Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official Matthew Albence is sticking by his ridiculous and offensive claim that migrant family detention centers are like “summer camp”. He’s also still refusing to say whether he’d send his own children to one.
During a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the Trump administration’s effort to eviscerate standards protecting migrant kids under U.S. custody, Sen. Kamala Harris of California again pressed Albence on his July statement, asking him if he still believes family jails are akin to sitting around the campfire making smores before school starts up again.
"’Absolutely I do,’ he said,” according to CNN. “But he demurred when asked whether he'd send his own children, or those of people he is close to, to the centers. ‘Would you send your children to one of these detention centers?’ she asked. ‘That question's not applicable,’ he said.” Back in July, he replied, “I think we’re—we’re missing the point” to Sen. Mazie Hirono’s inquiry, also dodging any sort of real answer.
But the truth is, when you go on about how harmless these facilities are, it’s absolutely applicable and it’s not missing any point at all, especially when Trump officials are hellbent on jailing kids and their families for long periods of time, and even indefinitely. Children do not belong in detention, period, and the fact that these officials won’t send their kids to the facilities they continue to defend says everything you need to know about the conditions in there.
Watch Sen. Harris questioning Albence below.