Some optimism about immigrant detention
I just read a surprisingly upbeat article about juvenile immigration detention facilities. For a long time, non-citizen children often slipped between the cracks when their families were detained, often being placed in dangerous adult facilities. The article, though, suggests that children are treated much better than non-citizen adults.
That doesn’t actually say much though - there are too many stories about immigrants dying in detention facilities for lack of medical attention (seriously look at this article… or any 5 of these). It’s ridiculous that we maintain this image of ourselves as the land of the free while we deny even basic rights to non-citizens within our borders. Our immigration system desperately needs public defender equivalents to help prevent these kinds of abuses. At the very least, immigrants should be given non-lawyer advocates that could voice complaints and act as liaisons between the non-citizens and the rest of the immigration system. Yeah, I lied - things aren’t really that optimistic…
