On Tuesday night, MSNBC’s Hardball stated in the A-block that the illegal immigration detention centers (yes, the ones the far-left thinks are concentration camps) were solely a Trump administration phenomenon and prove that America was “no longer....a haven for people around the world.”
NBC correspondent Cal Perry joined host Chris Matthews, former Republican congressman-turned-liberal David Jolly, and Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL) from one such center in Homestead, Florida and proclaimed that “these facilities are designed very purposefully” with sinister motives.
Citing immigration lawyers, Perry stated that the facilities “are designed to mimic prison-like conditions” before pontificating that the Trump administration wants illegal immigrants and the rest of the world to know that their safety wasn’t guaranteed and we’re no longer a beacon of hope:
This is a policy of deterrence. This is the administration sending a very clear message that if you come to this country, you are risking your safety not only in the journey but when you are here in these detention facilities, the conditions are going to be very unpleasant. It is worth probably arguing about for these Democratic candidates, not only what their plan is, but the effectiveness of an administration, basically sending a message the United States is no longer going to be a haven for people around the world, Chris.
Inconveniently, the B-roll towards the end of Perry’s free, unsolicited advice for 2020 Democrats featured seemingly content teenage illegal aliens playing soccer, which Matthews picked up on and leaving Perry to do damage control (click “expand”):
MATTHEWS: Maybe we got this accidentally, but we’re looking here at — look like — it doesn't look like a terrible picture, young teenagers, I'd say, 15, 16-years-old playing soccer. What are you able to see down there?
PERRY: Yes. So, you have two sort of camps. You’ve GOT the ones run by a private company. Like this one behind me, the Homestead facility. Look, these are contracted out usually to do natural disasters. They're not contracted out to take care of children. So the physical conditions of these camps can oftentimes look good. But they’re isolated. These are kids oftentimes isolated from the rest of the population. They can't visit with relatives. They can only speak to people once or twice a week to on the phone for ten minutes. They're basically mini prisons, so we’ve handed over the children from South America to basically companies that are used to running prison facilities. That's one of the key issues here at hand.
Later in the segment after Matthews played clips of Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd scolding the President on this issue like a partisan hack, he turned to Jolly, who also went off by ruling that the President “lied in two very important ways that Obama created these conditions and the answer to all these problems is House Democrats providing more money.”
Jolly’s statement, of course, was the real lie as the President accurately stated that, while these conditions were bad, the horrid state of affairs in cramped and overrun detention centers started with the Obama administration. Perhaps Jolly should consult stories about it here, here, here, here, and here.
And there’s Jolly’s insistence that the President has been lying about the Obama administration also having a family separation policy. But as the snafu regarding former Obama aide-turned-CNN analyst Sam Vinograd showed, they did have some separations.
Going back to Perry, he reported that the one such Customs and Border Protection facility in Brownsville he visited indeed had horrid conditions that were “cramped” with an “overwhelming” “stench” and suggested it was being done on purpose.
“It doesn't make any sense because it's not supposed to make sense. The administration is intentionally putting people into these situations to send these messages around not only through the communities but to the rest of the world,” he opined.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on June 25, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
June 25, 2019
7:03 p.m. EasternCAL PERRY: Well, listen, these facilities are designed very purposefully and I can give you some of the language that comes from these facilities from these lawyers. They say they are military-style camps, that these places are designed to mimic prison-like conditions. This is a policy of deterrence. This is the administration sending a very clear message that if you come to this country, you are risking your safety not only in the journey but when you are here in these detention facilities, the conditions are going to be very unpleasant. It is worth probably arguing about for these Democratic candidates, not only what their plan is, but the effectiveness of an administration, basically sending a message the United States is no longer going to be a haven for people around the world, Chris.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Maybe we got this accidentally, but we’re looking here at — look like — it doesn't look like a terrible picture, young teenagers, I'd say, 15, 16-years-old playing soccer. What are you able to see down there?
PERRY: Yes. So, you have two sort of camps. You’ve GOT the ones run by a private company. Like this one behind me, the Homestead facility. Look, these are contracted out usually to do natural disasters. They're not contracted out to take care of children. So the physical conditions of these camps can oftentimes look good. But they’re isolated. These are kids oftentimes isolated from the rest of the population. They can't visit with relatives. They can only speak to people once or twice a week to on the phone for ten minutes. They're basically mini prisons, so we’ve handed over the children from South America to basically companies that are used to running prison facilities. That's one of the key issues here at hand.
(....)
7:09 p.m. Eastern
CHUCK TODD [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: They're in terrible shape down there, Mr. President. Down in Homestead, Florida, that's where I grew up, it’s — these — the conditions are terrible.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: I agree. And it's been —
TODD [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: Do something.
TRUMP [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: — that way for a long time.
TODD [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: Do something.
TRUMP [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: And President Obama built the cages. Remember when they said that I built them?
[SCREEN WIPE]
TODD [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: Let’s talk about what’s happening now.
TRUMP [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: — by the Obama —
TODD [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: Your administration, and —
TRUMP [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: — I'm just telling you.
TODD [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: — you’re not doing the recreation. You're not even schooling these kids anymore. You've gotten rid of all that stuff.
TRUMP [on NBC’s Meet the Press, 06/23/19]: We're doing a fantastic job under the circumstances. The Democrats aren't even approving giving us money. Where is the money? You know what? The Democrats are holding up the humanitarian aid.
MATTHEWS: David Jolly, this is again a familiar picture — good purposes by the Democrats trying to get something good, trying to prevent something bad. I wonder if anything is going to get resolved here in this matter right now in terms of ending this appalling treatment of people.
DAVID JOLLY: Chris, Donald Trump's a liar. What he just said there. He lied in two very important ways that Obama created these conditions and the answer to all these problems is House Democrats providing more money. There — this has been a multi-year problem. A multi-year challenge for DHS, for past administrations and this one around the question of capacity and we're seeing that with the surge of people com across, we are seeing capacity needs. So as the congresswoman mentioned what’s in both the House bill and the Republican Senate bills is for processing facilities, for capacity. The House wants legal aid, healthcare, certain hygiene supplies and so forth. But what the President has failed to do and what he lies about since the beginning of his administration is abide by the long-settled standard which is the Flores agreement. The Flores Settlement, that's nearly 20-years-old that provides a certain basic level of care, particularly for children, migrant children, when it comes to access to family members, when it comes to healthcare, to hygiene and the basic standards of detention. Donald Trump deliberately, deliberately ignored that and changed that. Donald Trump brought in family separation. It was not President Obama. What Donald Trump did in that interview is a lie. My fear is that the well intentioned House Democrats, if they declare too much of a victory on this spending bill, will have actually advanced the president's lies and actually bought into the president's own narrative that it's just the money. It's not just the money. God bless the Democrats and the Republicans in the Senate that want to provide the money. But the President said a false narrative based on a lie. This is Donald Trump's fault.
MATTHEWS: Cal, let's go back to the border. What are the people down there working in this process of look after, look at, keeping control of the situation down there with those kids, what do they say is the problem? Do they tell you what the problem is?
PERRY: Yes. So I got inside one of those facilities, the biggest ones by Custom and Border Protection in Brownsville. We were walking around. They made us check our cameras. It was really disgusting. The stench was overwhelming. It was all of those things that you read in that article, cramped spaces and the person who gave us the tour said what we really need here is immigration judges and we need more facilities and better facilities. So when you look at Clint, that facility that we have those horrible reports from, today we have another 100 children going back into that facility. It doesn't make any sense because it's not supposed to make sense. The administration is intentionally putting people into these situations to send these messages around not only through the communities but to the rest of the world. So what do we need at the border? More immigration judges, more doctors, medics, nurses, there is a humanitarian crisis going on, the problem is the money is not being diverted to that issue. Chris.
