Disgrace
Reporter Jacob Soboroff has a viral Twitter thread about his visit with other reporters to a facility holding (i.e. imprisoning) boys from immigrant families in Texas.
Just finished tour, don’t even know where to start.
One of the first things you notice when you walk into the shelter — no joke — a mural of Trump with the quote “sometimes losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.”
Presidential murals everywhere. But that one is 1st.
— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 13, 2018
That eloquent quote? Sebastian Murdock at Huffington Post found the source:
At a facility in Texas holding more than 1,400 immigrant children, a mural of Trump stares them in the face. His featured quote, “Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war,” is from his book “Art of the Deal” and is in reference to his failed attempt to evict tenants from their homes in 1985.
Damn. Immigrant children forcibly taken from their parents and imprisoned by Trump’s people on Trump’s orders are greeted by a bleak aphorism about his failed effort to evict people from his crappy racially-exclusive apartments more than thirty years ago. Daaaaaamn.
The HP summarizes:
At a Texas facility holding nearly 1,500 migrant children, a mural of President Donald Trump with a quote about his past attempt to evict New York tenants greets the children detained there.
On Wednesday, MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff joined other reporters in a tour of the Brownsville facility, which detains up to 1,500 boys, ages 10 to 17, who have been separated from their parents by the U.S. government. In the building ― an old Walmart ― administrators give children two hours of outdoor time, provide them with limited space within the facility and instruct them to go to bed at 9 p.m.
Some of Soboroff’s tweets:
Kids here get only two hours a day to be outside in fresh air.
One hour of structured time.
One hour of free time.
The rest of the day is spent inside a former Wal Mart.
— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 13, 2018
Starting to get some handout photos from our tour with @HHSGov.
Here’s the Trump mural I mentioned to @chrislhayes inside the shelter for incarcerated child migrants.
Also their beds and the towels they shower with. pic.twitter.com/EPEQ1VGAAF
— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 14, 2018
One final thing that stuck out: this former WalMart is 250,000 square feet.
The boys have under *40* square feet of living space each.
Lights go out in there at 9PM every night.
Will have more tomorrow on @TODAYshow, @Morning_Joe & @MSNBC.
Thanks for sharing this story.
— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 14, 2018
Trump is getting his revenge on those tenants who refused to be evicted.
My rage is unending and I thought I’d plumbed its depths.
These people need to burn.
Evil.
Plenty to be outraged about here.
I think the square feet per kid calculation might be wrong though. 250,000 square feet / 1,500 kids (the biggest number I see) is 167 square feet per kid (not 40).
I’M NOT SAYING THAT MAKES IT OK. Just trying to be accurate. And maybe Soboroff is referring to something else rather than the average.
The murals are weird and creepy. Who thought that was a good idea?
Skeletor, when we calculate floor areas for buildings we talk about gross floor area, habitable space and personal living space.
GFA is 250,000 sf
subtract corridors, storage, kitchens, bathrooms and you have the habitable space.
Subtract common areas and you have what is left for each person. 40sf is basically the personal space around and including the kids bed.
Rob, you’re probably right. Weird wording by Soboroff though: “One final thing that stuck out: this former WalMart is 250,000 square feet. [And, only only somewhat related to that number, the] boys have under *40* square feet of living space each.”
I looked at the picture of the bedroom from the video. The beds are packed in pretty good and don’t look to be that big. I’d guess the room is about 14×14, which would be 196 square feet, so just under 40 each for 5 kids.
So…never mind.
Also, I’ve seen prison cells with more personalisation than these dorms.