With reports of horrific living conditions for asylum-seeking kids being held at the border overtaking the nation's discourse, some people are trying to help. Ordinary citizens, determined to prevent unnecessary suffering among children, are stepping up.
However, as The Texas Tribune reports, their efforts are being rejected.
Attorneys touring one facility near El Paso found children as young as 10 caring for toddlers because there was no one else to look after them. At least 15 kids had the flu.
"In my 22 years of doing visits with children in detention I have never heard of this level of inhumanity," said lawyer Holly Cooper, according to HuffPost.
Suggesting that because such details aren't specifically laid out in the relevant case law, Justice Department lawyer Sarah Fabian argued that soap, toothpaste, and blankets aren't required to provide a "safe and sanitary" facilities.
Austin Savage and five of his friends loaded up an SUV with $340 worth of diapers, wipes, soap, and toys for the kids, and headed over to the facility from nearby El Paso, The Texas Tribune reported.
However, their care package was turned away.
Savage and his group found another donation simply left at the door, a plastic bag containing soap and toothpaste.
A note reading "I heard y'all need soap & toothpaste for kids. Maybe more will be on its way soon," was attached.
"A good friend of mine is an immigration attorney, and he warned us that we were going to get rejected," he said. "We were aware of that, but it's just the idea of doing something as opposed to passively allowing this to occur."
He wrote to Border Patrol officials asking where he could send a donation, but was told that the Border Patrol can't accept donations. As a Border Patrol official explained, it would be illegal for them to do so.
They can't spend money or accept donations that aren't approved by Congress. "It's partially a constitutional thing about Congress controlling the purse and only being able to spend money that Congress gives, but it's also ethics," the official said.
Despite the fact that various individuals and groups are ready and willing to get these children the resources that they need, they are prevented from doing so because of this legal roadblock.
But he and others will try again, and failing that, they'll donate to groups that are helping to house families detained and separated by ICE.
"In an ideal world, the facility would accept it, so we're going to ask with all sincerity that they do," he said.
"Hopefully they say yes, but we want to show that these are not circumstances preventing these children from being taken care of, but a policy."
