I started a new round of three classes at the GEO / ICE Detention center today. We are in our last rotation before starting over with the women, and today's class was a group of men from B Pod. Possibly due to the bitter cold which has kept all the detainees inside and stir crazy, we had a large group of 28. Class went well, everyone seemed focused and put at ease by my attempts to speak Spanish. As I went from table to table helping with translation to English, I was startled by the youthful appearance of many of the students. Several upturned faces barely had hair sprouting, with round faces and acne speaking of teenager-hood.
The guards came to take the 28 back to B Pod and as they filed past us, nodding and offering thank yous, it was again obvious how young a few guys were. I asked Rachel how old they had to be to be detained at the center and she said 18, but GEO/ICE has to go by whatever documents they have, and many of those are forged and inaccurate, especially if the young men are trying to seem older to get jobs. On a few occasions where these errors have come to light via found documents, the youths (as young as 16) have had to be held in a special populations unit, for their own safety. The young men I saw today were in blue uniforms, meaning that their only offense was crossing into the US without documentation. Now they are imprisoned, developing emotionally and mentally in an institution, with stays paid for by us the taxpayers. Something here has got to change.
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