END migrant child detention in chicago
Many people know about the huge prison camps detaining migrant children in the Southwest or Florida, largely due to recent attention by mainstream media. But the detention of migrant children is neither new nor localized to the southern border. Across the US, a secretive network of 160+ migrant child prisons has been operating for decades. They are part of the so-called "Unaccompanied Alien Children" program, an effort by the US authorities to re-brand the incarceration of migrant children as "shelter" and "care." Five (and possibly six) of these prisons are located right here in Chicago. They are run by the Catholic Archdiocese and Heartland Alliance through contracts with the federal government. We are fighting to expose them as prisons, to expose the companies for collaborating with ICE, and to shut them down and dismantle the entire child detention industry.
The incarceration of migrant children is purposefully opaque and most of us are in the dark about how and why the system operates. LVSN has spent years researching the process by which children are separated from their families and held in federal custody as hostages in the US immigration dragnet -- and have been for decades. In our "Research Archives" tab, you can find the sources of information that we have found most useful in this years-long effort to understand and expose migrant child detention. You can find testimony of youth formerly detained in Chicago, testimony from former employees at Heartland facilities, investigative articles from ProPublica and Moratorium on Deportations, and more. For a comprehensive introduction to the detention of migrant children and our collective struggle against child prisons here in Chicago, see our "FAQ" tab.
Want to jump straight into a teach-in about migrant child detention? This video is a good start:
Masjid Al-Rabia Teach-In, February 2020
The incarceration of migrant children is purposefully opaque and most of us are in the dark about how and why the system operates. LVSN has spent years researching the process by which children are separated from their families and held in federal custody as hostages in the US immigration dragnet -- and have been for decades. In our "Research Archives" tab, you can find the sources of information that we have found most useful in this years-long effort to understand and expose migrant child detention. You can find testimony of youth formerly detained in Chicago, testimony from former employees at Heartland facilities, investigative articles from ProPublica and Moratorium on Deportations, and more. For a comprehensive introduction to the detention of migrant children and our collective struggle against child prisons here in Chicago, see our "FAQ" tab.
Want to jump straight into a teach-in about migrant child detention? This video is a good start:
Masjid Al-Rabia Teach-In, February 2020
END DETENTION EVERYWHERE
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