central america
August 3, 2018 -
Thirty years ago, the Institute for Southern Studies published a special issue of Southern Exposure magazine on the human rights crisis along the U.S. border with Mexico. Here we reprint "Valley So Low," about how asylum seekers from civil war-ravaged Central America were being arrested and held in immigrant detention centers in Texas — a story that sheds light on U.S. immigration policy today.
September 2, 2016 -
The same day a high-profile undocumented student who was recently released on bond from a private detention center in Georgia detailed his experience at a press conference, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would review whether to follow the lead of the Justice Department and cut ties with private prison contractors.
June 17, 2016 -
I recently had the opportunity to go to Washington to advocate for Central American youth who have been detained in Georgia. Their stories helped me understand the larger issue at hand: Black and Brown youth across the South are being criminalized.
March 24, 2016 -
Supporters of Wildin Guillen Acosta, a 19-year-old teen from Honduras who was detained by immigration officials in Durham, North Carolina, won a temporary stay of deportation after a month-long fight involving his family, friends, teachers and local congressman.
April 10, 2015 -
Immigrant mothers held at a private family detention center in Karnes City, Texas went on five-day hunger strike last week to press for their and their children's release -- and they say they will renew the strike if their demands are not met soon.
March 13, 2015 -
After a protracted political fight over immigration policy, Congress recently passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The final bill doesn't repeal the president's recent deportation relief programs, but it appropriates billions of dollars for draconian immigration enforcement.
February 19, 2015 -
Though its immigrant deportation relief efforts have been put on hold, the Obama administration continues to carry out its policy of detaining Central American immigrant children and families apprehended at the border. Attorneys for the detainees recently took legal action to address harsh conditions at the government's privately-managed family detention centers.
