The Least of These

In 2006, as the U.S. government ended the catch-and-release program for illegal immigrants, they created a facility to detain families that had entered the country to seek asylum. These are exclusively non-Mexican families who fled their homelands due to violence, such as those fleeing torture, mutilation, religious persecution, or domestic abuse. Their home countries could not protect them, so, like millions of others in the last three hundred years, they came to America to seek a better life.

Upon arrival they are arrested, handcuffed, and taken to a "converted" prison facility in Williamson County, Texas, where for nearly two years children of any age, housed with their parents, were treated as prisoners. Parents are expected to eat and feed all their children in fifteen minutes. Play time consists of being marched out single file to a yard, being told to sit, then being told to stand up and file back inside. Education is an hour a day. And all of this costs four to five times as much as a half-way-house-style facility, where families can live in monitored homes and retention until hearings runs over 90%. It's not that we need to open the doors of the country to anyone claiming asylum, but there are so, so many better ways.

After a lawsuit and settlement with the ACLU, conditions at the detection facility have improved. It's still a heartbreaking story. Thank you, ACLU.

The Least of These
2009, 62 minutes, directed by Clark Lyda and Jesse Lyda