Press Release: LULAC Praises President Barack Obama for Releasing Families from Don Hutto Detention Center.

Humane Conditions will Remain in Place Until All Families are Released at the end of the month.

August 18, 2009

Contact: Lizette Jenness Olmos
(202) 833-6130 ext. 16

Washington, DC – The League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation’s largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights organization in the country, praises President Barack Obama for moving families out of a detention center in Taylor, Texas.
 
LULAC mounted a campaign advocating the removal of children from the Hutto Detention Center. The National President toured the facility last year and was appalled that the children were wearing orange prison uniforms and had limited educational and recreational opportunities. 
 
“Children should not have to endure confinement in a prison," said LULAC National President Rosa Rosales. "Now that this long-overdue decision to end the detention of families at Hutto, we commend the President for his humane actions. We hope this is an example of a more humane and fair approach to housing immigrants and in keeping with our American value system.”

This month, ICE and the ACLU reached an agreement to immediately relocate the families from Hutto.  The families will be transferred to an 84-bed former nursing home facility in Pennsylvania and other locations will be considered for the remaining families. Others will be considered for programs that do not require detention, such as home and electronic monitoring.This is the result of the 2007 lawsuit filed by the ACLU charging that children were being illegally imprisoned under inhumane conditions. The ACLU's lawsuit was filed on behalf of 26 immigrant children between the ages of one and 17 detained with their parents who, in almost all cases, were seeking asylum.

The decision to end family detention at Hutto is part of an ICE plan to improve the immigration detention system. The objective of the plan is to place detainees in facilities that reflect their non-criminal status.

A copy of the modified settlement agreement, filed today in U.S District Court for the Western District of Texas, is available online at: www.aclu.org/immigrants/detention/40645lgl20090807.html

The League of United Latin American Citizens advances the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, housing, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.

# # #