Protest at jail for immigrant families

Texas activists carrying colorful signs and banners formed a loud, militant demonstration in front of the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility on March 7, chanting, “CCA [Corrections Corporation of America], shut it down!” “Free the children, shut it down!” and “ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], shut it down!”

March at Hutto immigration prison. WW photo: Gloria Rubac

Called a “residential facility,” Hutto is actually a for-profit prison surrounded by high fences topped with barbed wire. Some 125 children and their families are incarcerated there waiting for hearings on political asylum or deportation. None has been convicted of any crime.

The Department of Homeland Security opened the 510-bed facility in May 2006 as the first detention center for families. It is operated by the Corrections Corporation of America in conjunction with Williamson County, which is located just north of the Texas state capital in Austin.

The demonstration was called by Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Houston and supported by Texan activists from the cities of Taylor, Georgetown, Austin, Houston and College Station. This was the second year in a row that International Women’s Day has been marked in front of this prison demanding an end to the detention of children and families.

SDS organizer Rob Block led chants and introduced the speakers, including four young children from Austin who are members of A Scouts, an alternative to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. The children were working to earn their “protest badge” by attending the Hutto demonstration. The A Scouts used colored sidewalk chalk to decorate the prison’s main driveway with pictures and slogans such as “Free the kids!” and “No more kids behind bars!”

Natalie, an SDS member and a Palestinian American, spoke of the horrific conditions at immigration detention centers, from lack of medical care and food to physical abuse. “My significant other was locked in one of these prisons and they are no place for anyone, especially children,” she told the crowd.

During the protest two CCA employees sat in a van blocking the main entrance to the prison. One speaker addressed the woman in the driver’s seat: “How can you work at this place where women are abused and raped? I am asking you how you can be a part of this,” she yelled over the microphone. The CCA employee responded by rolling up the van windows.

Before the protest ended, the crowd of more than 50 people marched about 300 yards from the front of the prison to the side, where they could view some swings for the children. Their chants and speeches could be heard for quite a distance.

The children’s swings and other improvements were made after a successful lawsuit by the Texas ACLU in 2007. Conditions at Hutto have gradually improved as a result of the groundbreaking litigation. Children are no longer required to wear prison uniforms and are allowed much more time outdoors. Educational programming has expanded and guards have been instructed not to discipline children by threatening to separate them from their parents.

As the protest was ending, chants of “¡En las luchas obreras, no hay fronteras!” (“In the workers’ struggles, there are no borders!”) could be heard loud and clear.

The next protest at this prison will be on April 18. For information, see tdonhutto.blogspot.com.