Jailing Toddlers in Texas

Close readers of MotherJones.com know that a year ago the government began incarcerating small children for months at a time in a converted Texas prison. The T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center, near Austin, holds roughly 200 kids and their families on immigration charges. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun jailing increasing numbers of kids since August, when it ended its controversial "catch and release" program for families with children who are apprehended on immigration charges.

After the story appeared in the Austin Chronicle and Mother Jones, it hit the New York Times and other major newspapers, and continues to garner headlines. A United Nations human rights official had been scheduled to tour T. Don Hutto last week, but ICE canceled the visit at the last minute because of a pending lawsuit over conditions there by the American Civil Liberties Union, a spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, a resolution introduced in the Texas legislature would call on the federal government to seek alternatives to family detention. A coalition of activists, Free the Children, has been holding rallies in support of the bill.

Since our story was published, conditions at the prison have somewhat improved--kids no longer have to wear prison scrubs, and they now receive something akin to school lessons. Still, you'd think ICE would have gotten wise to the root of its ongoing PR crisis. Locking out journalists and human rights inspectors only feeds our worst fears: that this issue really is as black and white as what's implied by "free the children."

Comments

Why not put the kids to work in slave labor camps? They will grow up to be big & strong.

Hey, it worked in "Conan the Barbarian". Plus, it's more humane than Mao boiling babies for fertilizer!

Posted by: scott on 05/15/07 at 2:08 PM Respond

According to the Austin Chronicle, the UN inspector was banned by Homeland Security.

Posted by: Diane on 05/15/07 at 4:43 PM Respond

Whats new. Our Government has proudly been doing it for years. Just as the CIA has outsourced torture to other countries Australia sends asylum seekers to jails (spin name is detention centre) located in small island countries such as Nauru and Mcmanus Island, PNG. Nearly all Australians are extreme xenophobes and racists.
Conditions in these jails are almost as bad as those in remote Aboriginal communities. Out of sight, out of mind is just the way we like it here.

Posted by: Monty on 05/16/07 at 1:08 AM Respond

That has been practiced by the Australian 'Liberal' (read: Fascist) government for years as Monty points out.
But then again, Australian Prime Minister, the Antipodean Mussolini and GWB's second favorite suppository, John Howard, always wanted his own Guantanamo prison to increase his popularity among Australians who were quick to welcome pretty well all and any Nazi who made his way over to here.
And they flourished in an environment that was very like where they came from.
Advance Australia Fair . . . my ass!

Posted by: shonny on 05/16/07 at 8:14 AM Respond

Quite right, put the illegal, cue jumpers and their sprogs to work.
After all, "Arbeit Macht Frei"

Posted by: Dieter Moeckel on 05/16/07 at 5:56 PM Respond

Monty,

You state :

Nearly all Australians are extreme xenophobes and racists

I object, this is simply not true, I live in Australia, the people here are generally easy going, open minded and generous, its the federal government under John Howard that is racist.

I agree about our asylum seeker gaols, although I'd call them concentration camps.

And the Texas issue discussed above is very reminiscent of our right wing government's approach to boarder crossers or asylum seekers. The lack of basic human values with regard to immigrant families is a disgrace - human rights are put aside by government, not the people, the people are never consulted, just manipulated.

Posted by: Barrie on 05/16/07 at 8:06 PM Respond

Some of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay were first emprisoned as children. Canadian Omar Khadr has been at Gitmo since 2002, when he was just 14.

Posted by: Steph C on 05/17/07 at 8:22 AM Respond

Barie:

You State: "The lack of basic human values with regard to immigrant families is a disgrace - human rights are put aside by government, not the people, the people are never consulted, just manipulated."

Your statement is true but if the people do not act or speak up they are in fact consenting to what their government is doing in their name!

He who allows oppression, shares the crime. -- Erasmus Darwin

Posted by: Carmen Bonilla-Jones on 05/19/07 at 6:40 AM Respond