News

Man kidnapped by Somali pirates attacks Trump administration's treatment of detained migrant children

Man kidnapped by Somali pirates attacks Trump administration's treatment of detained migrant children

A video of a US government lawyer Sarah Fabien attempting to argue that migrant children being held in detention centers don't need soap, toothbrushes, or beds in order to live in 'safe and sanitary' conditions has been owned in the best possible way.

In the video, Fabien, a lawyer for the US Department of Justice, argued at the US court of appeals for the ninth circuit, that children detained at the US-Mexico border don't require even the bare minimum of sanitary products.

In response to her comments, the three judges present at the hearing responded seeming pretty shocked, with Judge William Fletcher saying:

Are you arguing seriously that you do not read the agreement as requiring you to do something other than what I just described: cold all night long, lights on all night long, sleeping on concrete and you’ve got an aluminium foil blanket?

I find it inconceivable that the government would say that that is safe and sanitary.

US circuit judge Marsha Berzon followed up, asking:

You’re really going to stand up and tell us that being able to sleep isn’t a question of safe and sanitary conditions?

Trying to fight her corner, Fabien stumbled over her words, saying:

Well, I think it's fair... there's reason to find that those things may be part of 'safe and sanitary'...

However, perhaps the best response to her questionable views was from Twitter user and author Michael Scott Moore, who had been kidnapped by Somali pirates, who simply wrote:

Somali pirates gave me toothpaste & soap.

Well, that hammers home the point somewhat, doesn't it?

Watch the full exchange here.

HT Someecards

More: Trump official tries to argue that detained children don’t need soap, toothbrushes, or beds

More: ICE released 'happy' images of detention centres and critics are calling it propaganda

The Conversation (0)
x