With the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids occurring in our state and a chance that Fort Sill may still be used as a concentration camp for kids, many Oklahomans have been anxious and angry about the attitude towards immigration held by lay people and government officials alike in this state. Thankfully our very own Senator James Lankford recently took a trip to one of these internment camps so he could let us constituents know that we’re all just over-reacting… right?
Via Fox 25...
OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Oklahoma Senator James Lankford says, despite reports from some of his Democratic colleagues across the aisle, migrant detention facilities he visited at the U.S.-Mexico border over the weekend are "well stocked and well supplied."
"So all of this noise out there saying that individuals aren’t getting access to toothbrushes or toilets or water or snacks is not true in any of these facilities," said Lankford in a video statement sent to FOX 25. "And this is the highest trafficked areas of the entire border."
I know that Senator Lankford is all about summer camps for kids, but would someone please tell him that there’s a difference between these concentration camps for children and his beloved Falls Creek? Yeah the adults at both kinds of locations are responsible for making sure kids are provided with proper food, hygiene products, and water. But Lankford is describing these detention facilities as if he is a camp counselor assuring a disgruntled parent that their 10-year-old is going to have some good, clean fun on his weekend trip to a cabin. He’s not acting like a United States Senator discussing the state of thousands of vulnerable children, some of whom have been the victims of sexual assault and significant trauma while in custody. But apparently the ICE detention facilities are not the dangerous actors in this situation…
Lankford says he was also briefed about the amount, and types of crossings at the McAllen station. According to the Senator, individuals from 63 different countries have crossed in the area just this year.
There's also reportedly been a steep increase in the amount of men crossing the border with children. Lankford says around half of men crossing into the U.S. are bringing a child with them. A far cry from what officials saw just five years ago.
"Just in 2014, only one percent of the men actually had a child, now 50 percent of the men are traveling with a child because they know regardless of their criminal record, regardless of their background in their home country, if they bring a child with them they’re going to be released within 20 days and they get into the interior of the country and then continue to move," said Lankford.
Over 50% of men crossing the border are doing so with children? Lankford seems to be acting like most of these kids have been kidnapped and not that violent crimes and economic hardship have worsened in many Latin American countries over the last few years to the point where families consider it safer to risk dehydration, familial separation, and death by crossing the US border than stay in their home country. This fear of Latin American immigrant families is beyond ridiculous. In Matthew 18:10 Jesus said “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” By how our “Christian” lawmakers are acting, I guess Jesus was only talking about the white kids.
Ya’ll should check out Lucas and Louis’ pieces on these concentration camps. Then follow Hayley on twitter @squirrellygeek
