PHOTO/JERRY LARA, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Journalist Sharon Lerner recently reported for The Intercept on letters she got from immigrant women describing the cruel and degrading treatment they and their children received upon entering the US and being detained, either by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Lerner writes that “Obama’s family detention camps were strongly condemned for their inhumane conditions,” and that things have gotten worse under Trump.
ICE’s South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas is one of three ICE facilities that house women and children in the U.S. The government pays CoreCivic, a private company, $12.6 million per month to run the center. Women held at Dilley reported that the water smells and tastes bad, and sometimes makes them ill. Lights may be left on at night, making it hard to sleep. The restrooms lack privacy. Medical care is inadequate. Kids come out of Dilley sick with stomach and upper respiratory illnesses.
The women also wrote of their experience in the “hieleras” (“iceboxes”) where they were detained by CBP right after crossing the border. There they were kept in frigid temperatures. “My daughter was purple from how cold she felt. They wouldn’t give us any blankets. Her lips and her hands and feet were all purple,” one mother wrote. Women were separated from their children and not allowed to see them. Guards told one woman they would put her children up for adoption.
Women said that they and their children often did not receive enough to eat or drink at the hieleras. The bathrooms were filthy and smelled. Many said they were denied access to the bathroom, and soiled themselves as a result. “This is your punishment for coming here,” a guard told one woman.
A woman wrote that entering the US had always been her dream, but the day she entered “was the saddest and ugliest day I could have imagined.”
Is this the America we want? Surely this torture of human beings does not reflect the true morals of the American people. And the assault on the human rights of our immigrant brothers and sisters is an attack on all of us. If we allow a section of people to lose their rights, then everyone’s rights are in danger. Our only hope as a people today lies in unity with our fellow workers. We must not allow ourselves to be divided by the rich and the powerful.
