I would think that forcing someone to suffer would be torture. How is forcing people--including children-- to choose one article of clothing to wear and then forcing them to sleep in a cold room on a cold floor not a form of torture? Forcing a mother to struggle to keep her baby warm... when all you have to do is heat the fucking room, offer a cot and a blanket... It's the 21st century. Electricity and blankets and cots exist and they aren't newfangled unheard of things.
It is fucking sadistic.
I guess the reason that I split hairs here is that while I don't dispute that Trump endorsed torture, I don't think that terrible policy/conditions of ICE detention facilities are necessarily a direct result of that. That is of course debatable, and I wouldn't be surprised to find that his stance emboldens or emboldened someone who might craft policy or engage in behavior that encourages or constitutes torture. As such the inhumane, undisputedly condemnable, and inexcusable (regardless of the word used to define them) conditions and policy may amount to torture if enacted to punish or discourage detainees.
In lieu of direct evidence in this particular discussion (and only in the context of the article recently referenced) I think that ICE detention centers have sucked well before Trump arrived, and I’m not sure that they’ve gotten any worse as a direct result of anything that he’s said or done.
Sure it’s crazy that he endorsed it, and that he has
publicly endorsed it, and anyone feel free to clarify if I got my details mixed up, but I thought he was specifically endorsing enhanced interrogation as opposed to tormenting ICE detainees. This crosses over into another separate issue, and instead of jumping down that rabbit hole I’ll just say that I don’t agree with the use of torture by our government for any reason, but I still think that in terms of interrogation and detainment of spies and enemy combatants, the use of torture would continue no matter who was president and whether or not they publicly endorse it. That’s part of the “benefit” of having black sites and contractors.
Back to the matter of detainees this brings me to what
@invisible mentioned about people who voted for Trump. I just don’t think it’s fair to blame or judge everyone who voted for him based upon the plight of the detainees. I will again stress that I am appalled by what they were and are subjected to, but this is not something that began with the Trump administration and I honestly don’t think there would be that much difference were Hillary, Bernie, or any other candidate in office. Illegal immigrants would still be getting detained, some unfairly and uncompassionately. They would still be subjected to terrible conditions, likely both felons and people who just have illegal status. The proportions may differ with Trump but it would still be happening with anyone else. I would be interested to explore areas of influence such as ICE policy, prison administration, use for-profit prisons, budgeting, oversight, etc. I don’t think (and again I am willing to be convinced otherwise) that such conditions are due to a direct order from the administration to maltreat detainees. It needs to be fixed but I don’t think it’s fair to point a finger specifically at Trump supporters to say this is their fault. I think that it only serves to promote divisiveness. The blame lies on the US as a whole.