It is important to examine a facility like Casa Padre in the context of the US history of creating prisons and internment camps for people of color. Whether it has been in the form of convict leasing, Native American reservations, camps for Japanese Americans during WWII, or the prison industrial complex today, this manifestation of migrant detention—of children and their families—is a reoccurring violation of human rights and dignity that sadly has consistently targeted people of color and reinforced white supremacy throughout US history. These most recent incidents of state sponsored human rights violations are shocking, tragic, and outrageous, but not new. It makes last week's visual alignment with the despotic leaders of North Korea that much more disturbing.
Its terrifying to reflect ten percent of children in US juvenile detention facilities report sexual assault while incarcerated.[1] And also that the US ran Abu Ghraib prison less than 4 months before abuse and torture of inmates began.[2] Not surprising we are already seeing reports of abuse at detention facilities for immigrant youths and children in the us.[3]
[1] https://www.alternet.org/education/why-are-rates-sexual-abuse-juvenile-detention-facilities-rise
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse
[3] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/immigrant-children-allege-abuse-at-virginia-detention-center https://www.thenation.com/article/just-hateful-abuse-immigrants-face-detention-centers/ https://theintercept.com/2018/06/26/immigration-detention-center-abuse-ice/
