Biden is locking up migrant children. Will the world still care with Trump gone? | Moustafa Bayoumi

Flowers, butterflies and a rosy banner saying Bienvenidos' decorate the child detention site. Is that meant to fool us into thinking this is humane?

This week, the Biden administration did the unthinkable. They reopened a Trump-era detention site for migrant children. The detention center, a reconverted camp for oil field workers in Carrizo Springs, Texas, is expected to hold 700 children between the ages of 13 and 17, and dozens of kids have already arrived there.

This is an awful development, reminding me of some of the worst abuses of the Trump years. And while we obviously don't know how this ominous development will play out in the long run, what we do know is this: unaccompanied migrant children deserve compassion, not detention. But rather than seeking out new and better solutions, the Biden administration is instead trying to sell us an image of a kinder, gentler imprisonment.