First They Came for the Jews [View All]

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Scathing report on new detention center

By Sylvia Moreno

The Washington Post

TAYLOR, Texas — The day Mustafa Elmi turned 3 years old he had to report to his cell three times for head count. To be able to get one hour of recreation inside a concrete compound sealed off by metal gates and razor wire, he had to pin his picture ID to his uniform

Such routines characterized Mustafa's life, as well as that of his mother, Bahjo Hosen, 26, during their first seven months in the United States after fleeing political persecution in their native Somalia.

They ended up in the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, one of the nation's newest detention centers for illegal immigrants that the Department of Homeland Security touts as an "effective and humane alternative" to keep immigrant families together while they await the outcome of immigration court hearings or deportation.

Before the facility opened, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) separated parents from their children upon apprehension. Infants and toddlers were placed in federally funded foster homes; adolescents and teenagers were placed in facilities for minors run by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); and parents were placed in adult centers.

Despite the policy change, two national organizations Wednesday decried the conditions and have termed the facility "a penal detention model that is fundamentally anti-family and anti-American."

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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003583163_immig22.html

First They Came for the Jews

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller