 Email from Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr.--gm
Afternoon Hutto champions...
My heart breaks again, like it broke when I first learned about Hutto.
For some time now, we've been fighting to expose and close Hutto, where the immigrant children have been imprisoned in 8' x 12' cells for profit... currently at the tune of about $10-15K per month.
Since we started protesting Hutto, the population has dropped significantly. Most of this year, I've been saying that Hutto is more like a symbol of darker reality. While we are justifiably focused on Hutto, innocent children are being swept up en mass all across the country during cruel ICE raids and at the border...and all the while the Hutto population is decreasing.
I keep asking myself and others where they're being taken...in conformity with the Reno vs. Flores case. Even the SAVE Act (HB 4088) asks for more Hutto like facilities. All we have to do is look at the numbers and realize that not even a few more Huttos could ever handle the thousands of children caught up in the Endgame raids.
The incredible reporting here, both in English and Spanish, confirms my deepest concerns about the immigrant children.:
La Jornada, Aug. 11
Texas Observer, Aug. 15
This information has been out there since the first of the year and I have yet to see any grassroots efforts to expose and deal with it...until Melissa's article.
We must do something about this! We WILL. A child imprisoned, maltreated or dumped on the other side of our southern borders by our government is being done by all of us...if we do not stand up to it. Chertoff, DHS and ICE are robbing America of all moral dignity when our country can cruelly commit such crimes against children with impunity.
In America...children must be free, treated with all tenderness and protected. No child should be left behind...bars!
For a America to be free...we must...
Free the Children.
Jay | 
