The following article appeared Jan. 9 on pslweb.org
Over the past year, the U.S. government has stepped up attacks on undocumented workers with racist legislation and immigration policies. More and more undocumented families have been sent to modern-day concentration camps, known as “residential centers.”
The Bush administration has suggested that in 2007 the number of immigrants held in detention centers each night will reach 27,500, an increase of more than 30 percent. Some detentions can last months or even years.
The T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, is one of two detention centers—the other is in Pennsylvania—that holds non-Mexican undocumented workers and children on non-criminal charges. The detention facility is operated by Corrections Corporation of America, a private for-profit entity.
Of the 400 detainees held in the Taylor detention center, 200 are children. Families are held for an indeterminate length of time without any due process safeguards.
Before the U.S. government’s new policy of detaining all unauthorized immigrants was implemented in August 2006, families who were caught trying to pass through a port of entry without authorization were charged, told to appear in court, and released on humanitarian parole. Now, they are being held in detention centers.
Wretched conditions
Detainees at the Taylor facility, including children, are forced to wear jail uniforms at all times. Children are issued uniforms as soon as they can fit into them. All detainees, including infants, also must wear nametags.
“A lot of children are losing weight. People suffer from severe headaches,” stated Frances Valdez, an attorney with the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law. “I think there’s a lot of psychological issues going on. Most of these people are asylum seekers, so they’ve already suffered severe trauma in their country.” (Austin American-Statesman, Dec. 15, 2006)
Children only receive 1 hour of instruction and only 30 minutes of recreational play each day. This regimen is reminiscent of the strictest maximum-security prisons in the United States today.
According to Department of Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff, these detention centers are for the purpose of keeping undocumented families “together” while waiting for their cases to come up for court review. Homeland Security plans to build more detention centers like the Taylor facility starting in March 2007.
The Taylor facility’s operator, Corrections Corporation of America, is one of the biggest private prison operators in the United States. Contracts with ICE to incarcerate immigrants generated around $95.2 million, or 8 percent, of Corrections Corp.’s $1.19 billion in revenue in 2005, a jump of 21 percent since 2004.
Revenues for prison management corporations will continue to grow, not only due to increased detention rates but also because profit margins are higher at detention centers than at prisons.
Increased incarceration of immigrants means profit for the capitalist government and bosses, but for the working class, it is a threat.
A detention center in Nogales, Ariz.
Photo: Reuters/Jeff Topping
