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Prison for Immigrant Children

12:48 H | Topics: Children - Immigration - Justice - Texas

T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Texas "used" to be a prison. But now the Department of Homeland Security is nice enough and is using it to "house" immigrants being considered for deportation or asylum and their children. This includes pregnant women.

...double-layered chain link fence topped with concertina wire in places. Or the uniformed, handcuff-toting correctional officers - called "counselors" - and the tight two-person cells where mothers and children live for weeks or months awaiting their fate.

Children are allowed milk but pregnant women are not. Food is served through a slot, like in any other prison. Children within the facility are allowed one hour of playtime outside a day and one hour of English schooling (even if they don't speak or understand English).Misbehaving children are threatened to be taken away from their parents by guards. None of the people inside Hutto have criminal records. Their crime? Being undocumented or seeking asylum.

This year Congress reaffirmed its instruction to the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agency to stop separating families and only use detention as a last resort. Families should be housed in "non-penal, homelike environments until the conclusion of their immigration proceedings."
But Hutto is far from a homelike environment. Instead, everybody, including children, must wear prison-issued uniforms. If not housed in the same cell, a parent can't comfort their crying child at night unless a guard gives permission. Children aren't allowed to keep the pictures they color.
Many women have reported being shackled when traveling for routine doctor appointments. According to the detention report, one woman being screened for tuberculosis told the radiologist she was five months pregnant, but the doctor refused to give her a lead screen to protect her fetus during the X-ray.

Image Via / News 8 Austin

Related

• ACLU Sues Homeland Security Over Information Regarding Immigrant Detainees and Deaths (Sunday, Jun 29 2008)
• Kids Sent to Institution Because of Cell Phone Addiction (Tuesday, Jun 17 2008)