Thursday, July 31, 2008

Voices From Detention: A Report on Human Rights Violations in the Northwest Detention Center

by Pramila Jayapal
July 15, 2008

http://www.hatefreezone.org/article.php?id=265

We released our report today. Voices From Detention: A Report on Human Rights Violations in the Northwest Detention Center details the many abuses of international human rights law and Constitutional protections at the detention center in Tacoma.

I have been doing this work enough that I didn't expect to be emotional—and certainly I never have been when at the podium at a press conference.

But as I listened to the young woman who had to speak by speaker phone because she was so afraid of deportation; as I read excerpts from the report describing how immigrants are treated like animals; as I spoke of the abuses, such as a hood put over the head of a mentally ill detainee; or of pregnant women being denied medical care; or detainees refused use of the bathroom so they were forced to defecate in their seats on an airplane, I could not help the emotion that came.

I believe America is so much better than this. And I believe that most Americans, if they knew what was happening in their name at our detention centers across the country, they would stop this injustice. Most Americans want people to be treated fairly and humanely.

Join the growing chorus of our voices calling for change. Please read our report here:
http://www.hatefreezone.org/article.php?list=type&type=56

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