Freedom for the children

Freedom for the children

By LISA FALKENBERG
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...g/5096994.html


Teddy bears and crayons are now allowed in children's rooms at the T.
Don Hutto Family Residential Facility for immigrant families in Taylor,
Texas.

It took 10 federal lawsuits and many months of international media
scrutiny to accomplish this.

A settlement reached earlier this week between the Department of
Homeland Security and American Civil Liberties Union imposes significant
reforms to improve conditions at Hutto, one of only two facilities in
the country that houses immigrant families facing deportation or seeking
asylum.

But the agreement doesn't come close to resolving our nation's dilemma
over the treatment of immigrant parents and children.

Concerns have persisted since immigration officials scrapped a "catch
and release" policy after 9/11 and began detaining more families. The
change was made largely because too few immigrants were showing up for
court.

The settlement, approved Wednesday by a federal judge in Austin, is the
result of 10 lawsuits filed in March on behalf of immigrant children
detained with parents at Hutto who claimed they were subject to
prisonlike conditions, psychologically abusive guards and substandard
medical care and nutrition.

Hutto is a converted medium security prison privately run by Corrections
Corporation of America. Since May 2006, DHS' Immigration and Customs
Enforcement has used the facility to detain families from countries
other than Mexico.

Under the settlement, ICE agreed to significant improvements in
education, recreation, medical care and privacy, including many changes
already implemented since complaints began.

Among other things, ICE agreed to try to limit the amount of time
families spend at Hutto and to try and avoid placing most asylum seekers
there. ICE agreed to allow kids to wear pajamas to bed, play outside
more often, hang their drawings on walls. ICE won't require children to
wear uniforms and stand for thrice-daily headcounts.

Other reforms for adults
In other words, ICE agreed, in the face of litigation, to start treating
children like children. Adults also enjoy some reforms: Fathers are
allowed to visit wives' rooms, and vice versa, without punishment. The
agency will allow a magistrate judge to monitor compliance.

An ACLU attorney declared the settlement a "huge victory," although the
organization maintains that Hutto is inappropriate for children.

Meanwhile, ICE acknowledged no wrongdoing. A spokeswoman issued a
statement saying the judge's participation will "help improve
communication about the facility and end any misconceptions" and false
allegations about Hutto.

I'm not sure what is meant by misconceptions. I visited Hutto when it
was still surrounded by razor wire, mothers complained they couldn't get
medicine for their children and navy detention uniforms were issued in
infant onesies.

Fortunately, much has changed at Hutto. But not nearly enough.

The fact remains that ICE is still housing children in a former prison,
with not even the equivalent of a day care license from the state. The
settlement requires ICE to keep seeking the license, although Texas'
Department of Family and Protective Services says Hutto isn't subject to
its regulation because parents are on site.

A limited settlement
The impact of the settlement is limited and temporary.

The 10 lawsuits weren't made into a class-action, so the settlement
applies only to detainees at Hutto. If ICE opens another family
detention center, detainees there won't enjoy any protection from the
settlement. The same is true for the other ICE facility housing
families. At Berks Family Shelter Care Facility in Pennsylvania, a
former nursing home, the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and
Children has found families detained as long as two years.

Even at Hutto, the terms of the settlement expire in two years.

The only real solution is for Congress to enact national standards for
family detention, preferably ones that require ICE to consider humane,
less-expensive alternatives to detention, such as electronic monitoring
programs.

So far, congressional appropriations committees have urged ICE to
consider these alternatives, and to house children in homelike
environments, but members of Congress have failed to enact laws that
mandate protective standards.

A limited settlement may be good news for many Hutto detainees. But it
isn't the answer. It will take an act of Congress to ensure humane
treatment for immigrant children.

As we've seen, we can't count on ICE officials to act on their own. It
took federal litigation to persuade them to allow teddy bears.





CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.


CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...