Articles tagged: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
5,000 People Contract COVID-19 While In ICE Custody, Including This Father Of 5
ICE officials have released some medically vulnerable detainees, but one woman is struggling to get her sick husband out of ICE detention.
This story originally appeared on Texas Public Radio. Jessica and her five children haven’t seen Hilder Lainez-Alvarez—their husband and father—in several...Read More
At Least Seven Texas Detention Center Employees Who Tested Positive for COVID-19 Were Not Officially Reported by ICE
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it is not obligated to report contractors’ employees who have tested positive. Meanwhile, the agency confirmed its first positive case in Texas detention centers and continued facility transfers.
In late March, an employee at the Houston Contract Detention Facility became the first detention center staff case reported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enfo...Read More
Migrants and Advocates Call to Close Detention Centers as COVID-19 Spreads
A new lawsuit argues that an outbreak in detention could overwhelm local health care systems.
As COVID-19 cases begin to permeate the immigration system nationwide, detainees in Texas are calling for better conditions and release. Their pleas became more...Read More
Following a Protest, ICE Moves Asylum-Seekers For the Second Time in Two Weeks
ICE moved 47 women to Laredo following a protest for better medical care. Last week, more than 100 detainees were sent to Louisiana, where courts are harsher.
More than 100 asylum-seekers were transferred last week from the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, to Louisiana, where judges deny asylum at muc...Read More
ICE Quietly Lowers (Already Low) Standards at Some Immigrant Detention Facilities
The changes—which affect 18 facilities in Texas—include giving guards more leeway to put migrants in solitary confinement, as well as no longer requiring outdoor recreation areas.
On December 19, during the news lull just before the holidays, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made public changes to its National Detention Standards...Read More
‘Baby Jails’ Chronicles America’s ‘Shameful’ Treatment of Migrant Kids
In his new book Baby Jails, author Philip Schrag reflects on the past and future of a threatened ruling that limits the detention of migrant children.
Philip G. Schrag has written more than a dozen books over his years as a lawyer and director of the asylum law clinic at Georgetown University. But his latest, ...Read More
Activists Rally for the Closure of Hutto Detention Center as Private Contract Rumors Swirl
Former detainees were among those criticizing ICE's attempt to secure a 10-year private contract for the facility and two others in Texas.
Dozens of activists rallied outside the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility in Taylor on Saturday, denouncing Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s push to secu...Read More
In ‘Yellow Rose,’ the American Coming-of-Age Story Finally Includes Undocumented Youth
Set in Austin, the film tracks a Filipina teen dreaming of a country music career—and fighting to keep her family together.
“I never fit in,” croons Rose Garcia in one of the early scenes of Yellow Rose. For the young protagonist—a Filipina teen who sports a cowboy hat and blow...Read More
A Small County Bets Big on Locking Up Undocumented Immigrants
Jones County has an empty prison and a load of debt. Their solution? Dust off the old prison and fill it with undocumented migrants.
By late November, residents of Jones County, a swath of Texas plains home to some 20,000 souls, should have new neighbors: about 1,000 undocumented immigrant me...Read More