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ACLU Challenges Illegal
Detention of Children Held
in Prison-Like Conditions
On March
6, the ACLU brought several
lawsuits against Michael
Chertoff, Secretary of the
Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), on behalf of
10 children detained at the
T. Don Hutto detention
facility in Taylor, Texas.
The lawsuit contends that
the conditions inside Hutto
violate numerous provisions
of Flores v. Meese,
a 1997 court settlement that
established minimum
standards and conditions for
the housing and release of
all minors in federal
immigration custody.
Learn
more >> |
Every wave of immigration into the United States has faced fear and hostility, especially during times of economic hardship, political turmoil, or war:
- in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, one of our nation's first immigration laws, to keep out all people of Chinese origin
- during the "Red Scare" of the 1920s, thousands of foreign-born people suspected of political radicalism were arrested and brutalized; many were deported without a hearing.
- in 1942, 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were interned in camps until the end of World War II.
It is true that the Constitution does not give foreigners the right to enter the U.S. But once here, it protects them from discrimination based on race and national origin and from arbitrary treatment by the government. Immigrants work and pay taxes; legal immigrants are subject to the military draft. Many immigrants have lived in this country for decades, married U.S. citizens, and raised their U.S.-citizen children. Laws that punish them violate their fundamental right to fair and equal treatment. |
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