civic, told investors this week: ” I’ve worked at CoreCivic for 32 years, and this is truly one of the most exciting periods in my career … we’re anticipating .. the most significant growth in our company’s history.”