Migrant Children Held In Texas Detention Center See Mural Of Trump Quote About Evicting Tenants

A detention center in Texas, where roughly 1,500 immigrant children are being held, is drawing attention for a mural of President Donald Trump that includes a quote from his book The Art of the Deal. 

Trump Mural Featured At Migrant Children Facility In Texas

The facility in Brownsville reportedly houses children between the ages of 10 and 17 who have been separated from their parents as punishment by the Justice Department for crossing into the U.S. illegally, an action the United Nations recently condemned. The center is an old Walmart and is run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The department released on Wednesday some shocking photos from the facility and the conditions the children are kept in. Also unveiled was a photo of the mural, which depicted Trump and the White House, along with the following quote from The Art of the Deal, a phrase that appears both in English and in Spanish on the wall:

“Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.”

The quote refers to Trump’s failed attempts to evict tenants from their homes in New York in 1985.

“This is a story about a group of tenants who fought very hard to keep me from tearing down the building they lived in and constructing a new one in its place,” Trump said in his book.

Starting to get some handout photos from our tour with @HHSGov.

Here’s the Trump mural I mentioned to @chrislhayes inside the shelter for incarcerated child migrants.

Also their beds and the towels they shower with. pic.twitter.com/EPEQ1VGAAF

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 14, 2018

A group of tenants ended up suing the real estate mogul, and those lawsuits were settled after years of disputes. Those tenants ultimately managed to stay in their homes.

There is also a mural of Barack Obama at the migrant detention center, with a quote that reads: “We are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.”

MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff described the facility as a “prison” in an interview with Chris Hayes this week.

.@jacobsoboroff on Texas immigrant child detention center: “Effectively, these kids are incarcerated” #inners pic.twitter.com/ou7dT6hLU9

— All In w/Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) June 14, 2018

“You know, Chris, I have been inside a federal prison before,” Soboroff said Wednesday. “I’ve been inside several county jails. This place is a called a shelter but effectively these kids are incarcerated.”

At a news briefing on Thursday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ claim that separating illegal immigrant parents and children was rooted in the Bible.

“It is very biblical to enforce the law,” said Sanders.

Asked about Jeff Sessions’ claim that separating children from parents is rooted in the Bible, Sanders says “it it is very biblical to enforce the law.”

She then calls @Acosta dumb, saying, “I know it’s hard for you to understand even short sentences.” pic.twitter.com/LnQrBUvDBe

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 14, 2018