This looks really bad - stupid decision from someone who didn't think of what it would look like to the general public.
From Austin's The Texas Tribune:
People want to donate diapers and toys to children at Border Patrol facilities in Texas. They’re being turned away.
On Sunday, Austin Savage and five of his friends huddled into an SUV and went to an El Paso Target, loading up on diapers, wipes, soaps and toys.
About $340 later, the group headed to a Border Patrol facility holding migrant children in nearby Clint with the goal of donating their goods. Savage said he and his friends had read an article from The New York Times detailing chaos, sickness and filth in the overcrowded facility, and they wanted to help.
But when they arrived, they found that the lobby was closed. The few Border Patrol agents — Savage said there were between eight and 10 of them — moving in and out of a parking facility ignored them.
For a while, the group stood there dumbfounded about what to do next. Ultimately, they decided to pack up and head home. Savage said he wasn’t completely surprised by the rejection; before he left, the group spotted a discarded plastic bag near the lobby door holding toothpaste and soap that had a note attached to it: “I heard y’all need soap + toothpaste for kids.”
Austin is Texas' only really liberal city so of course this comment:
“A good friend of mine is an immigration attorney, and he warned us that we were going to get rejected,” Savage said. “We were aware of that, but it’s just the idea of doing something as opposed to passively allowing this to occur.”
Typical liberal - feeling justified that they did something that sounded good instead of actually doing good. This gesture pampered their egos and is a perfect example of virtue signalling.
There is a legal basis for their inability to accept donations:
An official with Border Patrol did not respond to a request for comment, but Theresa Brown, a former policy advisor for U.S. Customs and Border Protections, said there’s a legal reason why Border Patrol and other government agencies aren’t accepting donations from do-gooders.
Under the Antideficiency Act, the government can’t spend any money or accept any donations other than what Congress has allocated to it. The theory behind not accepting donations, Brown said, is so that the government isn’t beholden to private-sector entities for what should be appropriated government actions.
“It’s partially a constitutional thing about Congress controlling the purse and only being able to spend money that Congress gives, but it’s also about ethics,” she said, “Without a change in law, DHS, CPB and Border Patrol cannot accept those private donations.”
This bit of stupidity was enacted February 1st, 2006 - right in the middle of G.W. Bush's tenure. I think that an Executive Order would be a really good idea and really good optics for President Trump.
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