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While there is a new debate over what to call the camps that house children detained at the southern border, the Trump administration is arguing that these kids don’t need beds, soap, or toothpaste.

As Newsweek noted on Thursday, “The Trump administration went to court this week to argue that migrant children detained at the United States-Mexico border do not require basic hygiene products like soap and toothbrushes in order to be in held in ‘safe and sanitary’ conditions.”

The report added that “Trump’s team also argued that requiring minors to sleep on cold concrete floors in crowded cells with low temperatures similarly fulfilled that requirement.”

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The Trump Justice Department made the argument in court this week, and the judges hearing the arguments were clearly in disbelief.

“You’re really going to stand up and tell us that being able to sleep isn’t a question of safe and sanitary conditions?” one judge asked the DOJ’s Sarah Fabian.

Video:

Chris Hayes reports on the “deplorable” new argument the Trump administration is making about their detention centers on the southern border. #ctl #p2 #inners pic.twitter.com/FSTm03qSWP — PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) June 21, 2019

The Trump administration’s new argument is ‘deplorable’

While Republicans – and even Chuck Todd – pounced after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s called detention centers on the border “concentration camps,” they are missing the larger, more important point.

The focus shouldn’t be on what these camps are called – though AOC isn’t wrong in her characterization. What’s important is what is happening at these centers.

As Hayes said on Thursday, “Call the facilities where this is happening whatever you want, but arguing that children don’t need to be provided beds or soap is, well, nothing short of deplorable.”

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