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National Now Foundation Times  >> Fall 2007 >> Prison-like Detention Centers

NOW Foundation Examines Prison-like Detention Centers

By Olga Vives, Executive Vice President

NOW staff photo by Holly Manning Supporters of fair treatment for immigrants rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Over the summer, I visited the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Alabama, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is holding about 140 women on illegal immigration charges. Most come from Latin America, although there are some from Viet Nam, Cambodia and the Caribbean Islands.

I was able to get into the center through the good efforts of Helen Rivas, a resident of Birmingham, Ala., who works with the immigrant community and who has Guatemalan Consular support. My interest in visiting the facility was to hear first hand how these women came to be detained and sent to this particular facility, and whether they were taken as a result of ICE workplace raids that have separated mothers from their frightened children and spread terror through entire communities. I also wanted to see the conditions in the center, the treatment by the authorities and the prospects for their release and/or deportation.

Upon arriving at the center, I was taken to a room to meet nine Guatemalan women who were incarcerated. I talked with four of the women separately, as they had requested a private meeting to discuss their specific situations. In most cases, these women had been taken as a result of ICE workplace raids, but also for traffic violations and in one sad case through police intervention in a domestic abuse situation.

The Etowah Center is not listed in ICE's information site as an official detention/deportation center. Although the Department of Homeland Security lists 10 federal detention centers, there are many more, especially in the South.

The NOW Foundation intends to locate some of these prison-like centers and conduct interviews with detained women in an effort to identify their experiences and their needs for assistance. Many have been turned in by their abusive citizen husbands, and most speak little English, have few resources, and have been separated from their children and families.

They desperately need health care and direct services, as well as legal counsel to ensure due process. They need to be reunited with their families, and deported if necessary, but not left in limbo, receiving shoddy treatment and fearful about their futures. But most of all they need a public outcry against their treatment.

The NOW Foundation will use our network of local and state-based activists, national visibility with the media and policy makers, and commitment to fair treatment for all women, as we tell these women's stories and demand both safety and justice.