Discussion: Trump Admin: No Surprise Lawmaker Visits To Child Detention Centers, No Talking To Kids

This proves they have nothing to hide </snark>

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Time for Congress to act like an equal branch of government.

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Secretary of HHS, Alex M. Azar II, has a public email address: Secretary@HHS.gov

Also,

Scott Lloyd , the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, who is so pro-life he takes pregnant teens to court to keep them from having abortions but is a-okay with putting kids in cages, may be faxed at 202-401-5487 or called at 202-401-9246

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Good to know Congress works for DHS and not the other way around. If only some body had oversight authority.

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OK, Democratic congresscritters. Time to book your flights.

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“To protect the privacy and vulnerability of children in its care, …"

Well, they sure have mastered that whole protecting the vulnerability of children thing.

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Well Congress are you going to act like a bunch of beaten dogs or are you going to get up and be human beings?

He can’t enforce any of this against you so what is it going to be?

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I wonder if HHS has an Inspector General Office, like the EPA and the Department of the Interior. Surely, those rules wouldn’t apply to inspections that office might carry out.

Lookee here -

Office of the Inspector General

HHS OIG is the largest inspector general’s office in the Federal Government, with approximately 1,600 dedicated to combating fraud, waste and abuse and to improving the efficiency of HHS programs.

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Hard to argue with the HHS policy. Nothing improves the efficiency of HHS programs more than denying access to the internment camps and the right “to take any photos, record audio or speak with the detained children prisoners.”

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Well, sure – I imagine the Red Cross had to schedule their tours of “model” Nazi concentration camps well in advance, too. Can’t just have them dropping in unannounced. Gotta have a little time to get the Potemkin village properly set up.

Ludicrous that they are more concerned about a child’s “privacy” than about subjecting them to ongoing trauma and toxic stress.

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Obviously this 2 week thing is to give a certain level of uncertainty to the treatment of those in custody.

Trumpians surely think this is a feature, more cruelty as policy; no one can get in to see if they are OK.

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Pay no attention to the kid-raping going on in the corner …

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“To protect the privacy and vulnerability of children in its care, we cannot allow visitors to record or photograph anything within the facility property, nor are visitors allowed to interact with the children,” Sara Morse, the deputy assistant secretary for legislation at HHS, wrote to Capitol Hill offices. “We appreciate your cooperation.”

Sara Morse: another fucking lying bitch.

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1,600 WHATS? 1,600 ass-kissers? 1,600 see-no-evil monkeys? 1,600 white nationalists? Cause they sure as fuck ain’t 1,600 actual INSPECTORS.

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Aren’t these Trump cultists the same people bitching about delays in snap inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities?

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We had this debate in Kentucky several years ago about the refusal of the Cabinet for Families and Children to release state records on children who died of abuse while in state custody. Yeah, the excuse was “protecting the children’s privacy” but what got the policy overturned was the judge realizing the only thing getting protected was the criminally abusive behavior of state employees charged with taking care of the children.

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“To protect the privacy and vulnerability of children in its care…”

I’m all for protecting their privacy*, but why do we want to keep them vulnerable?

*I’m quite certain that prohibiting all members of Congress from making recording or photographing “anything within the facility property” or from any interaction with the children isn’t motivated by desire to protect the privacy of the children, but I can see where HHS might want to go to such extremes in the case of certain members of Congress. I’m looking at you, Devin Nunes.

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Hey, be fair — it takes time to empty the slop buckets, give those kids baths and hose down the cells, er, cages, er, playgrounds.

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Not that congress should stand for this HHS BS, but if the Trumpies are determined to play games, reps and senators in the meantime should put in a call every day to arrange a visit two weeks in advance. With every calendar day booked for multiple visits, the reps can show up or not on any given day. Force the Trumpies to keep coming up with more BS.

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