AUSTIN, Texas, March 12 (UPI) -- New lawsuits charge that the DHS holds children in "prison-like conditions" at a Texas immigration facility.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed several lawsuits March 6 against U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on behalf of 10 children currently detained at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility in Taylor, Texas. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds families in the center who are awaiting immigration decisions.
"The choice is not between enforcement of immigration laws and humane treatment of immigrant families. There are various alternatives under which both can exist," said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director of the ACLU of Texas.
The Hutto facility opened in May 2006 in a converted Texas medium-security prison. The DHS states that the facility was created as part of the plan to end the "catch and release" of illegal aliens at the southern border.
According to a press release from the ACLU, approximately half of the 400 people held at the facility are children.
"In a facility that is still functionally and structurally a prison, children are required to wear prison garb, detained in small cells for 11-12 hours each day where they cannot keep food and toys, and denied all privacy, even when using the toilet," the ACLU states. It also claims that the children lack access to adequate medical attention and "meaningful educational opportunities."
An official in the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Houston declined to comment on the case.
