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U.S. Gives Tour of Family Detention Center That Critics Liken to a Prison PDF Print E-mail
Contributed by Iamme   
Monday, 12 February 2007
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U.S. Gives Tour of Family Detention Center That Critics Liken to a Prison
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Barbara Hines, clinical professor of law at the University of Texas at Austin who runs an immigration clinic and has visited clients inside, said Friday that “I don’t think children should be incarcerated at all.”

The law required the government to hold families in the least restrictive conditions possible, Ms. Hines said, adding, “I was shocked, and I have been doing this 30 years.”

The American Civil Liberties Union has also been studying conditions as it considers filing a lawsuit contending that the government was violating a 1997 settlement on the treatment of detained juveniles.

“To call it a family residential center is to mask what’s going on,” said Vanita Gupta, a lawyer with the A.C.L.U. “They may be cleaning up conditions, but at the end of the day it still begs the question of why they are using such a Draconian system.”

Another A.C.L.U. lawyer, Lisa Graybill, legal director, said after visiting, “I can’t describe how depressed people are in there.”

Outside the blocky buildings with thin slit windows, protesters from a local group called Texans United for Families held up signs saying, “Don’t Jail Children for Profit.”

“If they can put an ankle bracelet on Martha Stewart so she doesn’t run off to Jamaica,” said a protester, Jose Ortan, a computer technician, “they can find ways to do it for immigrant families.”



Last Updated ( Tuesday, 06 March 2007 )
 
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