MSNBC's Rachel Maddow has tape from inside a facility for migrant girls. They're warned not to talk to reporters.

Footage from inside a facility housing separated migrant girls, via MSNBC

(Image credit: Screenshow/MSNBC/YouTube)

last updated 26 June 2018

A teacher at a facility for unaccompanied migrants in Harlem quit after discovering that her center was taking care of children separated from their parents under President Trump's "zero tolerance" border policy, Rachel Maddow said on MSNBC Monday night. But first, she surreptitiously recorded video and audio from inside the center, and Maddow showed some of the photos and video on the show. These are the girls filmed arriving in Harlem by Spectrum News NY1 last week, and Maddow explained that the woman said she broke rules against asking the girls how they are doing and hugging them when they cried.

Maddow compared the images to the audio ProPublica released last week of children crying for their parents, and she predicted that more recordings are bound to come out as there are more than 2,000 children spread around the U.S. And finally, she played an audio recording of an employee at the center warning the girls to not talk to the press. (This is MSNBC's translation):

And do you know the other thing that is more important, and that I know I am not supposed to be telling you, but I am going to tell you the truth. If for whatever reason you tell a reporter — you know what's going to happen to your case? It is going to be on the news, and then one doesn't know what is going to happen — if you are going to last here for a long time. I am not trying to scare you. I am just telling you, it's the truth. You have to be careful not to talk. Because while you are here, you guys are okay. We are protecting you. [Foster facility employee, via MSNBC]

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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