Children in cages: Obama vs. Trump

Regarding the letter writer (Mike Morrell, Sept. 16)) who “set the record straight” on the fact that President Obama built the cages at the southern border and used them: His information is correct, with his added note that his information was fact-checked on Snopes.com, including an excerpt.

What is curiously omitted from that letter is further information in that same Snopes.com fact-check, elaborating on the purposes for the enclosures under the Obama administration, as compared with the current Trump administration.

The following quotes are all from that same Snopes.com fact-check: The facility was built in 2014 “during a spike in the number of unaccompanied children fleeing violence in Central American countries.” As explained by the Obama administration’s Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, “the ‘cage’ detention housing method was supposed to be temporary, and that under the law, children were only supposed to be kept in those facilities for 72 hours before being transferred to the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.”

This original purpose is a far cry from the current administration’s Zero Tolerance policy, as summarized: “In early July 2019, as questions about the health of children in border facilities intensified, the Trump administration was criticized for locking up young children in ‘inhumane’ conditions for weeks, and for its overall treatment of immigrants in overcrowded detention facilities. Democratic lawmakers who visited the facilities reported unsanitary, dehumanizing conditions. Meantime, at least seven children had died in custody in the span of a year – an unprecedented number in recent history.”

Thank you for this opportunity to further set the record straight.

Clara Duff

Anacortes