ICE Detention Camps In Florida Are Shackling & Humiliating Immigrants Who Are Asking For Food

By: Desmond Price

Reading this story made my skin crawl. The level of dehumanization we are seeing take place here in America has left me incredibly fearful for what comes next.

⚠️ CONTENT WARNING ⚠️

Migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates “like dogs”, according to a report published on Monday into conditions at three overcrowded south Florida facilities.

The incident at the downtown federal detention center is one of a succession of alleged abuses at Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (Ice) operated jails in the state since January, chronicled by advocacy groups Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South from interviews with detainees.

Dozens of men had been packed into a holding cell for hours, the report said, and denied lunch until about 7pm. They remained shackled with the food on chairs in front of them.

“We had to eat like animals,” one detainee named Pedro said.

Degrading treatment by guards is commonplace in all three jails, the groups say. At the Krome North service processing center in west Miami, female detainees were made to use toilets in full view of men being held there, and were denied access to gender-appropriate care, showers, or adequate food.

When the group was finally admitted into the facility, they said, many spent up to 12 days crammed into a frigid intake room they christened la hielera – the ice box – with no bedding or warm clothing, sleeping instead on the cold concrete floor.

Some suffered delayed treatment for injuries and chronic conditions, and dismissive or hostile responses from staff, the report said.

In one alleged incident in April at the downtown Miami jail, staff turned off a surveillance camera and a “disturbance control team” brutalized detainees who were protesting a lack of medical attention to one of their number who was coughing up blood.

“The anti-immigrant escalation and enforcement tactics under the Trump administration are terrorizing communities and ripping families apart, which is especially cruel in the state of Florida, which thrives because of its immigrant communities,” said Katie Blankenship, immigration attorney and co-founder of Sanctuary of the South.

“The rapid, chaotic, and cruel approach to arresting and locking people up is literally deadly and causing a human rights crisis that will plague this state and the entire country for years to come.”

Source - The Guardian

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We Normalize These Atrocities By Not Speaking About Them

Donald Trump is doing everything in his power to dehumanize, psychologically torture, & drive Brown and Black immigrants from this country. He wants them to feel unsafe, he wants them to feel small, he wants to create a culture of fear that prevents more immigrants from coming here in the future.

What’s obvious to me, is that the problems we face with our immigration system in America, could be overcome with an injection of resources, particularly an increase in immigration judges at the southern border.

Yet, I don’t believe for a second that Donald Trump actually wants to solve this problem. Rather, he wants to put on a show to appeal to his base, and what his base wants is abject cruelty.

Please don’t normalize this by not speaking about what’s happening to the immigrants in this country.

Please share this information with your friends, your family, or anyone who you believe is not aware of what’s happening right now. You can click on the words, “The Guardian” up top for access to the full story on their website.

Until next time,

Desmond