When federal immigration agents take people into custody, they are whisked into a deportation and detention apparatus that is, by design, opaque and largely hidden from people on the outside. People are often transported to immigration jails thousands of miles from their homes, and making phone calls, scheduling visits, and even communicating with their lawyers can be next to impossible.
One window into what happens in immigration detention is offered by the federal court filings required by the nearly 30-year-old settlement of the case Reno v. Flores, which established minimum standards for the conditions in which children can be held in immigration detention. As recent filings in that case allege, the federal government is continuing to fail to meet those minimum standards, and alarmingly, conditions for children locked up in federal facilities are actually deteriorating.
Recently, the filings claim, "conditions and treatment appear to have worsened with families reporting horrific concerns, such as denial of critical medical care, worms and mold in their food resulting in children becoming ill, and threats of family separation by officers and staff….Families report that their children are weak, faint, pale, and often crying because they are so hungry."
These allegations are buttressed by a host of sworn affidavits taken from families in immigration detention, which are horrifying in their description of the conditions in which the United States government is treating children.