The left-wing group Mi Familia Vota released a statement on Wednesday with the headline: “Trump’s Government-Sanctioned Family Torture,” referring to parents who broke the law entering the United States illegally, brought children with them, and face family separation for court proceedings.
But Executive Director Ben Monterroso doubled down on criticizing President Donald Trump for enforcing federal immigration law on the border by expanding the torture claim.
“We have seen an insatiable appetite by the Trump administration for inflicting pain on people of color, but immigrant communities in particular,” Monterroso said in the statement. “The family separation tactic that Trump is using, whether it be through interior enforcement with work raids, individual deportations, blocking Dreamers from obtaining legal status in the U.S. leaving them vulnerable to family separation, or by taking away children from their parents at the border, all have the same outcome of state-sanctioned family torture through indefinite separation.”
Mi Familia Vota’s website states that its mission is to recruit voters who share its left-wing worldview:
Mi Familia Vota is a national civic engagement organization that unites Latino, immigrant, and allied communities to promote social and economic justice through citizenship workshops, voter registration, and voter participation. Mi Familia Vota has operations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, and Texas.
Since our founding, Mi Familia Vota has integrated local organizing, leadership development, advocacy and building broad community partnerships with our voter engagement work; focusing on local, state and federal elections. Comprehensive immigration reform, education, healthcare, workers’ rights, climate change and the environment, and voter rights have been the core issues at the heart of our work, locally and nationally.
The organization board of directors includes actress Diane Guerrero, who urged her Twitter followers to donate to the same “charity” fundraiser Hillary Clinton has promoted on social media.
As Breitbart News reported, the children are receiving exceptional treatment while in the care of the U.S. government:
The facility at El Cajon … is not a “cage.” It is a comfortable facility providing lodging, meals, clothing, medical care, education, recreation, counseling, and other services.
It is run by a nonprofit organization called Southwest Key as part of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) Program, run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Administration for Children and Familes (ACF).
They have limited access to telephones to call relatives, both in the U.S. and abroad. They receive therapy, both as individuals and in group sessions. They enjoy field trips to local museums, parks, and the zoo, where they can explore the city beyond the shelter. And they also have social activities, including a recent “prom” for which they dressed up.
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