Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.
Transgender Asylum-Seeker Caught in Immigration Detention Hell
Courage comes in many different forms. For Esmeralda a transgender asylum seeker from Mexico who faced horrific circumstances in immigration detention, it came in the form of seeking justice. Kept in a segregated cell with other transgender detainees, Esmeralda never realized that her experience in detention would match the trauma of discrimination she had faced back home. But her story is also one of hope for change.
Esmeralda: A Transgender Detainee Speaks Out from Breakthrough on Vimeo.
While the Obama administration has pledged to reform the detention system, its promises do not go far enough. Spread over a patchwork of more than 500 county jails, privately run prisons and federal facilities, immigration detention is a $1.8 billion business estimated to hold 442,941 detainees in custody in 2009 alone.
Transferred far away from their homes and families, stories are rife of how detainees are denied visitation, access to lawyers, medical care, and are subject to physical and verbal abuse. Many vulnerable people, including asylum seekers, pregnant women, children, lawful permanent residents and even U.S. citizens are among those detained.
Listen to Esmeralda’s voice of courage and take action now to fix a broken detention system.
| Also in Immigration | |||
| What Sarah Palin's "Jewish people will be flocking to Israel" prediction really means Palin's associated with a religious tendency whose leaders promote anti-Jewish conspiracy theory Post by Bruce Wilson. November 21, 2009. |
Considering a Faux Turkey for the Holidays? Better Read This First A review of four "birds" -- and it's not pretty. Post by Tara Lohan. November 21, 2009. |
Tea-Parties so Diverse, They Had to Use the Same Black Guy in 5 Different Scenes of Tea-Bagger Movie Really, you know a black tea-bagger named Nate? Post by Oliver Willis. November 20, 2009. |
|
EMAIL
PRINT
COMMENT NOW
PERMALINK