Obama’s Family Detention Policy: Threaten Rape Victims With Criminal Prosecution As originally posted on Amjo Law by Bryan Johnson on June 9, 2016 This is the second part in a series…
A family at the Karnes family prison needs public support! Children are being sexually abused and ICE is refusing to take action! Please sign and share! Via RAICES Click here to sign:…
This week, the internet saw photos from across the world with the #EndFamilyDetention hashtag go viral. The movement to expose and end the rampant human rights abuses of "family detention."
AUSTIN: Speak out to #EndFamilyDetention National week of action October 21, 2015 7-8:30 p.m. Room CPE 2.216 Panel discussion and video screening of "Family Detention"
A partial transcript of a 20 minute recording of the meeting, in which health concerns at the now-closed Artesia detention center and the Karnes County Detention Center were discussed.
Starting July 27 and ending August 14, 2015, CultureStrike will be sharing one illustration per day at bit.ly/csvisions and other social media networks.
An open letter to: ICE Supervisory Detention & Deportation Officer Hilario Leal, ICE Assistant Field Office Director Juanita P. Hester, Nora Estimbo Lacy, and Deborah Achim Dear AFOD Hester, SDDO…
Victoria Rossi is a brilliant writer who moonlights, for a lot less money than she deserves, as a paralegal. In December, the Texas Observer published her essay about visiting Karnes.…
The Letters From Inside archive is a digital collection of handwritten letters from mothers and children held inside the family prisons in Dilley and Karnes City, Texas. View the Letters…
A federal district court in Washington, D.C., today has granted a temporary injunction to the class of Central American women and children who a) have been/will be detained by the…
Also check out this fine Texas Observer report on Karnes by Victoria Rossi, published on February 2, 2015.
Do read "The Shame of America's Family Detention Camps", a fine article in the New York Times by Will S. Hylton, published online on February 4, 2015. Among this article's…
In 2014, 60,000 women and children refugees fled persecution and violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras because of gang violence, domestic and child abuse. They seek asylum here. These…
Please read this stunning report Ending Artesia, by Stephen Manning. Explaining complicated, bizarre, technical legal proceedings with great clarity, this report is compelling. Stephen Manning's writing is beautiful and --…
Please read and sign this resolution and --- far more importantly -- take it to the groups to which you belong. Ask your group to sign and date the resolution. …
A look inside America's expanding immigration detention system.
These are some photos by photographer Gerard Escamilla of the unyielding community response to the family prison in Artesia, New Mexico this past August. Local police called it the "largest protest…
UPDATE: The Karnes County Commissioners Court voted this week, 3-2, to approve the expansion of the for-profit detention center at 409 Farm-to-Market Road 1144, run by the for profit private…
The problem The Dilley ICE prison is about to open. There, families – up to 2400 people -- will be incarcerated based on the thinnest and most transparent of irrational…
pink “tennis” swing to and fro. she’s wearing zebra stripes and a red top, tiny in the cushy big chair that rolls. long black hair narrows her face, shielding the…
This place called a detention center is like a prison for us, because we don’t have freedom, we can’t leave the room without our moms, or go into the room…
For most people who have entered this place, it’s the start of a new life, but it begins badly, because this Detention Center—that they call a shelter for immigrants—but only…
A visual testimony of life in Honduras by Luis Ramon, a young child inside the Karnes "family" prison.
This is the visual testimony of a child from Honduras. "Revos locos" means the Mara Salvatrucha in Honduras. "Arma de fuego" means fire arm and "cigarro" is a cigarette.
"There are many things that happen in this place called Karnes County Residential Center. There are many good and bad things in this place. Many people call it a…
A Spanish translation of the I-589 Application for Asylum and Withholding of Removal is now available! Click here to view the translation. "To apply for asylum in the United States…
You see me onscreen My name is an A number But I’m a woman - Anonymous
These three young girls are detained at the Karnes "Family" Detention Center with their mother and need our help! PLEASE CALL ICE AND DEMAND THAT MARIA ESTELA AND HER 3…
Adela Catalina* had plenty of reasons to leave. Forgive me being somewhat vague in the following account, but she still has vulnerable family in her home country, and we may…
November 22, 2014 Department of Homeland Security U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Services Houston Asylum Office 16630 Imperial Valley Drive, Suite 200 Houston, Texas 77060 E-mail: [email protected] Dear Asylum Officers, I…
Dear friends, Maria Estela Marquez Marquez and her three daughters — Melissa (15 years old), Carmen (13 years old), and Jackeline (11 years old) — are refugees from El Salvador…
November 18, 2014 President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President, We, the undersigned civil rights and civil liberties, human rights, faith,…
This morning -- Thursday, November 20 -- in Immigration Judge McPhaul's courtroom, as everyone waited in vain for a working audio connection between the "courtroom" in the Karnes detention center and…
The Honorable Jeh Johnson, Secretary U.S. Department of Homeland Security Washington, D.C. 20528 The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington,…
We are pleased to announce the launch of www.EndFamilyDetention.com, a multilingual site aimed at addressing family detention. Our intention was to build a collaborative digital platform provide information exponentially to…
Detention Watch Network (DWN) opposes family detention. The detention of families is inhumane. The United States has failed to maintain detention facilities that comport with basic due process and human…
Judge-by-Judge Asylum Decisions in Immigration Courts FY 2009-2014 Denial Rate Immigration Court Judge Decisions % Grants % Denials Adelanto Lee, Amy T. 120 7.5 92.5 Burke, David H. 197 24.4 75.6 Laurent,…
In a way, private prisons seem a relatively new development, but the ugly foundation of private prisons is deeply ingrained in U.S. history. The government “detains” or imprisons or incarcerates…
A petition by Claudia Muñoz Dean Thomas W. Gilligan, ask UT alumnus Red McCombs to break lease with the Corrections Corporation of America and not contribute to detention and abuse…
Friday, November 21, 2014 7:300 - 8:30 p.m. Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center 600 River Street Austin, Texas 78701 A film by Matt Gossage for more information see…
Until today, I was mostly getting phone calls from women in Karnes and from family members around the country; texts from family members in Honduras. Today at 12:30, I received this e-mail: Estamos detenidas en Karnes tenemos tres hijos cada una y tenemos tres meses de estar detenidas, teniamos abogados pero nos dejaron el caso […]
Want to understand what’s going on with refugees, immigrants, and immigration courts? Go. Take a morning or an afternoon and visit the immigration court closest to you. Look. Listen. Draw. Take notes. Then talk about it. (Talk about it. Talk about it….) Most immigration hearings are public, although judges typically close cases when 1) either […]
Drawing by Rini Templeton, 1935-1986 I went to see three families yesterday in Karnes, and without planning to, ended up talking to seven mothers and their children. Obviously I will not represent all of them, but I hope that each woman finds representation through Karnes Pro Bono Project team. I cannot convey what it is […]
Follow the link below for extremely useful information from Andrade Legal — Immigration Law in Boise, Idaho. Kudos to María Andrade and her colleagues! And visit the Andrade Legal for even more extremely useful information. The attach PDF refers to a list of bond companies. I have not included the list of bond companies because […]
Published on Nov 4, 2014 This new documentary chronicles the return of immigrant family detention in the United States. The Texas-made film follows our government's response to refugees and migrants…
A goodbye letter from one teenage girl to another. They met inside the Karnes "family detention" center; and the writer was deported to El Salvador with her mom and about…
Melissa and her sisters are imprisoned with their mother at the Karnes "family" prison near San Antonio, Texas. October 31, 2014 We need the help of all of you because…
The letter below is from a young girl who is imprisoned with her mother and sisters at the Karnes family prison facility near San Antonio, Texas. October 31, 2014…
The letter below is from a young girl inside the prison with their mother and young sisters. October 31, 2014 We need your help to get out of here soon from…
This is a translation of a testimony by a child inside describing the "freezers" that people are being put into at the McAllen detention center.
According to Texas law, “if you suspect the abuse or neglect of a child, it is your duty to report it immediately.” Did you read any qualifiers or exceptions? Did you read that “it’s your duty to report child abuse or neglect immediately, EXCEPT if – the abuse or neglect is at the hands of […]
Melissa, Carmen, and Jackeline are three sisters who, with their mother, fled El Salvador seeking refuge. Right before they left, the three girls had watched as a gang member came into their tiny home and held a gun to their mother’s head, threatening to rape and kill all four of them. They’ve been locked up […]
Make a donation to the Karnes Bond Fund, at Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Services (RAICES) to help a woman and her children “bond out” of Karnes to go live with family or community members as they pursue their claims for asylum. If you want, you can make a donation specifically to assist […]
“The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. If there is no struggle there is no progress. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and […]
Read the the material that ICE lawyers present in immigration court to support its argument that the refugees — specifically the women and children — fleeing El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras since June pose a “national security threat” to the United States. Read it and weep. ICE Bond Packet
ICE and GEO, a private, for-profit corporation, are currently holding 500 refugee women and children are against their will in a jail (“residential center”) in Karnes County, about two hours southeast of Austin, or about an hour east of San Antonio. The facility held men until this summer, when it was converted to a “family” […]
I have the sickening feeling that very few people understand what “due process” translates into when we are talking about immigrants who are “detained” (locked up, imprisoned, incarcerated) in ICE “detention facilities” (jails, prisons). I’ve added a page to this website with a little bit of information. Where I link to a different page — […]