Inhumane conditions at Adelanto Detention must be addressed by Cook

Rep. Cook should address the serious concerns about treatment of immigrants in his own district instead of feeding Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and cruel campaign for a border wall. If anyone should be aware of how these harsh and unnecessary immigration policies like detention centers and deportations harm communities, it should be Rep. Cook.

Yet, he’s allowing Adelanto Detention Facility to continue its locking up of immigrants despite hundreds of sexual assault cases and lack of fair trial for victims. While the Trump administration is doubling down on attacking California immigrants by going after sanctuary cities, our representative is adding to his racist agenda.

These types of fear mongering and systematic dismantling of human rights result in these unjust punishments and unfathomable conditions. The attempts to break apart families and punish people seeking a quality life cannot stand– no more boots, no more beds and no more walls.

I will not be complicit in this human rights crisis in American history and neither should my Congressman. This kind of cruel treatment and failure to address our community’s real problems– like the Adelanto Detention Center– is not representative of our community’s values.

It’s time for Rep. Cook to shut down Adelanto and counter the false rhetoric Trump is spreading about immigrants and the need for a border wall. I stood with immigrants’ rights advocates last Saturday to raise noise of this unjust and inhumane detention center and continue to denounce this administration’s scapegoating of immigrants and our communities.

Samuel Rodriguez

Highland