Dialogic Cinephilia - July 11, 2019

Michael Benton -- I abhor what we, as a country, are doing right now along our borders. I'm curious, I haven't heard one particular point brought up about these migrant prisons. This is what happens when you privatize basic human services (healthcare, education, basic necessities like water/heat, and, yes, prisons, etc...), the human equation (or any type of being) is lost in a system whose main priority (and this is the main priority of a corporation) is to milk as much profit as possible with no concern what is done to those working for them, those being serviced by them and the communities/environments in which the corporate entity is located.

There is also a basic political reality that should be remembered by even those who turn a blind eye to this issue or actively support these private migrant prisons. What you allow your government to do to the least of us (as in the ability to resist/challenge), will one day be done to you and yours (including you MAGA supporters). We see the weapons of 'wars on terror' on our streets being used against our citizens, we will see the expansion of this prison system based upon Guantanamo and migrant prisons if we stay quiet. Prisons in which people are not given the basic necessities and are dehumanized. Prisons where our duly elected representatives are not allowed access and are openly threatened when they investigate the conditions. Prisons in which the human factor is erased.

One last thing, I'll keep this simple, for the Christians that support Trump - what would your savior Jesus do in response to these migrant prisons. Where would he stand?

Barragán, Nanette. "'Unconscious and Unacceptable': : Rep. Barragán Decries Detention of Migrant Children in Prison Cells." Democracy Now (July 11, 2019) ["Yazmin Juárez, the Guatemalan mother whose child died after being held in an ICE detention center from a lung infection, testified before members of a congressional panel Wednesday. She shared the story of her daughter, 19-month-old Mariee, who died last year shortly after being released from the South Texas Family Detention Center in Dilley, Texas. Juárez filed a $60 million lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol and the Department of Health and Human Services. The House subcommittee convened to examine the treatment of refugees in U.S. detention, just over a week after lawmakers flocked to the U.S.-Mexico border to observe the horrible treatment of refugee children and families in immigration jails amid reports of continued unsafe and unsanitary conditions for asylum seekers. Meanwhile, NBC reports that migrant children jailed in Yuma, Arizona, have been subjected to mistreatment and sexual violence. We speak with Democratic Rep. Nanette Barragán from California, who recently visited detention centers in Texas. She’s the second vice-chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and serves on the House Committee on Homeland Security."]