 "Photo: Bryant Haertlein")
The American Civil Liberties Union filed 10 lawsuits against several U.S. homeland security and immigration officials Tuesday on behalf of 10 immigrant children who they say are being detained illegally at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility in Taylor, Texas.
The lawsuits are against Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and five officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The ACLU's National Legal Department in New York, the ACLU Foundation of Texas and the UT School of Law Immigration Law Clinic are working together on the lawsuits, which charge that children are being imprisoned under inhumane conditions while their parents await immigration decisions, according to a press release.
In a press conference announcing the lawsuits Tuesday, two families from Honduras and El Salvador described conditions inside the facility.
Denia, whose last name was not released as standard practice for undocumented individuals, is the mother of two girls ages 9 and 4, and was incarcerated when she was eight months pregnant. In tears, she said the conditions were not what she had expected for her daughters.
"When I almost went into labor, they took me to the hospital," Denia said, through a translator. "The doctor told me my baby was undernourished and very small, and I needed to eat better. I sent a note asking them to change my food or give me something more, but they still gave me the same thing."
Denia claimed her 9-year-old daughter did not receive proper medical attention. The detained have to submit a piece of paper stating what is wrong with the child and wait two to three days before seeing a doctor; most of the time, medicine wasn't provided unless the child was running a fever, Denia said.
"I have seen a lot in the many years of doing immigration law that disturbed me, but I think this is the most disturbed I have been about any immigration policy that we have had in a really long time," said Barbara Hines, a UT law professor with the immigration clinic. "I just couldn't believe that there were children in prison uniforms behind barbed wire."
The lawsuit argues that the conditions inside Hutto violate provisions of Flores v. Meese, a 1997 court case that established minimum standards and conditions for the housing and release of all minors in federal immigration custody, according to the ACLU Web site.
"ICE fails miserably to meet the required standards by placing children at Hutto," Hines said in a statement. "Regardless of what the government calls this facility, it is not a family resident center, it is a prison."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not comment on the pending litigation Tuesday.
The Hutto facility opened in May 2006 to accommodate families in immigrations custody as part of the Department of Homeland Security's plan to end the "catch and release" of illegal aliens at the southern border, according to the Hutto Web site.
Since September, Hines and her students have been going to the Hutto facility and providing direct representation to the detainees in their immigration proceedings. The group works to find out if the families have an asylum case and helps them prepare for an interview with an immigration official. The family then goes before a judge for bond, and if granted, is released from Hutto while their case is pending, she said.
Be the first to comment on this article!