José Olivares, The Guardian ; Men detained at Texas’s ‘dog pound’ ICE facility describe their experience – in art, letters and song
Nearly 500 men are detained at the T Don Hutto detention facility, and many have risked sharing their experiences in a unique way
"What goes on inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers across the US happens behind closed doors and high fences.
Personal accounts of lengthy detention, misery and sickness and allegations of abuse rarely reach the public directly while people are still behind 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. They compiled hundreds of pages of handwritten testimony and some hand-drawn art, and mailed it from inside the privately run ICE jail...
“These first-hand accounts reveal more than what is happening inside a single detention 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. “What is equally powerful is the extraordinary courage of those risking so much to speak out. Behind every testimony, every piece of artwork and every story is a human being enduring unimaginable 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”."
