This diary ain’t up to AP Stylebook 2019 standards —nor is it my rant— nonetheless persist:
7-15-19 House Judiciary Hearing on Overcrowding and Prolonged Detention at CBP Facilities.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon [PA-5, Judiciary, Rules] questioned Diana Shaw, Assistant Inspector General for Special Reviews and Evaluations, Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General. You can should see it, the Judiciary hearing video: fwd. to 01:18:31 here. Shaw confirmed that before December, 2018 no child had died in CBP custody in over 10 years and since then (7 months) at least 7 children have died in CBP custody. Shaw also confirmed that DHS OIG has ongoing investigations into several of those deaths.
Rep. Scanlon also followed on questions Judiciary Cmte, Chair Jerrold Nadler [NY-10} had been asking Shaw about the 5-30-19 OIG report statement that (p. 5) “During our visits, we observed … on May 7, 2019, and May 8, 2019 … staff discarding all other detainee property, such as backpacks, suitcases, and handbags, in the nearby dumpster (see Figure 5, p. 6).” In other words, surrendering their valuables, money and phones according to Scanlon, and confirmed by witness Shaw who responded that CBP’s Transport, Escort, Detention and Search (TEDS) standards dictate CBP staff should bag and tag all possessions for storage until given back to persons detained when they are released.
The 5-30-19 report continues (pp. 6-7) “We are concerned that overcrowding and prolonged detention represent an immediate risk to the health and safety not just of the detainees, but also DHS agents and officers. Border Patrol management on site said there is a high incidence of illness among their staff. Border Patrol management at PDT and other sites also raised concerns about employee morale and that conditions were elevating anxiety and affecting employee;s personal lives. They noted that some employees eligible for retirement had accelerated their retirement dates, while others were considering alternative employment opportunities.”
— — I digress here to consider US Air Force reports on drone pilots having their employment stress. In some ways the work is like working at the Camps. A report from GAO in April, 2014 was on AIR FORCE: Actions Needed to Strengthen Management of Unmanned Aerial System Pilots.
Remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) pilots at three key U.S. drone control centers —Creech, Cannon and Beale AFBs— for years experienced increased desperation about the situations and consequences of their work that lowers morale and may escalate suicide risks for those airmen due to difficult working conditions RPA pilots face — the challenge pilots face to balance their war-fighting roles with their personal lives. RPA pilots operate RPAs from bases in the United States and live at home; thus they experience combat alongside their personal lives —known as being deployed-on-station— which RPA pilots stated negatively affects their morale.
Eight out of 10 focus groups “found it to be rewarding to be able to contribute every day through the RPA (remotely piloted aircraft) mission.
This finding means, of course, that 20 percent of those interviewed did not find their assignments rewarding. And, perhaps more significantly, half —50 %— of their focus groups objected to being kept in drone duty longer than a normal length of assignment.
The operators in all focus groups said “they face multiple challenging working conditions including: long hours, working shifts that frequently rotate, and remaining in assignments beyond typical lengths”.
Another GAO report in March, 2015 Unmanned Aerial Systems - Action Needed to Improve DOD Pilot Training, noted that:
... “Air Force officials stated that they think the current number of UAS pilots that the Air Force has approved for its UAS units is not enough to accomplish the workload of UAS units. As a result, workloads for Air Force UAS units are high, and in January 2015, the Secretary of the Air Force said that on average Air Force UAS pilots fly 6 days in a row and work 13- to 14-hour days.”
The Air Force told the GAO it “could not conduct training in units because their units had shortages of UAS pilots”, and the Army “does not know the full extent to which pilots have been trained and are therefore ready to be deployed.”
In fact, most pilots in certain Army units did not complete fundamental training tasks in fiscal year 2014—a finding that GAO corroborated through discussions with pilots in focus groups.
In January 2017, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) examined the experience of drone operators being deployed-on-station at Creech AFB outside Las Vegas, NV, concluding its report:
“As we get ready to leave the base, the moon rises over the mountains and darkness falls quickly. There's a long traffic jam as some of the 3,500 air staff wait at the gates to leave the base - a snake of red tail lights heading back to Vegas and the warmth of their families.
“And when they get home? Well, friction can stem from one simple question: ‘How was your day?’” (The “air staff” referred to in the above quote includes the back-up teams for drone flights as well as the drone operators themselves.)
For more details on RPA pilot’s work and stressors see DRONE OPERATORS' ISSUES. That’s off my chest so it’s back to news of the Judiciary Hearing.
If what’s happening in the CBP and DHS Crimes Against Humanity Concentration Camps is like stressors Air Force and Army RPA pilots have faced, then the OrangeInternationalCrimeBossHumanRightsAbuserIllegitimateImpostor-POTUS is impeachable just for failing to protect and defend the rights, health and humanity of those Concentration Camp Staffers, let alone that Oval Office Occupier’s crimes against his Incarcerated Victims who are mandated to be held in civil, not criminal, custody, which is not supposed to be punitive at places the DHS OIG visited. —The links below are to separate OIG Management Alerts and reports of Concerns dated May 30, 2019, June 3, 2019, July 02, 2019 that were discussed in the Judiciary hearing Monday:
- five Border Patrol stations and two ports of entry in the El Paso area, including greater El Paso and eastern New Mexico CBP holding facilities, El Paso Del Norte Processing Center (PDT) at the Paso Del Norte Bridge wherein CBP’s Transport, Escort, Detention and Search (TEDS) standards rules CBP’s interaction with detained individuals that are criminally beyond the range of TEDS compliance; (note: Kevin K. McAleenan, Acting Secretary Department of Homeland Security, knew of these conditions May 20, 2019 according to congressional testimony of Diana Shaw. OrangeWreckerBaby should have known, too, and maybe he did. Who can know what goes on in his brain?)
- ICE Detainee Treatment and Care at Four Detention Facilities in Adelanto, CA, and Essex County, NJ, including nooses in detainee cells, overly restrictive segregation, inadequate medical care, unreported security incidents, and significant food safety issues, the OIG issued individual reports to ICE after its visits to these two facilities. All four facilities had issues with expired food, which puts detainees at risk for food-borne illnesses. At three facilities, the OIG found that segregation practices violated standards and infringed on detainee rights. Two facilities failed to provide recreation outside detainee housing units. Bathrooms in two facilities’ detainee housing units were dilapidated and moldy. At one facility, detainees were not provided appropriate clothing and hygiene items to ensure they could properly care for themselves. Lastly, one facility allowed only non-contact visits, despite being able to accommodate in-person visitation. The DHS OIG observations confirmed concerns identified in detainee grievances, which indicated unsafe and unhealthy conditions to varying degrees at all of the facilities the OIG visited; and
- CBP Rio Grande Valley facilities, to wit: McAllen, Weslaco, and Fort Brown Border Patrol Stations, and the Border Patrol Centralized Processing Center and Donna Processing Center, as well as Hidalgo and Progreso ports of entry.
Judiciary Hearing chair Rep. Zoe Lofgren [CA-19] video: fwd to 01:21:55 documented that some facilities were empty so tortuous conditions in the Crimes Against Humanity Camps are gratuitous. Further, in 10 days Obama dealt with building 2014 surge capacity policies, procedures and facilities. Lofgren said individuals may seek asylum either at a port of entry or between ports of entry so, it is a misnomer to say that is an “illegal entry“. Those kinds of entry are provided for in the Immigration and Nationality Act (See notes below). To end Shaw’s testimony with a series of questions about current really nasty investigations underway by the DHS OIG, Lofgren first confirmed with Shaw that OIG is investigating the 9500 current and former CBP employees in the Facebook group whose postings were racist and dehumanizing. Shaw said OIG will be specifically looking at who within senior DHS leadership was aware of it and how they used that site. The circumstances around the Yuma, AZ allegations of conditions and sexual abuse of a Honduran minor by an employee are being investigated.
In section 101(a)(42) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ( INA ) the term "refugee" means (A) any person who is outside any country of such person's nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, or (B) in such special circumstances as the President after appropriate consultation (as defined in section 1157(e) of this title) may specify, any person who is within the country of such person's nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, within the country in which such person is habitually residing, and who is persecuted or who has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The term "refugee" does not include any person who ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. For purposes of determinations under this chapter, a person who has been forced to abort a pregnancy or to undergo involuntary sterilization, or who has been persecuted for failure or refusal to undergo such a procedure or for other resistance to a coercive population control program, shall be deemed to have been persecuted on account of political opinion, and a person who has a well-founded fear that he or she will be forced to undergo such a procedure or subject to persecution for such failure, refusal, or resistance shall be deemed to have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of political opinion.
Asylum status is a form of protection available to people who:
- Meet the definition of refugee
- Are already in the United States
- Are seeking admission at a port of entry
You may apply for asylum in the United States regardless of your country of origin or your current immigration status. For more information about asylum status, see the Asylum section. It will tell you:
Every year people come to the United States seeking protection because they have suffered persecution or fear that they will suffer persecution due to:
- Race
- Religion
- Nationality
- Membership in a particular social group
- Political opinion
If you are eligible for asylum you may be permitted to remain in the United States. To apply for Asylum, file a Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, within one year of your arrival to the United States. There is no fee to apply for asylum.
You may include your spouse and children who are in the United States on your application at the time you file or at any time until a final decision is made on your case. To include your child on your application, the child must be under 21 and unmarried. For more information see our Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal page.
If you have an asylum application pending with us, you can check your case status online. All you need is the receipt number that we mailed you after you filed your application. Start here: uscis.gov/casestatus.