A horrifying report from the Government Office of Accountability (@USGAO) on two secretive and abusive DHS programs at the US-Mexico border. Before the analysis, a reminder that neither @POTUS nor DHS secretary nominee @AliMayorkas have agreed to end them.

Very troubling to see the stunning lack of context on the length and conditions of detention from @USGAO. @CBP held asylum seekers in unsanitary, punitive conditions well beyond the 72-hour limit. GAO also takes for granted certain false or misleading assertions by DHS.
Before I dig into those issues, a couple of highlights from the data. CBP placed a total of 5,290 people into either program (HARP for Mexicans, PACR for non-Mexicans), which hold asylum seekers effectively incommunicado while they are rushed through a “credible fear” interview.
Of the total, at least 3,730 people placed in the
programs were removed from the US. There are about 50 people in detention now pending removal (whose cases should be reviewed given the deportation moratorium!). These folks were all denied a meaningful opportunity to seek asylum.
The majority of people placed in the programs were families with children (not single adults). Only 20 percent of those asylum seeking families spent 7 or fewer days in CBP border jails, which is already way too long. 86 percent of people spent "20 days or fewer" in border jails.
That means that hundreds of people, including children, or about 14 percent of the total, were detained in frigid border jail cells for MORE THAN 20 days. But the number of people who were ultimately held for weeks in those conditions is in the thousands.
In fact, nearly half of all of the asylum seekers placed into these programs were children, or 2,583 kids. Where are they now? DHS makes no effort to keep track of the tens of thousands of asylum seekers it has turned away or returned to potential harm, persecution or torture.
Asylum seekers, especially children, should never be detained, and if they are, it should be for the shortest period of time possible. Detention causes long-lasting trauma. It's also discretionary. CBP and ICE can and sometimes do exercise their authority to release people.
The @USGAO report fails to interrogate the various excuses provided by CBP and ICE for why they kept these families locked up - for example, that the government couldn't find a cheap enough flight that left sooner. No value is assigned to the trauma inflicted upon these families.
The report also fails to include contextual information about the conditions of detention. There is a 72-hour limit on the length of time for which anyone can be detained in CBP custody for a good reason, and if anything, should be shortened to hours. https://t.co/AI7wej4GZ0
An federal judge in Arizona for example ruled that the agency must comply with that 72-hour limit because CBP facilities are “presumptively punitive and violate the constitution.” He said the conditions there are even worse that jails or prisons. https://t.co/RXxMVjAPYu
The report also appears to take at face value the claim that CBP gave asylum seekers access to phone booths for 24 hours and then later for "at least 48 hours." But asylum seekers placed in similar expedited processing and attorneys consistently described extremely limited access
This is all on top of the fact that DHS applied a higher that normal standard of proof to the actual fear screenings themselves. Credible fear screenings exist to ensure asylum seekers are not returned to even the possibility of abuse. DHS has failed miserably in that endeavor.
That refugees were returned by the United States to persecution in their country of origin is a near certainty. HRW research shows that sending asylum seekers back to harm results in rape, assault, death, and other abuses. https://t.co/GESshQstpo
BY THE WAY the rule responsible for imposing an improperly high screening standard was vacated by a judge, but only after the programs had already been paused. Everyone denied a meaningful opportunity to seek asylum under the programs deserves another shot and redress for harms.
The Biden admin and DHS should commit to ending both PACR and HARP, as well as any other expedited processing programs. No one can properly prepare for critical asylum officer interviews or look for an attorney from within detention. The programs exist to turn asylum seekers away

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So, as the #MegaMillions jackpot reaches a record $1.6B and #Powerball reaches $620M, here's my advice about how to spend the money in a way that will truly set you, your children and their kids up for life.

Ready?

Create a private foundation and give it all away. 1/

Let's stipulate first that lottery winners often have a hard time. Being publicly identified makes you a target for "friends" and "family" who want your money, as well as for non-family grifters and con men. 2/

The stress can be damaging, even deadly, and Uncle Sam takes his huge cut. Plus, having a big pool of disposable income can be irresistible to people not accustomed to managing wealth.
https://t.co/fiHsuJyZwz 3/

Meanwhile, the private foundation is as close as we come to Downton Abbey and the landed aristocracy in this country. It's a largely untaxed pot of money that grows significantly over time, and those who control them tend to entrench their own privileges and those of their kin. 4

Here's how it works for a big lotto winner:

1. Win the prize.
2. Announce that you are donating it to the YOUR NAME HERE Family Foundation.
3. Receive massive plaudits in the press. You will be a folk hero for this decision.
4. Appoint only trusted friends/family to board. 5/
Patriotism is an interesting concept in that it’s excepted to mean something positive to all of us and certainly seen as a morally marketable trait that can fit into any definition you want for it.+


Tolstoy, found it both stupid and immoral. It is stupid because every patriot holds his own country to be the best, which obviously negates all other countries.+

It is immoral because it enjoins us to promote our country’s interests at the expense of all other countries, employing any means, including war. It is thus at odds with the most basic rule of morality, which tells us not to do to others what we would not want them to do to us+

My sincere belief is that patriotism of a personal nature, which does not impede on personal and physical liberties of any other, is not only welcome but perhaps somewhat needed.

But isn’t adherence to a more humane code of life much better than nationalistic patriotism?+

Göring said, “people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”+

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