MSNBC host Joe Scarborough accused US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of 'brutalizing' detainees in 'internment camps' after two top Democrats were denied entry to a detention center in New Jersey. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill and Senator Andy Kim were both blocked from Newark's Delaney Hall on Monday. Kim was pepper sprayed by ICE agents during a subsequent struggle.
Scarborough Calls for Transparency
'It's got to come to an end. There has to be transparency,' Scarborough said during Tuesday's Morning Joe. 'What is the Trump administration hiding? What is the DHS hiding? What abuses? What serial abuses of human beings are they hiding?' A hunger strike amongst inmates meant to protest purported poor conditions in the Newark facility was launched on Friday, earning scrutiny from Sherrill and Kim.
Scarborough found the idea that they were denied entry 'extraordinary', because the centers are funded by taxpayer dollars. 'You're a governor of a state where they have placed one of these internment camps, and the Trump administration does not allow you to go inside there? You're a United States senator?' he wondered. 'I mean, that's their job,' quipped cohost Mika Brzezinski.
Funding and Accountability
'And you actually find you fund these internment sites. And they're black holes. They're black holes,' Scarborough continued. He maintained that many people being kept inside 'shouldn't be held there.' 'And we know that they'll stay as long as they can stay, because the people inside there get paid by the day, in many cases, from the reporting that we've gotten,' he added. 'So, the longer they hold people, even if those people are held illegally, well, the more money they make. So again, something has to be done here.'
Scarborough called on members of Congress to 'go to every internment camp in their districts' and 'demand' entry or 'fund nothing.' He pointed to his past as a Florida Republican as proof that not enough was being done to address such concerns. 'If we can do that about Medicare and Social Security, we can do that about human beings who are being brutalized inside these internment camps.'
Comparison to Concentration Camps
'And brutalized so much that many leave saying that they're like concentration camps,' Scarborough said. He said the only way to verify otherwise would be for the federal government to 'actually let members of Congress, United States senators, who funded those internment camps, to go in and check on a daily basis.' 'You know, we have enemies in wars that allow the Red Cross to go in and check,' Scarborough said. 'But we're actually funding - I want to say it again - we're actually funding as taxpayers through the United States Congress, through the article one branch, these internment camps where people are being abused. Where people are being held, when they should be freed.'
Criticism of Administration
'And this administration thinks they have a right- an article two branch thinks they have a right to tell an article one branch or a governor who actually is hosting the internment camp in her state, that they don't have a right to do that. That's absolutely ridiculous,' the host concluded. 'And I want to say, for everybody who's stupid enough to say, "Well, they're here illegally." We don't know that. You don't know that. You're just making that sh*t up. You don't know who's in there, and you don't know anyone, even someone.'
Lawmakers' Concerns
Sherrill has said she is 'deeply disturbed' by the alleged conditions inside Delaney Hall, which include overcrowded rooms, cold showers, no food, extreme cold, and a lack of blankets. Kim wrote Monday on social media: 'We're working together to make sure they're heard and to speak out with them. Delaney Hall must be shut down immediately. ICE cannot be allowed to continue operating in this way.'
The Department of Homeland Security denied elected officials' claims of unacceptable conditions in a statement, saying they were 'spreading smears about ICE law enforcement'. The DHS spokesperson said that Kim was ultimately allowed into the facility after he made a call to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
