On Wednesday, July 17, 2019, Senator Ed Markey joined Boston Public Radio to share his thoughts on President Trump’s recent racist tweet targeting Rep. Ayanna Pressley and three other members of the House, and to discuss his recent trip to multiple immigrant detention facilities on the southern border.
Interview Highlights:
On Trump’s racist tweet:
“That’s why his tweets are racist. That’s why his words are racist. That’s why his border strategy is racist. It’s based upon demonizing people of color in order to turn out his vote amongst white conservative voters across the country. And it’s an agenda of hate and division, and it’s all meant towards getting him re-elected. Plain and simple.”
On the conditions of immigrant detention facilities:
“I saw in [one] facility that they had no toothbrushes or no toothpaste. The mylar blankets over their heads had to be used in order to keep the light out. At the second facility, I saw extreme overcrowding. The capacity was 240 at that second facility. It had over 400 people who were being detained inside of that facility. I spoke to asylum seekers who had been in that facility for more than three weeks with no timeline for release or transfer. It’s supposed to be 72 hours [and] they’re there for three weeks or longer.”
