"Ritmo": Inside the inhumane Texas detention center that should be a crime, even if it's not Cheney
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"Ritmo": Inside the inhumane Texas detention center that should be a crime, even if it's not Cheney
"I call it 'Ritmo' -- like Gitmo, but it's in Raymondville," said Jodi Goodwin, an immigration lawyer from nearby Harlingen.
-- Washington Post, Feb. 2, 2007.
OK, first of all, the bad news. Dick Cheney is not going to jail, not any time soon, at least, and not because of the bizarre report that the vice president of the United States has been indicted in a small, obscure county deep in the heart of South Texas in a scandal over federal prison and detention abuses there. Aside from the obvious fact that a Willacy County, Texas, grand jury lacks authority over federal actions, the indictment of Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other is not even signed by a judge, and the result of a wacky -- controversial wouldn't do the man justice -- renegade lame duck DA. It's almost not even worth noting that Cheney's alleged tie -- investing his millions in Vanguard mutual funds that are major owners of publicly traded federal prison contractors -- is weak beyond belief; by the grand jury's reasoning, one could surmise that others with Vanguard 401K plans (example: journalists at the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer!) could be charged as well.
That's a shame, because a) as noted here many times, Cheney's role in authorizing torture and other unlawful practices in the Bush administration deserves a real criminal probe and b) the strange false-alarm over this vice presidential indictment will probably obscure the fact that what has been taking place in Raymondville, Texas, during Bush and Cheney's time in office is a crime -- maybe statutory, maybe not, but definitely a moral one.
Willacy County, scene of today's indictments, is also home to the largest of a new generation of detention camps where thousands of undocumented immigrants -- the vast majority of whom have committed no crime other than seeking America's promise of a new life, without proper papers -- are now detained in conditions that could be described ironically as hot, flat, and crowded -- living in massive tents with poor food, non-existent health care and facing months if not years deprived of their basic liberty.
It wasn't always that way. For years, American policy was to catch and release undocumented immigrants, but that all changed with the GOP's politically charged crackdown on illegal immigration, which led in 2005 to a new policy of detaining undocumented non-Mexicans until they receive a deportation hearing and are usually booted from the country. The new policy meant doling out millions to politically connected prison firms and contractors (including the formerly Cheney-run Hallibuton) to hastily build these detention centers, including $65 million for the one in poverty-stricken Willacy County, some 260 miles south of Austin, that isn't even a structure but, as most simply call it, "Tent City."
Remember, these immigrants -- the majority at "Ritmo" hail from El Salvador, torn apart by years of civil strife -- have committed no crime beyond seeking to enter America without paperwork, and yet the Willacy County facility is in many ways quite simply a prison, like Gitmo, stark and surrounded by barbed wire. Here's how "Tent City" was described by the American Civil Liberties Union:
The Willacy County Detention Facility is the largest immigration detention facility in the country. The facility is made up of ten large tents, each of which is designed to house 200 people. The tents are windowless and lights are on around-the-clock, making it difficult to sleep. No partitions exist to separate the showers, toilets, sinks, and eating areas, and detainees report that they are occasionally forced to eat with their hands because no utensils are provided.
The Washington Post article fills in more details:
Because lights are on around the clock, a visitor finds many occupants buried in their blankets throughout the day. The stillness and torpor of the pod's communal room, where 50 to 60 people dwell, are noticeable.
Goodwin described a group of women who huddled in a recreation yard on a recent 40-degree day with a 25-mph wind. "They had no blanket, no sweat shirt, no jacket," she said. "Officers were wearing earmuffs, and detainees were outside for an hour with short-sleeved polyester uniforms and shower shoes and not necessarily socks."
Perhaps more troubling, lawyers said, large numbers of immigrants have been transferred from Boston, New York, New Jersey and Florida, far from their families and lawyers. Because some immigration judges do not permit hearings by teleconference, detainees are essentially deprived of counsel.
There have been other problems inside "Tent City" -- mealworms were found inside some of the food there last year, for example, and another study found a stunning lack of available healthcare at Willacy -- but by now you probably get the idea. In many ways, this immigrant detention program is a metaphor for what we've seen time and time again during the Cheney-Bush years, a rushed and ill-conceived federal action (despite the harsh impact on those captured, the program's effect on solving the undocumented immigration problem is fairly minimal) that's meant big bucks for a few connected contractors, with little or no thought toward its degrading impact on real human beings, or on how America is perceived by the rest of the world.
Now, a nation that famously asked for the world's tired, poor, hungry and sick is taking refugees from a war-torn and poverty stricken corner of our own continent, and making them more hungry and depriving them of sleep before sending then away. How sad. That's not just an indictment of Dick Cheney, though. That's an indictment for all of us who allowed a harsh tent city called "Ritmo" to rise on our watch.
Comment removed.
Illegal immigrants are well-lit, cold and don't have lawyers. Clearly we should send the Vice President to prison. If there's any crime here, it's attempted journalism.— BlairW- people should be nice to each other...the way karma works those who profit off the suffering of others will eventually suffer too...it's just the way life works itself out— danny ozark
"immigrants -- the vast majority of whom have committed no crime other than seeking America's promise of a new life, without proper papers". So that would be an illegal immigrant, wouldn't it? Illegal immigration is a crime, you know.— jmc- It will not surprise me one iota as his post inspires tens of Republican toadies to line up in support of these detention centers. You neglected to mention, Will, the conditions that children are enduring. Separated from their parents. Held for months on end with no, or virtually no educational services. What they hey, right? I mean if the kids wanted decent food, a decent place to live, decent educational services, access to doctors, they could have refused to come to the states with parents that had no documents or they could have chosen to be born to parents who had proper citizenship. And besides, imprisoning children is one of the few industries that has improved under the Bush administration. Surreal.— Talking point sleuth
- "...new policy of detaining undocumented non-Mexicans until they receive a deportation hearing..." - deportation hearing - Isnt that what the ACLU supports instead of just putting them back on the boat? So what to do while awaiting the hearing...lets see, how about we turn them loose in the general population. There is a risk associated with illegally entering a country...I guess their risk assessment concluded that it is worth it...— AngryWhiteMale
- TPS, what do you see as the solution or alternative?— AngryWhiteMale
- "So what to do while awaiting the hearing........---}}}} Let's put on our thinking caps, shall we? Ummmm. How 'bout we detain them in humane conditions?— Talking point sleuth
- AWM - it is a tough situation, no doubt. But if you believe that illegals should be deported, then you need to suck it up and realize that to do so humanely, there are costs associated. Prisons have become a huge for-profit industry, and it is growing exponentially. There are a lot of problems related to that phenomenon. Obviously, in this particular situation, the less they provide the detainees, the more money they make. In other situations with private prisons, the down side of having them be for-profit is more obvious: any chances of rehabilitation that might exist become even smaller. In this situation, the cost to us is probably less obvious: the degradation of our moral credibility. Oh, and btw, having prisons be a for-profit industry costs us more in the long-run, also.— Talking point sleuth
- TPS, while I am not in favor of deplorable conditions, do you think it may a deterrent? If they believe that even though they entered illegally, the net result will be food shelter and clothing, why not climb over the fence? Why treat them better than we treat many of the homeless or destitute folks in the democratically-run down major cities in the US? (Had to get the political comment in ). Look at the current prison system in the US, most are quite appealing to those who mostly are "have-nots" and made a decision to turn to crime. As far as privatizing vs government-run, I dont have enough knowledge of the costs.— AngryWhiteMale
- law abiding legal american citizens are spending this christmas bearing the full brunt of the economic fallout brought to us coourtesy of Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Chuck Schumer, George Bush, Chris Cox, Hank Paulson, various ratings agencies, mortgage companies, and finance guru's everywhere......and Bunch is worried about the lodging accomodations of criminal tresspassers. Keep your head in the sand longer and yoou'll be writing about american citizens living that way and wondering how we got here.— taxmemore
- AWB - Good point. Except I don't think that if you stack up all the factors that go into the decision to come to the U.S. illegally, the conditions they're held under after they're detained has much impact. They have already decided to take huge risks and to uproot their lives for an opportunity to feed their families. So, no, I don't think treating them inhumanely is much of any real deterrent. Obviously, they are banking on not getting caught. If you want to focus on creating deterrents, then it would make more sense to focus on policies that would increase the likelihood of them getting caught.— Talking point sleuth
- "Bunch is worried about the lodging accomodations of criminal tresspassers...---}}} There we go! Nice one taxmemore. Excellent. equating holding children in deplorable conditions to "lodging accommodations." Makes one wonder what you might have said if you were a German citizen during WW II. I mean Jews did break German laws, didn't they? By being Jewish, that is.— Talking point sleuth
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