A 9 year old Canadian-born boy and his family (of Iranian descent) have been held in a Texas prison (euphemistically called the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility near Austin, Texas, a converted medium-security prison) now for over a month. The family had been deported back to Iran in December 2005 but threatened with torture escaped using false documents, only to be seized in Puerto Rico after a plane was diverted there instead of Toronto. More details are available here.
The story is making headlines north of the border but has been a source on controversy for many months in Texas.
The ACLU has now issued several lawsuits on behalf of the imprisoned children, citing Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as defendant. (See below for further details.) The facility houses roughly 400 men, women and children either awaiting deportation or seeking asylum, slightly over half of whom are children.
The first video clip is from Canadian television (March 5). The video on the right is from Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman (Feb 23) and is a phone interview with Kevin. (Warning: Contains some disturbing imagery.)
Kendra Mendez of News 8 in Austin reports today:
Freed mother talks about life at T. Don Hutto
On March 6, the ACLU brought several lawsuits against Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), on behalf of 10 children detained at the T. Don Hutto detention facility in Taylor, Texas. The lawsuit contends that the conditions inside Hutto violate numerous provisions of Flores v. Meese, a 1997 court settlement that established minimum standards and conditions for the housing and release of all minors in federal immigration custody.
Pursuant to a contract between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America, Inc. (CCA), Hutto is a converted maximum-security prison that bills itself as a "Family Residential Facility. " While Hutto authorities maintain that "residents" are treated humanely, they are, in fact, treated like prisoners. Child detainees wear prison garb and are not allowed to wear their own clothes; they receive one hour of recreation per day and opportunities to spend this hour outdoors are very rare. Children are detained in small cells for about 11 or 12 hours each day, and are prohibited from keeping food and toys in these cells, which lack any privacy. Access to adequate medical, dental, and mental health treatment is severely limited—as a result, many children suffer from chronic ailments that worsen as they are left undiagnosed and untreated. Children are not afforded meaningful educational opportunities. Guards frequently discipline the children by threatening to separate them from their families.
The suit asks that the children are released and not separated from their families, utilizing other alternatives such as reasonable supervision that would achieve both law enforcement goals and provide humane treatment.
http://www.aclu.org/...
Kevin's letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.