Cantwell Responds to The Seattle Six: Congratulates herself for voting in favor of funding concentration camps

Sen. Cantwell responds to The Seattle Six: 

Congratulates herself for voting in favor of funding concentration camps

113 days after hundreds of constituents had condemned Senator Cantwell for voting to fund concentration camps -- and less than 20 hours prior to the federal court arraignment of The Seattle Six -- Cantwell issues her first direct response to some of her constituents via email. This email went out to those who had visited her office in July and August to demand she take a more public position in condemning detention and commit to defund detention camps. Cantwell's emailed statement was not posted anywhere else (news, press releases, twitter, Facebook, etc.). In the 3rd paragraph of her email (you can see the entire original email here) she claims to be working to end immigrant abuse as follows:

"In order to address the humanitarian crisis at the border, I supported H.R. 3401, the bipartisan Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Humanitarian Assistance and Security at the Southern Border Act, 2019, which was signed into law on July 1, 2019. The bill’s safeguards include provisions that prohibit funds from being transferred and used for other purposes by DHS such as building the wall or allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to purchase more detention beds."

This is disingenuous and dishonest in the extreme: On June 26, 2019 Senators Cantwell and Murray first voted in favor of a version of HR 3401 that provided safeguards for how funds would be used. Later that same day they both voted in favor of a senate version that stripped out all meaningful safeguards (senators Wyden and Merkley voted against this final version)! What was "signed into law on July 1" is absent meaningful safeguards against the abuses that detained immigrants were, and still are, suffering. When this bill went back to the House on June 27, for final passage, all Washington state congresspeople capitulated and voted yes except for Jayapal and Smith.

The last sentence of the above quoted section from her email is extraordinarily disingenuous: mentioning that the final bill included safeguards to prohibit "funds from being transferred and used for other purposes by DHS such as building the wall" is like saying there are prohibitions in the bill for preventing the use of funds to cage kittens -- a complete irrelevancy. Stating that the bill prohibits "allowing (ICE) to purchase more detention beds" is not a positive thing for detainees: ICE and CBP, as part of the intentionally cruel treatment of detainees, would love to have fewer beds and under provisioned facilities -- the lack of beds in no way deters CBP from detaining people.

This email indicates Cantwell's profound ignorance of the issue and/or a ham-fisted attempt to fool her constituents.

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