What goes on inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers across the US happens behind closed doors and high fences.
asserted
goes → go → doors
Personal accounts of lengthy detention, misery and sickness and allegations of abuse rarely reach the public directly while people are still behind bars.
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people → reach → bars
But a group of men detained in Texas found a new way to communicate what they are going through in custody, despite being shuttered from the outside world.
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they → detain → world
They compiled hundreds of pages of handwritten testimony and some hand-drawn art, and mailed it from inside the privately run ICE jail.
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They → compile → jail
One man even wrote two protest songs and sang them over a crackly prison pay phone to the Guardian.
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man → write → Guardian
In a solemn and defiant tone, he sang from the perspective of one detainee to another: “We are the people, raising our voice.
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We → sing → voice
Today as you find yourself in this prison, give me a hug, I give you love.”
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I → find → love
Others’ stories were scribbled on notepaper, between July and September this year.
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stories → scribble → year
“We are immigrants, we are not criminals,” one wrote.
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one → write → ?
Distraught, the men blame their situation on “nothing more than the result of racist policies” by the Trump administration.
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men → blame → administration
“Why is it that a simple migrant, who one day leaves for work, can end up not seeing sunlight nor breathing pure air for days, simply due to a status adjustment?” one writes, nodding to Donald Trump’s actions of detaining immigrants despite them having temporary legal status or ongoing cases.
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them → leave → status
The men find themselves “behind bars, living an experience that marks a ‘before’ and ‘after’ for the detainee and his family”, another testimony says.
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testimony → find → detainee
The detainees are at the T Don Hutto detention facility in Taylor, on the outskirts of Austin, a place nicknamed “la perrera” – Spanish for “the dog pound” – to reflect harsh conditions.
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detainees → nickname → conditions
The package of writings and art was mailed to a detainee’s relative and shared with the advocacy group Center for Popular Democracy, which shared it with the Guardian.
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which → mail → Guardian
Many tens of thousands of people are detained by ICE across the country – the majority without criminal histories – amid the anti-immigration crackdown.
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thousands → detain → crackdown
The men’s reported experience is common, but their way of communicating it is not.
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way → report → it
The Guardian received testimonies from at least five detainees after months of detention, but is withholding most identifying details for their safety.
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Guardian → receive → safety
They add up to almost 200 pages of narratives in Spanish, drawings and documents.
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They → add → Spanish
The T Don Hutto facility is run for ICE by the private prison company CoreCivic.
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facility → run → company
The men wrote that the facility makes them feel not like people but like “inventory”.
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them → write → inventory
One explained that they wanted to “alert, denounce and affirm what is seen, lived and felt daily, while being detained”.
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what → explain → ?
One series of drawings depicts a man waving to his family as he leaves for work, but then being arrested by ICE officers swooping outside a grocery store and locking him up.
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he → depict → him
Other, sparely drawn sketches show the detention center’s bleak cells, hallways and communal areas, along with an immigration court.
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sketches → draw → court
The fiery testimonies make allegations of abuse by CoreCivic guards, and substandard food and medical care.
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testimonies → make → guards
“CoreCivic plays a limited but important role in the immigration system,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
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spokesperson → play → statement
“We do not decide who is detained, for how long, or whether someone is released.
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someone → decide → ?
Our job is to care for the people at our ICE-contracted facilities safely, humanely and with dignity while their cases proceed.”
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cases → care → dignity
“The safety, health and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care is our top priority.
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safety → entrust → care
We do not dismiss the concerns of the people in our care, and we respond to legitimate issues through established processes,” the spokesperson added.
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spokesperson → dismiss → processes
The detainees also sent out a list of demands, including calls for their immigration cases to be processed more quickly, to be reunited with families, the release of children from other immigration centers and of detainees with developmental disabilities.
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cases → send → disabilities
They also called for investigations into the rising number of immigrant deaths in ICE detention.
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They → call → detention
“These first-hand accounts reveal more than what is happening inside a single detention facility.
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what → reveal → facility
They expose an entire system that strips people of their dignity, separates families and treats fundamental constitutional rights as optional,” said DaMareo Cooper, co-founder of the New York-based Center for Popular Democracy, a progressive advocacy organization.
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Cooper → expose → Democracy
“What is equally powerful is the extraordinary courage of those risking so much to speak out.
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is → risk → much
Behind every testimony, every piece of artwork and every story is a human being enduring unimaginable pain.”
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piece → endure → pain
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that “any allegations of subprime conditions or misconduct at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center are FALSE”.
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allegations → say → Center
“All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,” a DHS spokesperson added.
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spokesperson → provide → meals
“Illegal aliens also have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers.
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aliens → have → members
Certified dietitians evaluate meals.”
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dietitians → evaluate → meals
However, the men, who regard some of the testimonies as a collective appeal, write: “Being an immigrant does not mean you do not have rights.”
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you → regard → rights
…and 46 more, not listed.
The Aporia
