Texas immigration prison protested

Hundreds of activists, including infants and great grandmothers, held a spirited march and rally in Taylor, Texas, on June 20 to protest the incarceration of men, women and their children at the T. Don Hutto detention center.

June 20 protest. WW photo: Gloria Rubac

On U.N. World Refugee Day, the bright sky and 103-degree heat appeared to embolden demonstrators as they marched from downtown Taylor to the T. Don Hutto immigration prison on the outskirts of this small town in Williamson County.

Chanting “T. Don Hutto—shut it down! I-C-E [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]—shut it Down! C-C-A [Corrections Corporation of America]—shut it down!” the crowd from various areas in Texas, including Austin, Houston, the Rio Grande Valley, Bryan-College Station, Williamson County and San Antonio, held banners and signs high as they arrived at the prison.

Speaker after speaker condemned the existence of a prison that incarcerated whole immigrant families, people not charged with any criminal activity, in this remote and austere prison. Most are seeking political asylum and are from Africa, Asia, Mexico, the Middle East and Central and South America.

Fifty people carried a sign that read “Free the children” written in the 50 languages of those who have been incarcerated at Hutto. More than a dozen signs carried the text of major civil rights statements in history, from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech to the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which the U.S. has not signed.

The Hutto prison, euphemistically named a “residential facility,” like it could be a college dorm or a home for seniors, is actually only one of two such ICE prisons in the country where families are incarcerated. The other is in Pennsylvania.

Before a successful legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas in 2007, the children were forced to wear prison uniforms and were denied adequate health care, schooling and recreation. But despite some improvements made as a result of community organizing, primarily in Austin and Williamson County, the fight is not over.

“We want to shut Hutto down, completely down!” said organizer Jay Johnson-Castro Sr. “Prisons like this should not be allowed to exist!”

One of the most animated and colorful contingents was the PODER (People Organized to Defend Earth and her Resources) Young Scholars for Justice from Austin. Among the dozens and dozens of organizations participating were the Brown Berets, the Texas Indigenous Council, the Cesar Chavez March Committee from San Antonio, and the University of Houston Students for a Democratic Society.