Groups highlight plight of jailed immigrant families

[15 December 2006] - The T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a private detention facility in Taylor, is emblematic of new federal policy that detains all unauthorized immigrants from countries other than Mexico while the government determines whether they should be deported.

The Taylor center is used for that purpose, but it and a smaller one in Pennsylvania share a distinction: They are the only two such facilities in the country that hold immigrant families and children on noncriminal charges.

On Thursday, members of Texans United for Families, a coalition of community, civil rights and immigrant rights groups, sought to highlight that difference. Starting with a news conference at the state Capitol and then embarking on a 35-mile walk to the Taylor jail, they charged that detaining families and children under what they described as poor conditions is immoral and violates human rights. "Housing families in for-profit prisons not only calls to question our moral values and our respect for human rights, but it is also a waste of taxpayer money," said Luissana Santibañez, a 25-year-old University of Texas student and an organizer with Grassroots Leadership, which works to stop the expansion of the private prison industry.

The Taylor jail began holding immigrant families in the summer under a contract with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. It is owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America. Williamson County receives $1 per day for each inmate held there. A spokesman for the company referred questions to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's San Antonio office.

Nina Pruñeda, a spokeswoman for the federal agency, said it was looking into the groups' complaints but had no comment Thursday.

When he learned about the protests, Rick Zinsmeyer, director of adult probation for Wiliamson County, said, "I was told the purpose (of housing immigrant families) was to keep the families together, instead of separating them, so this is interesting."

Organizers of Thursday's news conference and walk said the Taylor jail houses about 400 people, including about 200 children. They said children receive one hour of education — English instruction — and one hour of recreation per day, usually indoors.

Frances Valdez, an attorney with the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law who has visited clients at the facility, said detainees have reported receiving substandard medical care and becoming ill from food served at the jail.

"A lot of children are losing weight. People suffer from severe headaches," Valdez said. "I think there's a lot of psychological issues going on. Most of these people are asylum seekers, so they've already suffered severe trauma in their country." She said immigrants are not given psychological treatment.

Valdez said children wear jail uniforms when they are big enough to fit in them, and all wear name tags.

"Even a baby client had a name tag," she said. For instruction, children are divided into groups, 12 and under and 13 and above.

Before the government's new policy of detaining all unauthorized immigrants was implemented in August, families who were caught trying to pass through a port of entry without authorization were charged, told to appear in court and released on humanitarian parole.

The government ended the practice because it said the great majority of non-Mexicans were not showing up for their court hearings.

Valdez said the government is violating standards for detaining children. She said children held on immigration violations apart from their families receive far better care, including full education and caseworkers, in residential facilities like one in Nixon, east of San Antonio.

"They're basically changing everything because the children are with their parents," she said.

In March, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the government plans to open more family detention facilities.

The number of unauthorized immigrants detained by the U.S. government exploded from 6,785 in 1994 to more than 22,000 in 2006, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Thursday's walk, which was to end with a vigil Saturday morning at the Taylor detention center, was led by Jay J. Johnson-Castro, 60, of Del Rio, who gained attention in October for his 200-mile walk from Laredo to Brownsville to protest building a U.S.-Mexico border fence.

Johnson-Castro said he was shocked when he recently learned of the Taylor jail.

"It's un-Christian, and it's time somebody says something," Johnson-Castro said. "Our objective is to shut this thing down and to shut down any kind of consciousness that would exploit humans who are in desperate straits."

From the Capitol steps, Johnson-Castro set out on his walk with about a half dozen supporters, including Johnson-Castro's friend, Austin musician Teye Wijnterp, 49. The pack doubled in size as it passed through East Austin, and organizers said they expect more to join the walk today.

Wijnterp, a native of the Netherlands who recently became a U.S. citizen, sought to draw a line between the country's emotional views about illegal immigration and the issue of human treatment.

"Completely separated from that is how you feel that the United States of America should treat people," he said. "Should we treat them as people, or as if they are dogs? We should be a shining example in the world."