Hurricanes and human rights

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s Hurricane Florence battered the coastlines of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) received roughly $9.8 million that was within the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) budget. President Trump’s administration is essentially making the statement that funding detention camps that abuse children and separate families is more important than aiding coastal cities and helping evacuees seek refuge.

Poor money usage isn’t the only gambling with people’s lives happening. Inmates in South Carolina’s MacDougall Correctional Institution are being denied evacuation by prison officials even though it is within the mandatory evacuation zone, roughly 35 miles from Charleston. So apparently, according to those wardens and other administrators, logistical concerns, which are essentially negligible since North Carolina and Virginia have already evacuated their prisoners, are more important than the lives of United States citizens that are incarcerated.

As individuals who share citizenship with the evacuees and with the prisoners, we are appalled that Trump and the prison administrators would be so against aiding and helping people.

Another terrible event occurred back in 2012 that affects recovery and response today. According to The Huffington Post, North Carolina’s lawmakers “barred policymakers and developers from using up-to-date climate science to plan for rising sea levels on the state’s coast.” Climate change science isn’t something that can just be thrown out the window. Now, North Carolina faced a torrent of rain and storm surges that proves climate change is here and very real. When waves swallow houses on the coast and winds uproot trees, there is nothing denial will do.

Speaking of denial, 3,000 people did die in Puerto Rico during its last hurricane, Mr. Trump. Families torn apart by tragedy have the proof that you’re looking for. Why would you deny that people died, especially when they are so close to citizenship within the country that you’re in charge of? And not only is it bad when you first deny that people died, but it’s even worse whenever you double down on your claim and say that it was the democrats’ fault. Because yes, democrats love to fudge the numbers on death and destruction. Absolutely no amount of paper towel throwing and “Kobe-ing” will bring people back or coincide reality with your delusional world.

It’s really pitiful that a president would blame the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico for a lack of emergency response and aid when the federal government has the resources to do so.

Climate change denying will only lead to more deaths in the future. There’s not a single life that will not be affected unless Trump and his lackeys accept science for what it is. We can only hope that the next hurricane that batters our coast will be met with the same energy and ferocity that Trump embodies with rounding up immigrants. Also, Mr. Trump, it’s going to be a whole lot harder to play a golf game when the holes are filled with water from the rising sea levels, or when you can’t finish more than a couple of holes because the temperature is too hot.