Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the motion. It has been deeply disturbing to see the reports and footage emanating from the US in recent weeks.

I begin by echoing the points made by a number of previous speakers and unreservedly condemning the policy choices by the Trump Administration that have led to this appalling situation. Children are being forcibly taken from their parents and kept in cages with foil for blankets. Immigration officers are being told not to comfort or hold distressed children. Parents are not being told when, or indeed if, they will be reunited with their children before they are deported. The United States, which is a developed nation with which we share historically strong links, is engaging in the deliberate traumatisation and abuse of children to deter immigration and asylum seeking. By any stretch of the imagination that can only be called torture and it is unconscionable.

Many commentators have surmised that this may be Trump's Katrina moment, the point where the horror of the images and reports clash so irreversibly with the justifications being proffered by the Administration that his supporters will finally have enough. However, I am unsure if that will be the case. Since November 2016 we have seen example after example of the Trump Administration, cravenly backed by a seemingly spineless Republican Party, pander to the worst characteristics of middle America. The cruelty and inhumanity we are now seeing in those detention camps is the direct outworking of the toxic idea that was sold to his supporters in the run-up to the presidential election. The idea that reducing the number of foreign-born people in the United States will make native born Americans richer and safer was a lie then and it is a lie now. What Trump is selling his supporters with this brutalising policy is the idea that cracking down on immigration and suffering condemnation of so-called elites demonstrates his dedication to being on their side. What was once a dog whistle for white nationalists has now been replaced by unabashed xenophobia. We can no longer give credence to the idea that the majority of Trump supporters voted for him in 2016 because of economic insecurity. Let us make no mistake, these policies have support and the outrage of Democrats, so-called cultural elites and foreign governments make his supporters even more sure of their correctness. US political discourse has become a toxic zero-sum game of winners and losers.

That a country whose political culture was once an example to the rest of the democratic world could have unravelled and debased itself in such a short timeframe is a stark warning to us all.

The net effect of Trump's shocking xenophobia can be seen in the emboldening of racists and right-wing populists closer to home. Political leaders in Hungary, Italy, Poland and other European states have drawn inspiration from Trump's immigration policies. We ourselves are not immune and it would be remiss of me not to mention our own appalling legacy in the form of direct provision. I reiterate my call from last week that this system be closed down.

I repeat my call from yesterday that representatives from the US embassy be summoned by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and that the sentiments expressed in this debate be made very clear to them and relayed to Washington. In particular, I ask Ministers, some of whom enjoy a very close relationship with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Paul Ryan, to express their abhorrence of these policies. I do not believe that the Trump Administration can be shamed or embarrassed into action because the man leading it is incapable of shame, it would seem. If the Republican Party, however, has any shred of decency left or any respect for the functioning of US democracy, it cannot allow this appalling situation to continue.

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