Two Immigrants Who Followed the Path to Citizenship Tell Stories of Detention and Deportat

The issue of immigration has exploded into the national consciousness over the last month with millions of people taking part in marches, protests, rallies and even an economic boycott that took place this past Monday on May Day. That day was dubbed "A Day without Immigrants" and it is being called the largest day of protest in U.S. history with an estimated 1.5 million people participating. But amid the widespread mobilization that took place, newspapers throughout the country reported widespread fear of deportation raids and immigration roundups by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Rumors of impending raids came on the heels of the highly publicized raids of April 19th where more than 1200 undocumented workers from 26 different states were rounded up and detained. More raids followed - last week ICE announced the arrests of 106 undocumented immigrants throughout the Midwest and almost 200 arrests in Florida alone. In fact, undocumented immigrants are one of the largest growing populations being detained by the U.S government.

Today, we look at the issue of immigration detention with a number of guests. We will look at the treatment of immigrant detainees, the trend towards privatization of detention centers and the policies behind it all. But first we go to a video clip of a detainee who was held in a Virginia detention center. Her name is Carolina and she is 23 years old. Carolina entered the U.S without papers at the age 4. In January, Caroline was arrested while filing for legal status with her husband, who is a U.S. citizen. She was arrested was for ignoring a deportation order issued when she was only 12. Caroline's father is a U.S citizen and she has no criminal record of any kind.

* Carolina Fulecio Hernandez, immigrated from Guatamala to the United States at the age of four speaking at a Virginia detention center.

Carolina was recently deported and she is now living in Guatemala City. Her son is still here in the US and will turn three this month.

* Carolina Fulecio Hernandez, on the line from Guatemala City.
* Debi Sanders, executive director of the Capital Area Immigrant Rights Coalition and a member of the Detention Watch Network.

Who also look at the case of Sharon Nyantekyi. She recently spent several days in a detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She was taken into custody after she applied for a green card application and it was discovered that she had been brought to this country as a child under a fraudulent visa. Sharon is originally from Ghana.

* Sharon Nyantekyi, immigrant from Ghana and Rutgers University student who was detained for 10 days in March. She is currently awaiting a deportation hearing scheduled for May 9.

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/04/146251