Countering abuses and helping as we can
In Milan, N.M., next to Grants, refugees and other immigrants are imprisoned in the Cibola County Detention Center run by Core Civic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America. Cibola was a federal prison run by Core Civic until the Federal Bureau of Prisons terminated its contract due to a history of unexplained deaths and rampant medical negligence. Within months of the termination, the facility was reopened by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Cibola County. It now houses hundreds of immigrants, including refugees, in conditions that most of us would find unbearable.
Advocacy organizations and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General have reported on the inhumane conditions throughout the immigration detention system, including excessive and arbitrary use of solitary confinement, unsafe food, abuse of force by officers and deaths due to medical negligence. Many individuals seeking asylum in the U.S. because of threats to their lives in their home countries are imprisoned in Cibola, where they have little to no access to the counsel that is their legal right here. The few lawyers in New Mexico who are able to help (usually with great sacrifice to themselves) are completely overwhelmed by the need. Immigration attorneys from New Mexico and Texas are able to represent at most 42 detained individuals at the Cibola prison at a time — 6 percent of the jail’s population in April 2017.
Meanwhile, these refugees and immigrants are imprisoned not out of necessity but as a policy, in order to deport as many as possible, even those who face death in their home country and pose no security risk. The psychological damage to detainees, especially those who’ve experienced trauma, is so great that many abandon their quest for asylum, even those with the strongest claims, and choose deportation.
Most of us in the U.S. had ancestors who came to this country as immigrants, including refugees. What would have become of our ancestors if they had faced the imprisonment and deportation that immigrants to the U.S. are currently meeting? What are we Americans becoming if we stand by and allow, or encourage, abuses of the human rights of our brothers and sisters who are fleeing persecution and death or seeking the same opportunities we take for granted? If you are a person of faith, what does your faith tell you about welcoming immigrants,
refugees and people different from yourself?
If you are concerned, you may join many of your fellow New Mexicans in taking action to counter these abuses and giving what assistance we can to the detainees at Cibola and other immigrants. Consider joining or donating to the following:
Santa Fe Faith Network for Immigrant Justice;
New Mexico Faith Coalition for Immigrant Justice; Santa Fe Dreamers Project; New Mexico Immigrant Law Center;
Somos Un Pueblo Unido. I invite you to join me at the United Church of Santa Fe, where we worship, study and take action on issues of immigration, faith, care for creation and more. Please also consider writing to your elected representatives and asking them what they are doing to protect immigrants and refugees to the U.S. from human-rights abuses.
Bonney Hughes has volunteered in Mexico and in the border area multiple times and studies immigration issues. She has lived in the Santa Fe area for more than 30 years.