Lost in Detention

Date/Time
Date(s) - Thursday, May 30
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Location
Chalice Sanctuary, Fellowship Hall, and Kitchen

Categories


A printable pdf for this event is:  HERE

*
*
Friday, JUNE 07, 2013 – 7:30
*
*

1lostindetention

The Hidden World of Immigration Enforcement

More than one million immigrants have been deported since President Obama took office. Under his administration deportations and detentions have reached record levels. The get-tough policy has brought complaints of abuse and harsh treatment, including charges that families have been unfairly separated after being caught in the nationwide dragnet. The administration has promised to make the detention system more humane, and more selectively target the most serious criminals. But it faces Republican critics urging stricter measures–and a growing backlash among Latino voters, a key 2012 electoral force.

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security) deported a record 409,849 immigrants last year.  The cost of border control, deportation and detention has reached $18 Billion per year—more than all other federal law enforcement combined (FBI, DEA, ATF, etc.).  Over 400,000 detainees are processed through 250 detention centers each year.  

While great for the private prison industry’s profits and growth, this recent get-tough policy has brought complaints of abuse, harsh treatment, and families unfairly separated after being caught in the nationwide dragnet.  The Obama administration has promised to make the detention system more humane and to target criminals.  But it faces critics urging stricter measures and a Congress which provides ICE with $2 Billion to deport 400,000 undocumented immigrants annually.  Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), GEO Group, Inc. and other prison corporations continue to lobby Congress members for increased enforcement, detention and privatization of prisons.

In LOST IN DETENTION, a co-production with the Investigative Reporting Workshop, correspondent Maria Hinojosa investigates Obama’s enforcement strategies and journeys into the secretive world of immigrant detention, with a penetrating look at who is being detained and what is happening to them.

This program contains mature content, including graphic language and descriptions of sexual abuse. Viewer discretion is advised.

Following the film, Rev. Lora Brandis and Gordon Clint of the Conejo Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will lead a discussion about local efforts that are part of the nationwide movement to reduce the isolation and mistreatment of detainees. They recently toured the Adelanto Detention Facility and are working with CLUE-VC and the Friends of Adelanto Detainees coalition to organize volunteers to visit immigrants isolated in that for-profit prison out in the desert.  Combining chaplaincy and advocacy, interfaith teams of visitors will meet with detainees, learn their stories and how they are being treated, and raise awareness in our community about the staggering scale and human cost of the ICE detention system.

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *