Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will not allow humanity to occur from the U.S. Congress, not on his watch. Tuesday night, the Democrats House passed a border funding bill that addresses the humanitarian crisis—requiring that the administration provide for the health and safety needs of the immigrants its incarcerating in Trump concentration camps.
McConnell has made it very clear that the House bill is dead as far as he's concerned and that he intends to jam the House by passing a version of the bill that allows Trump to continue to neglect and abuse children, and then leaving for July Fourth recess. His allowed a vote on it Wednesday afternoon, but kept his conference in line and it was defeated 37-55.
McConnell believes he can force the vote on House Speaker Pelosi before the week-long recess. That's not happening, Pelosi told reporters Wednesday. Asked if there was any chance the House would take up the Senate version of the funding bill, she simply said "No." In follow up, she said "Well, they pass their bill, we respect that. We passed our bill, we hope they would respect that. And there are some improvements that we think can be reconciled."
If Pelosi really wanted to make her point, she'd give the House a one- or two-day recess for the Fourth —on the Fourth!—and challenge McConnell to do the same. After all, the rest of the country either gets just that day off, or none at all. It would be the patriotic, the humanitarian, thing to do.
Meanwhile, the federal funding that provides legal help to child migrants at the border is just about exhausted. "If the last few weeks have taught us anything, it is the importance of access to lawyers in protecting the rights of children in government custody," child legal services provider Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of the Immigration Defenders Law Center, told NBC News. "Unaccompanied children arrive often having survived unspeakable trauma, and to contemplate sending these vulnerable children into court alone, without access to a lawyer who can make sure they understand what is happening and protect their rights, is unconscionable."
It's unconscionable, yes. Don't expect Mitch McConnell to become human in response.