"The doors were locked, there were no cars on the road, and there was nothing I could do. I just shut up. I was crying, and he talked to me as if I were nothing. I thought he was going to kill me."
These haunting words are how Kimberly, a...
0 Comments | Posted October 9, 2011 | g:i A
It has been two years since the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) John Morton announced plans for significant reform of ICE's immigration detention system, moving from a penal model towards civil detention more appropriate for administrative immigration detainees. The announcement was welcomed by the Women's Refugee...
0 Comments | Posted September 13, 2011 | g:i A
If not justice, Edmond Demiraj expected at least protection. Ten years ago, the U.S. government asked Demiraj to testify against Bill Bedini, an Albanian mobster living in Texas who was charged, among other things, with human trafficking. In return for providing testimony, Demiraj, who was in the country without documentation,...
0 Comments | Posted June 24, 2011 | g:i A
Names can be misleading, and that is certainly the case with representative Lamar Smith's (R-Texas) new disturbing piece of legislation, the Keep Our Communities Safe Act. The bill, H.R. 1932, purports to make Americans safer by authorizing the indefinite detention of individuals who have been ordered...
0 Comments | Posted February 5, 2011 | g:i A
In 2007, Encarnación Bail Romero, a young woman from Guatemala, was arrested and detained during an immigration raid at the Missouri poultry processing plant where she worked. The fact that Encarnación was a mother with a baby at home did not matter. She was detained without the opportunity to make...
0 Comments | Posted October 5, 2010 | g:i A
One year ago today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, released a report written by Dr. Dora Schriro, then planning director for ICE's Office of Detention Policy and Planning. Dr. Schriro's report provided an unprecedented review and evaluation of the U.S....
0 Comments | Posted August 7, 2009 | g:i A
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) announcement this week that they will stop detaining families at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, is terrific news. When I first visited the facility, which is a former prison, in December of 2006 I was shocked at what I saw --...
0 Comments | Posted December 6, 2011 | g:i A