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Gitmo duplicated

A piece on truthout.org "Obama's Immigration Conundrum" [reproduced from truthdig.com] highlights the severe plight of refugees presently incarcerated in the USA - some 35,000 it is said.

Reading the piece all too sadly reflects and mirrors what the US has allowed to happen at Gitmo and the total incompetence of American authorities. The "story" of the detained immigrants will resonate with anyone who has seen the movie "The Visitor" [well worth watching]:

"There are 350 of these centers around the country, housing almost 30,000 men, women and even children waiting for the Department of Homeland Security to decide whether or not they will be deported. Some have been in custody for years. The centers are overcrowded. Newspapers and academic and civil liberties studies tell of physically and mentally ill inmates being denied help.

Given that they are in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security, you'd think these people would be suspected terrorists, threats to national security. Many, however, are guilty of nothing except seeking asylum from their native lands. Plenty have been swept up in the increasing number of raids by immigration officers. Some of these are actually here legally but are detained until they can prove it. Others have committed crimes, although some of the violations are so small they would have rated only a light fine or jail sentence in the criminal justice system."

"As Dana Priest and Amy Goldstein wrote in The Washington Post last year, "Most are working-class men and women or indigent laborers who made mistakes that seem to pose no threat to national security...." The reporters counted 83 deaths in the last five years among those in detention centers and those who had just left them.

The American Civil Liberties Union, on a Web site devoted to the issue, said: "Within hours of their arrest, many immigrants caught up in raids are transferred to remote out-of-state detention centers and pressured into signing removal orders, often without being able to tell anyone where they are; as a result, family and lawyers have no time or ability to provide support and a legal defense. Inhumane and cruel conditions of confinement in the immigration detention centers are pervasive."

Continue reading here.

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