Christian leaders are speaking out

The New York Times published a piece which took a look at the terrible conditions of child detention centers. These child detention centers house hundreds of young migrant children without their parents.

The facilities reportedly do not give the children access to basic hygiene supplies such as soap, toothpaste, and toothbrushes. Lawyers have said that children are locked in their cages and cells for most of the day.

After reports broke out about the terrible conditions that these children were subject to, many Christian leaders had a lot to say about the matter.

Dan Darling, vice president for communications at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, called it unconscionable after reading the piece published by The New York Times.

One of the lawyers who visited the facility, Elora Mukherjee, told the outlet that there is a stench in the facility. Most of the children haven’t bathed after crossing the border.

Mukherjee is the director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Colombia Law School. She and five other lawyers met with 60 children at the Clint facility. The lawyers were told that as many as 350 children were being detained there.

Mukherjee said that the children are locked in their cells as well as cages all day long. While some kids were given opportunities to go outside and play, they said they weren’t able to bring themselves to have fun as they were trying to stay alive in the facility.

200 children were transferred to an undisclosed location by the end of the lawyer’s visit. The lawyers weren’t told where the children were transferred. The New York Times reported that another group of lawyers had discovered children in similar conditions in six other detention locations across Texas.

Robert P. George, a Princeton University law professor and conservative Catholic scholar, voiced his outrage among many others on Twitter about the conditions that these migrant children are subject.

George wrote “The mistreatment of migrant children in government custody is wrong–and shameful–whether it is under Democrats or Republicans, Obama or Trump. Enough with the partisan finger-pointing. Reform the system and fund it. We're talking about innocent children.”

The mistreatment of migrant children in government custody is wrong–and shameful–whether it is under Democrats or Republicans, Obama or Trump. Enough with the partisan finger-pointing. Reform the system and fund it. We're talking about innocent children.https://t.co/7ecIRcXNgy — Robert P. George (@McCormickProf) June 24, 2019

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