Support immigrant sisters behind bars

Emotions ran high as four women, dressed in drab green prison clothes, entered a conference room at the Etowah County Detention Center in this northern Alabama town on March 7 to the cheers and applause of a group of immigrant rights activists, legal workers and family members. Tears immediately began to flow as the detainees realized these 13 women and two men had all come to visit them, to hear of their situation, to offer whatever help they could and to bring them sorely needed personal items to ease the distress of prison conditions.

Delegation visits women's prison in Alabama. Photo: Mary Babington

A fifth young woman, originally from Chiapas, Mexico, soon joined the group.

Her story was indicative of the quixotic results of the current unjust immigration policies in the U.S. Employed by a temp agency in metro Atlanta, often working in manufacturing plants, she was called to come pick up her checks at the agency office. However, when she arrived, she was immediately arrested for using a false social security number and handcuffed by male police. Her paychecks were seized.

Transferred to Etowah, she had been there about three weeks. She doesn’t know when she will be deported to Mexico or how she will get back to Chiapas. She has lived in the U.S. for more than eight years.

Three sisters-in-law of one of the women brought her pictures of her three young sons, two of whom are U.S. citizens, which she kissed and hugged to her body. The family was involved in a car accident in Cobb County, their vehicle struck by another car and totaled. Cobb County is part of the 287(g) program which authorizes local police to enforce immigration law.

When the police arrived at the scene, even though the other driver was at fault, the husband was arrested for lack of a driver’s license. He is now at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., awaiting deportation. The woman and two of her children were taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries received in the accident.

More than two weeks later, police came to their home and arrested the woman, leaving the children to be cared for by a sister-in-law. Her husband had lived in the U.S. for more than 18 years, she for more than nine.

The solidarity delegation was organized by Georgia Detention Watch and Human Rights Atlanta. One of the features of the trip was Operation Panty, a campaign to supply the detainees with underwear. Often these women have only what they were wearing at the time of arrest, which they wash out each night. At Etowah, orange mesh boxers can be bought in the prison store if the detainee has any money, but they are uncomfortable and not suitable to women’s needs. While many of the women are there a matter of weeks, others are held for months.

The International Women’s Day solidarity delegation brought hundreds of pairs of cotton briefs, bras, soap, shampoo and other personal items to be distributed to the more than 130 women held at Etowah. Plans are under way to expand Operation Panty to other detention facilities across the U.S. and for coordinated solidarity delegations on Mother’s Day to highlight the cruel separation of families.

On March 8, Human Rights Atlanta, in cooperation with community station WRFG 89.3FM, organized a six-hour program on IWD which delved into the history of the day and current struggles and victories in the fight for women’s full participation in economic, political and social life in this country and around the world. Several dozen women activists, reflecting the broad range of women’s activism locally and globally, filled the airwaves with analysis, information and passion in an inspiring discussion of “the rising of the women.”

Mathiowetz, coordinator of the Atlanta International Action Center, was a key organizer of both the IWD Solidarity Delegation to the Etowah Detention Center and the WRFG special radio program.