Volunteering in Dilley
Project Summary
In response to a serious humanitarian crisis, I, Laura Shaw, a third-year law student at University of Maine Law, am writing to ask for your assistance to volunteer a week of my time to help the women and children who are being detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center, an immigration jail located in Dilley, TX.
What is happening in Dilley, TX?
As you may have heard, in 2014, the United States experienced a huge increase of Central American familiies and unaccompanied children crossing the Southern border, fleeing situations of extreme violence. Unprepared for the increase in refugees, the United States government started The Artesia Center in May 2014 and began detaining women and their children. After discovering that The Artesia Center was riddled with severe injustices and due process violations, volunteers from throughout the nation began travelling to Artesia to assist the women and children at the center. In November 2014, I had the opportunity to volunteer for one week at the Artesia Center with a classmate and experience the extreme unjustices and due process violations taking place at this facility firsthand. You can read our blog documenting our expierences here.
Then, in December, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they would be closing The Artesia Center and opening a new jail in Dilley, a remote town in Texas, with capacity to hold 2,400 individuals. In response, lawyers and law students from all around the country are now travelling to Dilley, volunteering their time to provide urgent legal assistance to the women and children being detained.
Why are Immigration Attorneys from Around the Country now Travelling to Dilley?
Volunteers report that the same injustices that were taking place in Artesia are now taking place in Dilley. Women and children fleeing from their countries out of fear of persecution are being denied access to attorneys and interpreters, are being given arbitrarily high bonds, or denied bond altogether, and are being rushed through immigration procedures without a meaningful opportunity to present their case. Additionally, many of the women and children in the facility are sick, have lost substantial amounts of weight, are experiencing depression, and receive inadequate mental and physical medical care.
Details of the Project
While in Dilley, I will spend one week assisting immigration attorneys in representing the women and children detained at the center with credible fear interviews, bond hearings, and asylum hearings. We will work to get women and children released from the center so that they can fight their immigration cases remotely.
What will my donation be used for?
Your donation will be used to cover travel expenses including flight, room and board. Any additional funds will be donated to the University of Maine Refugee and Human Rights Clinic to enable future students to participate in this project (or a similar project).
For more information, visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/magazine/the-shame-of-americas-family-detention-camps.html?_r=0
http://immigrationimpact.com/2014/12/18/new-family-detention-facility-opens-dilley-texas-despite-due-process-problems/
For videos of recent Dilley voluteers sharing their experiences, watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Y-62APhgjFk&list= UUb5Kl7gHJdchQVBJO9bqiPA
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=10NKToq-Sjo&list= UUb5Kl7gHJdchQVBJO9bqiPA
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=l4QUk62MBI0&list= UUb5Kl7gHJdchQVBJO9bqiPA
