Printed with Permission from Alternet
House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) brought down the hammer on acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan on Thursday over his department’s cruel treatment of migrant children.
“You feel like you’re doing a great job, right?” asked Cummings during the day’s committee hearing. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“We’re doing out level best in a very challenging —” McAleenan said, starting to answer, but Cummings cut him off.
“What does that mean?!” Cummings erupted. “What does that mean when a child is sitting in their own feces. Can’t take a shower. Come on, man! What’s that about?! None of us would have our children in that position. They are human beings. And I’m trying to figure out — and I get tired of folks saying, ‘Oh, oh they’re just beating up the border patrol. Oh, they’re just beating up on Homeland Security.’ What I’m saying is I want to concentrate on these children. And I want to make sure that they’re OK. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. It’s not the deed that you do to a child, it’s the memory. It’s the memory!”
He continued: “And so, and I told the head of border patrol the other day. I said I want to know what’s happening the meantime. We are the United States of America. We are the greatest country in the world. We are the ones who can go anywhere in the world and say to people: ‘Make sure that they have diapers. Make sure that they have toothbrushes. Make sure that they’re not laying around, defecating in some silver paper.’ Come on! We’re better than that!”
