This week DHS announced it was closing down its office that investigates reports of abuse in detention centers. Signed into law in 2020 by the current President after its creation as part of the Consolidated Appropriations bill that year, it is now defunded. Even the numbers are not clear. Some reports state that more than 30 people have died over the past year, other reports put the number at over 45. .One was ruled as a homicide as the result of a beating by guards. Now abuse and violence can rule.
In response, the administration claims that the fault lies with Congress, but we ask who proposed the funding bill that specifically excluded its funding. It wasn’t cut out; it was never put in. Moreover, federal contracts for detention centers now have weaker standards regarding abuse reporting.
The Northwest Center in Tacoma, WA, has had more than 170 complaints of sexual abuse. Not all deaths are by abuse, however, as other detainees have died due to the lack of medical care, and a few were by suicide. Now, of course, without any kind of independent investigating body, no one will know about abuse and death. Victims will just be hidden away. Talk about moral failure!
Prayer for the Day
Searching for the light, O God, we find only the shadows,
Failing to do the good we mean to do we acquiesce to evil.
Knowing we fall short of our goals and your promise,
We come to you in contrition and ask forgiveness.
Move us from hopelessness to determination
So we live life more fully as you intended.
In the name of the One who brings us new life,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
The fact that arguably federal crimes may be being committed (and) there’s simply no even attempt to report them is really deeply worrisome. That ICE is willing to put itself as a full-throated defense of all of these types of crimes is a worrisome trend
Angelina Snodgrass Godoy, University of Washington
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold
I have come into deep waters,
And the flood sweeps over me.
Psalm 69: 1-2