In the wake of increased scrutiny over the treatment of migrant children — especially the Trump administration policy of forcibly separating them from their parents at the border — reporters were finally allowed into one detention center in Texas.
Per the Washington Post, what they found at Casa Padre — an overcrowded Brownsville shelter that used to be a Walmart — was over 1,400 boys from the ages of 10 to 17, approximately 5 percent of whom had been separated from their parents. Along with doorless bedrooms filled with multiple beds each, a cafeteria, and a rec room, the children can also expect to be greeted by something else: a large mural of President Trump. (The Post reports that there’s also a mural of former president Barack Obama.)
Along with a black-and-white rendering of the president’s face and a painting of the White House with a large American flag atop it, it also features a quote of his from The Art of the Deal in both English and Spanish. It reads, “Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.”
Children spend an average of 49 days at Casa Padre, with MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff saying, “effectively, these kids are incarcerated.”