Detention is not the way forward for migrants
Serving as a priest with the people of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Albuquerque has meant working directly with migrants who would be impacted by the proposed Dignity not Detention bill. The bill, which will be debated this month in the Roundhouse, would end the systemic violation of civil and human rights happening in New Mexico in immigrant detention facilities. I want to share what I have seen and heard which makes me urge you to support ending immigrant detention.
Earlier this summer, a group of volunteers and clergy were given an official tour of one of these facilities. On the tour, staff from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CoreCivic, the contractor running the facility, told my colleagues that migrants are treated well. They told us that detainees are given opportunities for recreation and a steady diet of nutritious food. I believe clergy and volunteers were lied to on this tour.
Our church was invited because we have a ministry called “the Landing.” We partner with various state and local agencies to house migrants when they are released from detention. We give asylum-seekers a safe place to sleep, warm home-cooked meals, and we help them find transportation to reunite with family. Multiple times a month, we sit with men who have stayed at Otero, Cibola, and Torrance counties. The men often arrive very quiet, timid. The stories we hear from them, each and every time, are what tell us CoreCivic is lying.
Recently, I went to Torrance County. I met with a man who is currently detained. He entered the United States at El Paso in the beginning of October to ask for asylum. At the border, he was separated from his wife and 7-year-old son with special needs. The day after he arrived, he told officials about the death threats he and his son received back in Venezuela. He recounted how his wife was beaten and violated by criminals. This man had been waiting in jail for over a month to find out whether the stories he told would allow his asylum case to go forward. He knew his wife and son are at a shelter in another state, and he desperately wanted to go join them.
While staying at Torrance County, this man had visibly lost weight. He showed me his ID from Venezuela, and he now looked like a different person. He described the food he was served each day as “wet, or burned,” and always insufficient. He also said he only had two shirts and two pairs of underwear. He had been unable to wash his clothes for weeks because detainees are required to pay for laundry. Though he has been working to help clean the facility, he had not consistently been paid. With no credit appearing on his account, he had no way to wash his clothes.
I wish I could say his was an isolated case, but we hear story after story of treatment like this from the men arriving at our ministry. I urge my fellow New Mexicans to contact your representatives. Ask them to support the Dignity not Detention bill. Don’t allow these detention facilities to continue to operate in New Mexico.
As a Christian, I have an obligation to tell the truth and to care for those who are imprisoned, who are hungry, who lack adequate clothing. I think the best way we can care for these migrants is to get out of business with the contractors violating their rights and lying to cover up the abuse.