May 21, 2008
Holding Hutto’s feet to the fire
When a coalition of community activists gathers in Taylor, Texas, this weekend, they'll trot alongside a barbed-wire fence (we're told the inner barricades have come down) and descend upon the controversial T. Don Hutto Residential Center, where a teddy bear has been placed on every bed and children's artwork lines the halls.
As they inch the bullhorns and signs reading "Texas shame" and "Children need sunshine too" closer to the center, the PR-scrubbed scene will be marred by something the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Corrections Corporation of America, and Williamson County doesn't want: hundreds of protesters shouting for the release of immigrant children and undocumented detainees.
The center — an immigrant-detention facility funded by Homeland Security, operated by privately owned CCA, and administered by the county — made news when it was criticized for incarcerating detainees in conditions that, until recently, were abysmal. The 470-bed detention center is one of two in the country that confine families on immigration violations while they await disposition of their cases…
LINK - SACurrent.com (San Antonio Current)
