In response to reports of inhumane conditions at detention facilities along the U.S. southern border, Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin introduced the Short-Term Detention Standards Act on Thursday.

The bill requires the Trump Administration by law to provide the full range of basic necessities to migrants in short-term custody, including access to bathroom and shower facilities, water, appropriate nutrition, hygiene, personal grooming items, and sanitation needs. Current law only requires “adequate access to food and water.” According to a release from Slotkin’s office, multiple media reports have detailed, “filthy and inhumane conditions at detention facilities on the Southern border, where migrants, particularly children, are being held by Customs and Border Protection beyond the 72 hours permitted by law and denied basic necessities, including reportedly not being allowed to shower for days and weeks, being denied access to soap, toothbrushes, and diapers.”

Slotkin said that the ability to secure the nation’s borders and treat migrants humanely “aren't mutually exclusive, and anyone who says they are doesn’t understand our nation’s values.” The 8th District Democrat added that, “providing adequate nutrition, hygiene and bathroom facilities to migrant children in our care is the bare minimum of what we must do, and it’s shameful that we must introduce this legislation at all.”

Slotkin said that as a member of the Homeland Security Committee, she will continue to fight for, “critical oversight of the Department of Homeland Security’s treatment of migrants” and plans to take a bipartisan trip to the Southern border later this month.

Picture: U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Rio Grande Valley Sector via AP (JK)