参议员杰夫·默克莱周日猛烈抨击了移民儿童拘留中心，指出许多拘留中心是由“盈利”公司经营的，美国目前正在建立“美国历史上最大的儿童监狱”来处理移民儿童。
代表俄勒冈州的民主党人默克莱在面试全国广播公司新闻会见新闻界他批评国会最近通过的立法，该立法为国土安全部提供了46亿美元的额外资金，以解决日益增多的被拘留移民和过度拥挤的设施问题。
“这无助于改变对留在墨西哥的边境儿童的封锁。这并没有改变佛罗里达州霍姆斯特德[拘留中心的盈利系统，该中心有3200名儿童，这是美国历史上最大的儿童监狱，”参议员说。“该公司每天收取750美元来关押儿童，却没有激励他们回家。”
“这个残酷对待难民，尤其是儿童的过程，是说‘如果我们这样对待他们，我们会阻止他们来’的哲学的一部分，”默克莱说这位国会议员断言:“没有伦理框架或宗教传统允许你以这种方式虐待儿童。”
在采访的另一个阶段，默克莱还呼吁唐纳德·特朗普总统的政府成员解除移民拘留中心记录在案的恶劣条件。
“当我听到政府成员说这些报道没有根据时，我就想:他们生活在什么世界？”他问道。"从各个方向你都可以看到这些孩子受到了可怕的对待。"
移民拘留中心长期以来一直引起争议，美国公民自由联盟甚至就一些设施提起诉讼在政府管理下前总统巴拉克·奥巴马。然而，拘留中心受到越来越多的批评，因为特朗普执政期间，情况似乎明显恶化。自去年12月以来，已有几名儿童在有争议的设施中死亡，政府一直努力拘留移民的时间超过法律允许的时间。这一点，加上越来越多的无证移民进入该国，导致了严重的过度拥挤。
4月8日，佛罗里达州霍姆斯特德，未成年人在无人陪伴的流动儿童家园庇护所的公共区域锻炼乔·雷德尔/盖蒂
甚至国土安全部监察长办公室发布了一份报告证实了默克莱和其他国会民主党成员提出的许多担忧。报告警告说，这些设施是一颗“定时炸弹”。
拘留中心的移民往往无法保证获得肥皂、牙刷甚至淋浴等基本卫生必需品。他们经常被迫在没有洗衣服务的情况下穿同样的衣服几天甚至几周，同时睡在铺着薄毛毯的水泥地上拥挤的牢房里。据民主党众议员亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯称，其中一个设施中的妇女告诉她，警卫指示她们从厕所喝水，因为水槽在她们的牢房里不起作用。
医生多莉·卢西奥·塞尔维尔参观了德克萨斯州的两个流动儿童拘留中心，他在一份官方医疗声明中说，这些拘留中心“可以与酷刑设施相提并论”美国广播公司新闻报道上个月。
Senator Jeff Merkley slammed migrant detention centers for children on Sunday, pointing out that many are run by "for-profit" companies and that the U.S. was currently establishing "the largest child prison in American history" to deal with immigrant children.
Merkley, a Democrat who represents Oregon, made the comments during an interview on NBC News Meet the Press, criticizing legislation recently passed by Congress that provided $4.6 billion in additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security to address the growing number of detained migrants and overcrowded facilities.
"It did nothing to change the blockade of children at the border, being left in Mexico. It did nothing to change the for-profit system of Homestead [a detention center in Florida] where 3,200 children capacity — the largest child prison in American history is being established," the senator said. "And the company's being paid $750 a day to lock up children, no incentive to get them into homes."
"This process of the brutalization of refugees, and particularly children, is part of a philosophy of saying, 'If we treat them like this, we'll discourage them from coming," Merkley argued. "There's just no ethical framework or religious tradition that allows you to mistreat children in this fashion," the congressman asserted.
At a different point in the interview, Merkley also called out members of the administration of President Donald Trump for dismissing the well-documented poor conditions in migrant detention centers.
"When I hear members of the administration say these reports are unsubstantiated, I'm just like: What world are they living in?" he asked. "From every direction you see that these children are being treated horrifically."
Migrant detention centers have long drawn controversy, with the ACLU even filing a lawsuit regarding some of the facilities under the administration of former President Barack Obama. However, the detention centers have drawn increasing criticism as conditions appear to have worsened significantly under Trump. Several children have died in the controversial facilities since December and the administration has worked to detain migrants longer than legally allowed. This, coupled with an increasing number of undocumented migrants entering the country, has led to severe overcrowding.
Even the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security released a report corroborating many of the concerns raised by Merkley and other Democratic members of Congress. The report warned that the facilities were a "ticking time bomb."
Migrants in the detention centers are often not guaranteed access to basic hygiene essentials such as soap, toothbrushes and even showers. They are often forced to wear the same clothes for days or even weeks without laundry services, while sleeping in overcrowded cells on cement floors with thin blankets. According to Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, women in one of the facilities told her that guards instructed them to drink from the toilet because the sink did not work in their cell.
Physician Dolly Lucio Servier, who visited two detention centers for migrant children in Texas, said that they "could be compared to torture facilities," in an official medical declaration reported by ABC News last month.
