On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Briefing,” former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said that the need for large detention spaces is questionable due to how low numbers are at the border and it appears that what the Trump administration is “trying to do is send a deterrent, to make it sound as ugly as possible. But, in fact, the numbers are the lowest they’ve been in years right now, crossing the southern border.”
Johnson said, “I’d be interested to know the demographics of the people who are in these facilities. Are we talking about single adult males? Are we talking about families? Are we talking about small children? What is the average stay in these facilities? What can one expect if you go there? What are the conditions like? A lot of these are stood up by private contractors. What kinds of guarantees do they make about cleanliness, about basic food and water? Any time you surge like this, you have to be concerned about the conditions not being basically humane. And no matter what happens, a number of people are still going to have to be released. Because, in a surge, you just don’t have the type of detention capability that you would expect, if you have thousands of people crossing in a day. The numbers are low right now, very obviously. So, one questions the need for this large detention space.”
He continued, “It seems to me what they’re trying to do is send a deterrent, to make it sound as ugly as possible. But, in fact, the numbers are the lowest they’ve been in years right now, crossing the southern border.”
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