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More Than Two Dozen Babies and Toddlers
Detained at Karnes Detention Center
RAICES
has seen more than two dozen clients held at the Karnes Detention Center in
Texas in the last five months who are less than three years old; the majority
are less than 18 months old, and two are just a year old.
Sign our petition to demand that ICE and DHS
stop incarcerating babies.
This
is the youngest population we have ever documented in immigrant detention, and
our staff members have seen children even younger.
The
majority of the families we have met document medical issues. Mothers and
fathers have had their medical treatment delayed, been prescribed pills with
little information about what they are getting, and been stripped of medicine
after certain diagnoses. Many families arrive from the hieleras and perreras
with fever. Others emphasize to us that they are afraid their children will die
in detention given the lack of medical care.
Detained
children do not understand their situation. They are given arbitrary rules by
detention staff that they cannot comprehend, like being told not to play on the
carpet; they are punished if they break these rules. At Karnes, there was a ban
on crayons, a practice our lawyers did not understand and could not explain to
families.
This
is completely unconscionable. Babies and toddlers should not be in prison.
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