These blog posts are a compilation of Irwin’s op-eds, publications, media interviews, and a variety of other features.
So far, historic floods in America’s Midwest have already claimed three lives with others still missing — although the worst may be yet to come.
In Nebraska alone, over 2,000 homes and 340 businesses have been destroyed, leading to over $1 billion in damages. In Iowa, more than 1,200 homes have been extensively damaged or destroyed, with more than $480 million estimated in damage to homes, $300 million to businesses and $214 million to agriculture.
A recent devastating tornado in rural Lee County, Alabama, had a familiar narrative for people who live in one of the nation’s growing number of tornado prevalence zones.
Predictive advisories began some 72 hours prior to the disaster informing the public that weather conditions were ripe for the development of potentially powerful storms accompanied by tornados.
From the immoral border policy to the environment to the effects of the shutdown and more, the Trump administration has all but declared war on vulnerable children.
It was already clear that Donald Trump’s policies, actions, and words have put millions of children at risk. But although the longest government shutdown in American history is coming to an end, this nearly 40 day financial crisis added a whole new dimension to the challenges facing children living in poor, working poor, and even many middle-class families.
With the deaths of two migrant children from Guatemala last month and another tear-gassing of crowds that included children just across the Southern U.S. border on New Year’s Day, nobody should argue against a thorough investigation of the circumstances that continue to place minors in highly dangerous situations. The fact that these “circumstances” are under the control of U.S. government agents justifies — even compels — us to make sure that protocols for managing an extraordinary immigration crisis do not endanger the lives of anyone, especially young children.
With the second reported fatality of a young child in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection this month, many are raising serious questions about CBP practices, but so far officials have provided answers that are spectacularly unsatisfying.
Onerous new procedures have created a bottleneck, keeping more than 15,000 unaccompanied minors in facilities that are at full capacity.
If it wasn’t bad enough that tens of thousands migrant children are being held in temporary detention, the system designed to move them into permanent homes is breaking down.
Last weekend a small, but powerful group of activists gathered at a Tornillo, Texas youth detention center to protest conditions for migrant teenagers waiting for reunification with families or official sponsors.
Joining the demonstration and facility site visit were Democratic members of Congress, including Representatives Beto O’Rourke (Texas) and Judy Chu (CA), Representative elect, Veronica Escobar (Texas) and Senators Jeff Merkley (OR), Tina Smith (MN) and Mazie Hirono (HI).
These are among the most stalwart advocates calling attention to the unending traumatization of migrant children at the U.S. Southern border.
Earlier this week, Ron Colburn, president of the Border Patrol Foundation, told the nodding hosts on “Fox & Friends” that pepper spray, one of the riot-control agents that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said they used over the weekend to deter migrants (including parents with young children in tow) was essentially benign. “It’s natural. You could actually put it on your nachos and eat it,” Colburn said.
Despite being jailed and many being separated from their children, 42 women interviewed said they would do it again.
Under the cover of multiple self-inflicted crises, President Trump has reportedly proposed reviving the widely reviled policy of separating children from parents as a way of discouraging immigration from Central America.
The destruction of life and property wrought by monster Hurricane Michael won’t be fully clarified for weeks; many communities so damaged that it will take years to become inhabitable again. Needless to say, the priority is still to find survivors and locate those who didn’t make it. But, soon enough, it will be time to think hard about what it’s going to take to support a massive recovery effort, especially in Florida which took the brunt of the category 4 storm.
During the response and recovery process, we should give high priority to what is happening to the children who survive the storm.
