“Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy” – Captain G.M. Gilbert, Psychologist who worked with defendants at the Nuremberg trials. 

Mike Pence’s stony-faced visit to a border detention facility in Texas was very brief.  What reporters saw during his photo-op was horrific, but sadly no longer shocking: human beings purposefully caged in inhumane conditions.  

Pence said the facilities were “providing care that every American would be proud of.” 

Greg Walden also visited several border sites. In his post-visit press release, he said absolutely nothing about the deplorable conditions depicted in the photographs we have all seen. “Last year, I led a bipartisan delegation to the border to observe the conditions and challenges there. I went back to see with my own eyes what is occurring, what has changed since last year, and what work remains for us to do in Congress to further address this crisis. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to fix our broken immigration system and secure our borders so that we can properly process and manage the unprecedented number of people coming into the United States.”

Where are his Oregon values?

Where is his compassion?

Meanwhile: 

Border Patrol agents were posting racist, callous jokes, memes and comments about immigrant deaths on Facebook. 

Despite our knowledge of the lifetime trauma it causes, infants and children are still being separated from their families. More than 700 as of May. 

Trump has issued a new policy pointedly aimed at refugees fleeing Central America.  It denies asylum to anyone who has not already applied for protection in the countries they have passed through on their way to the U.S.  

 ICE publicly announcing specific raids multiple times effectively alerted any actual “security risks.”  However, immigrant communities were terrorized and, as with Trump’s other policies, white nationalists were pleased.

Trump’s inhumane policies are intentional and for political gain.  

Where’s Walden?

Loyal soldier in Trump’s White Nationalist Party?