Buzzfeed News
By John Stanton
June 23, 2015
Hoisting makeshift
protest signs and chanting “Libertad,” hundreds of undocumented
immigrant mothers and and their children protested their living
conditions in a detention center in Dilley, Texas, during
a tour of the facility Monday by members of Congress, according to cell
phone video obtained by BuzzFeed News.
The video, taken by
one of the members of Congress, shows the women and children being held
in the facility chanting as the delegation of lawmakers walks toward
them. Demonstrators can also be seen holding
up crudely written protest signs made from pillowcases and bedsheets.
According to a
source present at the protest, lawmakers — who were being taken on a
tour of the facility — approached the demonstrators and discussed living
conditions in the facility.
The South Texas
Family Residential Center in Dilley is one of several privately operated
prisons being used by the Department of Homeland Security to house the
thousands of immigrant children and families
that flooded the southern border last year.
Lawmakers on the
trip included Reps. Joaquin Castro, Judy Chu, Raul Grijalva, Luis
Gutierrez, Sheila Jackson Lee, Zoe Lofgren, and Lucille Roybal-Allard.
Human rights
activists and attorneys representing immigrants detained at Dilley and
similar facilities have complained not only about living conditions in
the prisons, but also their often remote locations,
which makes obtaining competent legal counsel extremely difficult.
Following a Monday
visit to a similar facility in Karnes, Texas, the lawmakers called for
the closure of the family detention centers. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer,
the second ranking Democrat in the House,
also attended the Karnes trip.
“What I saw today
did nothing but confirm my belief walking through the door that we
should end the jailing of women and children in these proceedings. It is
by its nature punitive, whether it is intended
to be or not,” Lofgren said, the San Antonio Currant reported Tuesday
morning.
A source said the lawmakers will meet with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Tuesday night to discuss their visit.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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