Reported by Marcy Martinez
KGBT 4 – TV Harlingen
A protest walk against detention centers in Bayview and Raymondville is slowly making it’s way through southern Cameron and Willacy County. It’s a small group with a big message.
John Neck is driving behind the walking protestors and plans to stay with them the entire way.
“They’re locking people up for no reason and all they want to do is work.”
Neck agrees with walk organizer Jay Johnson that illegal immigrants being held in Cameron and Willacy County detention centers should be released.
“I say let’s let them free, let’s let them work. They’re here to work . Let’s not spend thousands of dollars a month to detain them.”
Johnson and a few others started their protest walk in Brownsville Wednesday morning and will take what they consider very important steps.
The protestors will stop briefly in Los Fresnos to hold vigil in front of the International Education Services Emergency Shelter, a facility which allegedly houses displaced children who became refugees when their parents were caught crossing the border illegally.
“They have 160 kids that are in prison, they are in uniforms, they don’t have identity.”
Action 4 News spoke to local directors of the facility who said they would like to let our cameras inside, but must follow protocol mandated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement who did not return our calls for an interview.
Johnson says these children need to be reunited with their families and not punished for pursuing a better life in the United States.
He hopes his walk through the two counties will open the eyes of lawmakers as to what he calls injustices to humans.
The walk will end in Raymondville in about 5 days.
Texas Civil Rights Review 