Pirate's Cove

There’s a simple solution to this issue of what the Washington Post refers to as the “latest source of border controversy” on their web front page: stay home. Don’t come here illegally.

Amid migrants’ complaints of frigid holding cells, a battle for control of border thermostats

The tired and poor masses crossing the border illegally do a lot of huddling after coming to America. It’s the air conditioning.

So notoriously cold are the U.S. Border Patrol’s detention cells that those heading north are warned the first stop will be a hielera, or “icebox.” The shivering stay is a rite of passage, and at the busiest border stations, the floors and benches are crowded with detainees bundled in silver polyethylene sheets, the only blankets made available. Their shifting bodies produce a constant crinkling, like the sound of Christmas gifts being unwrapped for hours on end.

A fight for control of the temperature inside these facilities is the subject of litigation between the U.S. government and immigration advocacy groups who accuse the Border Patrol of using the thermostat as a tool to deter migration and gain leverage over those in custody. While these accusations stretch back years, the uproar triggered by the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” family separation policy has brought new claims of hypothermic misery.

In other words, this was happening under President Obama, but, fable teller Nick Miroff didn’t want to mention his name. Anyhow, yes, groups which support illegal immigration (who should be held responsible for enticing people to make long treks across Central America and Mexico, putting them in danger from the element, gangs, rape, starvation, dysentery, etc) are suing because it’s a bit cold in the detention centers. There’s another solution: catch and deport immediately.

Customs and Border Protection officials vigorously dispute allegations of mistreatment. Many of the migrants in custody are from rural parts of Central America, they note, and simply not accustomed to air conditioning, or what some Border Patrol officials refer to as “refrigerated air.” The agency says temperature settings are never used for punitive purposes and thermostats are checked regularly to ensure they are between 66 and 80 degrees, the range that CBP deemed reasonable under the terms of the Flores settlement.

I keep mine at 72. Most of these centers are in the desert areas of the American Southwest, which gets hot, and we’re used to AC. I’d rather out citizens be comfortable, rather than law breakers.

Driving the air conditioning dispute is the fact that two distinct groups must share the detention facilities — migrants and Border Patrol agents — and they have very different needs.

Our folks come first.

Stories of sleepless nights on concrete floors are repeated throughout migrants’ testimonies in the Flores suit, and the CBP official acknowledged that mats are not always available for adults. “There are facilities that do have mats. There are others that do not,” the official said. “At the larger facilities, there are mats for juveniles.”

Don’t like it? Don’t come.

The inspector, Henry A. Moak Jr., wrote in a June report provided to Gee that during his visits to eight detention facilities, he found only one instance of a temperature setting below the established range.

In most facilities Moak measured, the temperature ranged between 70 and 75 degrees. But in interviews with 38 detainees, many also told Moak they were cold, including one 4-year-old boy from Guatemala. Moak noted that the temperature in the cell was 76.4 degrees, but the boy’s father told him they had not received a blanket or mat after four hours in custody.

If they’re cold, stay in their nations.

Read: Illegal Aliens Are Sad That The Detention Centers Are Kept Cold »

This is shocking stuff, folks. Businesses are favoring Americans and those who are lawfully present under federal law over illegal aliens. No worries, Vox is on it!

Some businesses are refusing to hire DACA recipients. They are fighting back.

Daniel Marques would probably be working as a financial adviser for a big investment firm in New Jersey right now.

David Rodriguez might have landed an internship with Procter & Gamble in Miami.

Sandy Vasquez might be an engineering intern in Silicon Valley.

Ruben Juarez might have snagged a finance internship in Connecticut.

All four of them went to college and graduated with honors. And all four of them say they were denied jobs, even though they had valid work permits because they are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.

The Obama-era program began in 2012 and offers temporary work authorization and deportation relief to qualified undocumented immigrants under the age of 38 who grew up in the United States. In January and February, two federal courts ordered the Department of Homeland Security to continue renewing work permits for DACA holders after President Donald Trump tried to end the program in 2017.

Here’s the thing: even Obama said it was extra-legal and un-Constitutional. Furthermore, it was only meant to be temporary relief: at what point does it end? Anyhow, what are these entitled illegal aliens doing

As the legal battle over DACA continues to wind its way through the courts, a related legal battle is on the rise. DACA immigrants are suing US employers for denying them jobs because they aren’t citizens. Despite presenting valid work permits from US Citizenship and Immigration Services, recruiters at several large corporations told them they only hire US citizens or immigrants with green cards. Some said they only hire employees whose work permits don’t expire (DACA must be renewed every two years).

DACA workers say these actions are a form of citizenship discrimination prohibited under the Civil Rights Act of 1866. At least four DACA workers who were denied jobs in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and California are suing the companies that turned them away using that argument.

The outcome of these class-action lawsuits has huge implications for American companies, and for the estimated 700,000 immigrants with DACA status who are living in the United States. A verdict in favor of the workers could force businesses to change the way they treat job candidates enrolled in DACA, giving them the same chance to land a job as anyone else. It would also open the door to other groups of authorized workers who are affected by some of these hiring restrictions: refugees, asylum holders, and victims of human trafficking.

That’s right, they are suing, despite not actually being, you know, citizens. They have no actual standing under federal law, and, realistically, this could end up utterly backfiring on them if the rulings use actual federal law regarding these people being unlawfully present in the U.S. They could find out that not only are they not Entitled to a job, but that they shouldn’t even be in the U.S. and find themselves being deported.

And this just goes to the point that rather than be humbled and coming with their hats in hand, these illegal aliens are demanding that the U.S. and its citizens give them stuff, and they’ll sue to get it.

Read: Bummer: Businesses Are Refusing To Hire Illegal Alien DACA Kids »