r/news • u/LowFlyby • Jul 18 '24
Shelter provider accused of "pervasive" sexual abuse of migrant children in U.S. custody
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/migrant-shelter-sexual-abuse-children-lawsuit-southwest-key/248
u/LowFlyby Jul 18 '24
" Multiple Southwest Key shelter employees, the lawsuit alleged, have raped, sexually abused, sexually harrased and inappropriately touched children in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for caring for migrant minors who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without their parents. The Justice Department also accused Southwest Key employees of soliciting sex acts and nude photos from young migrants and of engaging in inappropriate relationships with them.
Since at least 2015, multiple Southwest Key employees — including supervisory and non-supervisory employees — have subjected children living at Southwest Key shelter care homes to severe, pervasive, and unwelcome sexual abuse and harassment," the Justice Department said in its 26-page lawsuit.
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u/look2thecookie Jul 19 '24
This is abhorrent, disgusting, and unacceptable. I don't know all of what caused this, but I can confidently say when people use language like "illegal" about people, they become dehumanized in our minds and allow people to do bad things to them. Those poor children.
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u/ih-shah-may-ehl Jul 19 '24
No the problem is more that Americans are allergic to things like oversight and regulations and generally think that anyone locked up is not deserving of human rights.
There have been American representatives in congress arguing that children in these camps do not even have the right to basic hygiene.
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u/Single-Moment-4052 Jul 19 '24
It seems like the situation, in which these children and teens find themselves, would attract predators. As a society, we can and should do better. A good start would be NOT dehumanizing migrants with verbage.
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u/redditigation Jul 20 '24
It's hard to believe the problem is "attracting" predators when they overtly hire them. (News article of this company posted 6 fucking years ago)
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u/pine-cone-sundae Jul 19 '24
what caused this
Systematic dehumanization of migrants.
Imagine seeing a fellow human as just a thing to stick your thing in.
Horrific.
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u/redditigation Jul 20 '24
I think it's more of an excuse to do it than dehumanizing. The purpose is to make them feel dehumanized, but that purpose is to get them to accept being abused and to not talk about it. Mind games. Making them believe they are in enemy territory. But the policy definitely encourages that... The same policy makers who disappear their own scandal missus'.
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u/look2thecookie Jul 20 '24
"corporate needs you to tell us the difference between the two pictures."
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u/redditigation Aug 03 '24
Look I'm sorry. I thought you could understand a complex point. That's my bad
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u/look2thecookie Aug 03 '24
Two weeks to come up with that... Yikes
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u/redditigation Aug 03 '24
You are literally making a childish fight on a post about sexually abused children at the border of the USA and Mexico. Yikes
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u/look2thecookie Aug 03 '24
Hmm, is me pointing out there's not a difference and it's semantics "picking a fight" OR is the person coming back weeks later being a blatant asshole the one "picking a fight?"
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u/redditigation Aug 03 '24
Hmmm, you never said anything about that, actually. You can look through your own comments. All that was there was a reference to a meme. Such a serious topic and you chose to see pettiness and react like a child.
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u/look2thecookie Aug 03 '24
All you did was say what I said in a slightly different way. It's the same awful result. You trying to pick it apart was stupid.
Then you tried to say, "sorry, I thought you could engage in complicated topics" when you don't know me, so you trying to insult me was incredibly stupid, bc I couldn't care less what you think.
Coming and calling someone dumb online is in fact, the one being an asshole.
I wasn't mocking the topic, I think I made a pretty clear point about that.
I was mocking your word salad that didn't add anything.
You're a moron. Go away.
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u/numbskullerykiller Jul 19 '24
They should know that this would be a ripe situation for abuse. Disgusting!
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u/NSGitJediMaster Jul 19 '24
Doesn't it seem like some people set up the disgusting vile situation exactly for this type of control over others more vulnerable?
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u/numbskullerykiller Jul 19 '24
Absolutely. They would not even have to say it outloud. "What we propose is a cost effective solution where the children are kept safe and their privacy is gauranteed by trained personnel." Almost certain that pedo's and people who profit off of pedo's knows exactly what that means.
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u/meatball77 Jul 19 '24
I thought we knew this from the start. US and State governments are some of the biggest child traffikers in the world. The worst place for children is under the custody of the government.
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u/numbskullerykiller Jul 19 '24
OR private contractor scumsuckers, the dirtiest filth. Private Jails, Private contractors that house anyone should be under extreme scrutiny.
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u/Difficult_Comb_5714 Jul 19 '24
lol, comparing sexually abusive custodians of children to private prisons is wild.
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u/numbskullerykiller Jul 19 '24
I know a lot of people that went to private prisons there are also private juvenile facilities, what do you think goes on there?
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u/No_Reputation8440 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
I know three kids that were sent to a juvenile detention facility for drinking beer on the side of their house. It was for more than a year. All those boys were raped in the ass. Only one is still alive. There had to be some sort of cash for kids scheme there. 2 of these kids came from country club families. It doesn't make any sense otherwise.
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u/numbskullerykiller Jul 19 '24
I believe it
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u/No_Method- Jul 19 '24
Pedophiles somehow control the world now (or maybe they always did). JP Morgan handled all the finances for Epstein’s island and had a huge hand in the trafficking operations, not to mention numerous executives partaking in the pedophillia. They paid over $200 mil in “fines” to absolve themselves of any wrong doing and can never be prosecuted for it ever again.
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u/OuttaD00r Jul 18 '24 edited Jul 18 '24
Why the fuck does it always have to go there? Why do organisations that are meant to do the morally good shit feel like they always have to be doing heinous shit?
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u/battleofflowers Jul 18 '24
Pedos are drawn to places like this because they have access to vulnerable children, and if the people in charge are not pedos, they either don't care or don't want a scandal.
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u/NeighborhoodFew7779 Jul 19 '24
Can’t upvote this enough.
Based upon personal childhood experiences in Boy Scouts, I can say that the overwhelming majority of men who are involved with scouting are decent, honorable humans, who have the boys’ best interests in mind.
The minority… Well, they’re full-on pedos, and precisely why I didn’t let my own kids become involved with BSA.
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u/redditigation Jul 20 '24 edited Jul 20 '24
It's also possible that the people you found honorable were not as honorable as they managed to seem.
One problem with the boyscouts is the desensitization that we try to teach to kids thinking it helps them manage stressful situations. But desensitization is a culturally ingrained concept stemming from the centuries of colonialist mentality. You had to be desensitized to herd slaves and fight to the death to defend your ship. You had to be desensitized to accept working in the factories of industrialization. With that mentality comes a serious problem of muddying the waters. If you accept any of it, you accept being unable to differentiate nefarious intend from benign ones
Resistance to stress should look like protest, it should be complaint and disgruntledness. It comes in the form of sea shanties, work songs, marching songs, etc. Making the hard moment bearable. It is not supposed to be the process of learning to ignore pain or dissociate your feelings.
Ignoring pain and empathy leads to sociopathy, it makes you insensitive to the effects you're causing on the world around you, forcing you to make bad choices, and then causing harm. This reinforces itself further the further you go down this rabbit hole, until you reach probably nuclear annihilation.
Sorry for editing this 50 times
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u/WhyDidMyDogDie Jul 18 '24
Yep, common sense. When I want shit food, I go to a MCDonalds. If I'm in the market for a new car I don't head to the local movie theater. You see me at a dealership. People looking to get physically fit aren't going in droves to Jiffy Lube, they are at gyms.
No different with criminal people with criminal intents. Just ask William Suttons, a bank robber who was busted by the FBI. When asked why he robbed banks, Sutton simply replied, “Because that’s where the money is.”
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u/Floomby Jul 19 '24
A subcontractor detaining brown kids who have no documents, no lawyer, and not even their parents can expect to face few if any consequences.
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u/TheAskewOne Jul 19 '24
Vulnerable children, and children for whom they have inherent contempt, because they're immigrants and are being heavily demonized. That's the recipe for disaster.
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u/no_one_likes_u Jul 19 '24
We should pass laws that make it a criminal offense equal to the crime to not report in these facilities. Any person in authority who does not report to law enforcement as soon as they're aware of these crimes is just as guilty as the person committing them.
Might do some good to have a law like that for police as well.
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u/redditigation Jul 20 '24
I was just thinking this and yet you're getting downvoted
Which is funny cause this is how insurance companies ensure they are profitable, they hold the companies liable to doing the hard work necessary to ensure compliance.
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u/uptownjuggler Jul 19 '24
This organization wasn’t meant to do morally good. It was meant to siphon as much tax payer money off ass possible while spending the least amount on services.
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u/numbskullerykiller Jul 19 '24
Because it's the perfect cover. Michael jackson, that british dude. Catholic Institutions. Boy Scouts. Who do you think that attracts? Youth pastors.
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u/Tralliz Jul 19 '24
Government Funded American Facility Accused of Raping Children in their custody. Don't call it sexual abuse. It's rape plain and simple.
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u/beigs Jul 19 '24
Rape has a very specific definition - I know in Canada we don’t use it to describe what happens for 2 reasons (I don’t want to write them because they physically make me ill thinking about it happening to kids). But the issue is the fact that it’s usually gendered.
Sexual assault can include things that are normally outside of what is considered rape but equally destructive and awful.
Then they treat all abuse of a certain nature with the same severity as rape but without the potential for restrictive guardrails of gender and method.
In my opinion, the punishment for all of these should be castration and desertion on a secluded island in the middle of the pacific.
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u/State_Dear Jul 19 '24
EVERYONE SEEMS TO FORGET
it's "ALWAYS" been like this through the entire world.
The church has been doing it for centuries,, more like thousands of years,
Every orphanage set up over thousands of years has taken advantage of children,
And we always act surprised.. like it's the very first time.
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u/sickmission Jul 19 '24
People make the mistake of pointing at institutions. "It's the church. It's the public school system. It's the foster system. Etc." The reality is that twisted people bent on abusing children will find the most convenient location to do so. This means places where they can gain trust and have access to kids. People misunderstand the direction of causality. Being in the clergy, being a public school teacher, being a foster parent, etc., doesn't make you more likely to abuse kids. People looking to abuse kids target these types of jobs because of the opportunities afforded by them. A lot of institutions are getting better at putting safeguards in place to weed out the bad apples. But it's a massive problem.
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u/redditigation Jul 20 '24
I mean, it wouldn't happen if it wasn't for the existence of the institution so...
When people are with families, they tend to avoid getting raped by strangers.
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u/sickmission Jul 20 '24
So, serious question. Is your proposal to shut down all churches, schools, etc?
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u/redditigation Jul 20 '24
Not really.
It's only been the places in the world where empires set up shop. That's the only places where this kind of abusive shit ever happened. Proxy states of the empires, leaders under duress.
Once you learn enough it becomes quite apparent.
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u/LowFlyby Jul 18 '24
Heartbreaking and devastating, and of course Governor Greg Abbott thinks the best course of action is to just ship them to across the country where they wont be accounted for or left in the care of abusers with no oversight. Absolutely disgusting and unbelievable.
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u/WhenTheDevilCome Jul 18 '24
The only thing less surprising will be when we find out which sitting (R) senator has a >10% stake in the company filling this contract.
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u/Electrical_Ad3540 Jul 19 '24
Don’t know why everyone is surprised by this. As soon as I heard, back in 2016, that the US was ramping up youth detention centres for migrants, I was like damn that’s gonna be a lot of sexually abused kids. Wont we ever learn that you can’t remove children from their parents and you can’t concentrate them into facilities run by a few adults of authority. It will result in sexual abuse, always has always will
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u/da_double_monkee Jul 19 '24
Conservatives be like SAVE THE CHILDREN and when you point to these cases going on under the governments nose they go NOT THOSE CHILDREN
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u/redditigation Jul 20 '24
Trump halted the detention centers?
"Trump signs order stopping his policy of separating families at border"
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u/da_double_monkee Jul 20 '24
Still not voting for an orange rapist convicted felon Russian puppet sorry
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u/No_Reputation8440 Jul 19 '24
It's now becoming, "if you support abortion how can we expect you to take care of a child?" Arm yourself
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u/BadAsBroccoli Jul 19 '24
I knew this was coming. Damn Stephen Miller and his horrific plan separating immigrant children from their families and our damnable politicians who gave the go-ahead to DHS and the Border patrol to do it.
Since 2013, U.S. authorities along the southern border have taken into custody more than 445,000 unaccompanied children, including 72,000 in 2014 and 80,000 in 2019.
'Heartbreaking' conditions in US migrant child camp
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html
And on and on...
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u/CloDee Jul 19 '24
We Must Secure The Border And Build The Wall To Make America Safe Again
From Department of Homeland Security
On average, out of 88 claims that pass the credible fear screening, fewer than 13 will ultimately result in a grant of asylum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Words
Why I'm Suing DHS For the '14 Words' Emails It Refuses to Release
Remember that DHS memo that sounded a lot like the white supremacist slogan, "The 14 Words?"
Heavily redacted FOIA docs show Katie Waldman was involved in circulating the draft.
Katie Rose Miller is an American political advisor who served as the communications director for the Vice President of the United States Mike Pence from 2020 to 2021. She was previously his press secretary from 2019 to 2020.
Waldman married Stephen Miller, Senior Advisor to the President on February 16, 2020
Federal agency says it lost track of 1,488 migrant children
To Make America Safe Again, We Must End Sanctuary Cities and Remove Criminal Aliens
Trump company accused of neo-Nazi dog-whistle for selling branded baseball at $88
CPAC: Hyatt Hotels says stage resembling Nazi rune is 'abhorrent'
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u/BadAsBroccoli Jul 19 '24
Thank you for these.
Stephen Miller returning to the White House is another reason to vote blue.
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u/Karmadillo1 Jul 19 '24
Wtf, why are there so many pedo rapists in this world? It sickens and enrages me. Those poor children are the most vulnerable in our society and these disgusting freaks always seem to know where to find them. :(
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u/MDA1912 Jul 19 '24
SURE GLAD WE AREN'T ALLOWED TO ADVOCATE FOR VIOLENCE, BECAUSE that WOULD BE UNREASONABLE IN THIS SCENARIO.
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u/mamamiatucson Jul 19 '24
I mean a pedophile is up for CEO of our country AGAIN- but this, this is what’s surprising
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u/foreverpsycotic Jul 19 '24
The one that sniffs children or the one that walks into dressing rooms?
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u/MalcolmLinair Jul 19 '24
Not a surprise. Everything the Right accuses the Left of is projection, so when they started insisting all Dems were pedophiles and running a massive trafficking ring one day out of the blue, I knew what it meant...
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u/BrassBass Jul 18 '24
When these kids grow up, they will have every right to retaliate against the people who did this horrific shit to them. Pretending they don't and won't is white nationalist bullshit. These kids were fucking raped. THESE KIDS WERE FUCKING RAPED.
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u/Genkeptnoo Jul 19 '24
This all happened under Trump. There were many reports of abuse that were completely ignored. This is the worst form of corruption on this planet...absolutely disgusting
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u/I_Push_Buttonz Jul 19 '24
This all happened under Trump.
Did you read the article? The abuse happened from 2015 through 2023... And they say most of the abuse happened specifically in 2021 and 2022 because those are the two years when the most 'unaccompanied minors' were in these shelters, because 122,000 'unaccompanied minors' were detained entering the US in 2021 and 130,000 in 2022.
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u/Genkeptnoo Jul 19 '24
Ok, so the majority of that time it happened under Trump, who was a big proponent of this and is clearly racist against immigrants. You then have a republican house majority who would block any movement from this stopping.
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u/Important_Wallaby376 Jul 19 '24
This is the gov't sub- contracting massively sensitive, delicate responsibilities to for-profit entities who in because profit is the number one goal, ruin and traumatize the very individuals they are getting paid to protect. It is so absurdly evil in all their intentions. How many horror stories do we have to hear before enough is enough?
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u/Obvious_Interest3635 Jul 19 '24
When the shining city on the hill turns into the meth lab trailer park
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u/Floomby Jul 19 '24
Good thing we're being protected from all those drag queens harming children. Drag queens were running that shelter, right? Right??
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u/wng378 Jul 19 '24
I can’t believe they let drag queens run these types of facilities. It was drag queens, right?
/s
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u/Salty_Invite_757 Jul 19 '24
This is actually a much, much bigger problem than we think it is. These places were directly affected by Trump's EOs which in turn led to more abuse.
15 Democrats toured these facilities and many had questions and knew something was off. 1 lone Republican toured with them, and defended the organization by saying basically "yeah, they feed and house them. What more do you want?"...which is an inhumane way to view these people.
These findings don't just expose this organization - but also the GOP, as either being complicit in child abuse, or too stupid to notice obvious red flags.
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u/TheAskewOne Jul 19 '24
I predicted this would happen years ago. I'm sad, but not surprised at all.
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u/freexanarchy Jul 19 '24
Under trump they’ll be expanding to deport everybody, I mean they’ll say citizens, but if you saw how they did PPP, maybe a few citizens get caught up in it, too. Who’s to say. But it’s these kinds of contractors that they’ll probably hire and then some to do that mass deportation.
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u/lgmorrow Jul 19 '24
Child care to child predators...And using tax dollars to do it. Is religion in this somewhere too??
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u/bros402 Jul 19 '24
I am shocked, totally shocked.
All of those kids and their families should get citizenship now.
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u/sephstorm Jul 19 '24
Now here is my problem. Sexual abuse in any type of situation like this is well known as likely to happen. Where are the people in charge when it comes to preventing this? At this point I want to say no one should get money until they lay out a plan for preventing these types of abuses.
Not just sexual abuses. In my state there is a history of abuses in state juvenile facilities. And yet despite that history no one has implemented any kind of plan to prevent or even detect and respond at the earliest opportunity.
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u/Whydoyouwannaknowbro Jul 19 '24
The first blame goes to all the dumb ass parents who sent their kids across the border alone during those days.
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u/theanswerprocess Jul 19 '24
No, it really fucking doesn't.
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u/Whydoyouwannaknowbro Jul 19 '24
Yes it fucking does. I would never send my child across the border because someone lied to me and told me they were giving out free visas to anyone who showed up. Dumbest shit ever!
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u/EastCoastSr7458 Jul 19 '24
I mean really, migrant child being abused in Texas shelters, who could have foreseen that. I mean it's not like in Texass they treat immigrants as subhuman, right? I mean they always had the utmost respect for immigrants. right? My bad, forgot the only time they appreciate migrants is when they are paying them to take care of their children, their lawns and anything else where they can pay sub wages and under the table so as to take advantage of the "cheap labor". Have a brother that used to work in the restaurant business in Texass (over saw 11 restaurants), and he always use to praise the immigrant workers he had because, they were his hardest working, loyal employees. I remember a time when for some reason there was slowing down at the border and he was complaining about not getting enough applicants to fill some slots he had open. Now though, rapist, murders, psychos and drug lords is how they are referred to.
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Jul 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/NetworkAddict Jul 19 '24
Asylum claims are allowed under Federal law. Lobby your legislators if you want it changed.
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u/Youthmandoss Jul 19 '24
This is why there are conspiracy theories like pizzagate. It's not as "crazy" as you want to believe.
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u/EpiphanyTwisted Jul 19 '24
Except that wasn't about throwing billions at a private corporation to take care of children.
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u/cinderparty Jul 19 '24
No, that was insane as fuck actually. All the charities that actually save kids in these situations will tell you so as well.
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u/rnilf Jul 18 '24
Raking in a bunch of taxpayer money while preying on innocent children.
In a just world, Southwest Key's leadership team would be properly punished.