Immigration's net binds children too

TAYLOR, TEXAS — Khadijah Bessuges is confined by metal gates and razor wire. She wears a uniform. She sleeps in an 8-by-15 cell, and stands by her cot four times a day when the guards count heads. She has only two pairs of panties. Her favorite teddy bear was confiscated. But she has her father, Sebastien, who sleeps in the cell with her.

Khadijah is 9 years old.

She is one of 208 children being held with their parents at the T. Don Hutto family detention center, the Department of Homeland Security's answer to the problem of families caught living in or entering the country illegally.

"It's not a good place for people," Khadijah said in a recent telephone interview. "People here get sad, and they don't want to be here. They want to be with their families."

Hutto, which opened in May 2006, is a pillar of the Bush administration's effort to crack down on illegal immigrants and detain them until their appeals can be heard. It holds detainees who cannot easily be sent home, as Mexicans can. Hutto has families from 29 countries, most from South America.

The center is touted by the Homeland Security Department as a major achievement, and may be a model for future facilities. Hutto also illustrates the administration's bind as its pursuit of border security collides with the reality that many illegal immigrants are minors.

On Friday, a majority of Hutto's 383 inmates were children.

Immigrant advocates and human rights groups ask why Khadijah and the others are jailed for their parents' actions.

"Children being in jail with their parents is what is morally and ethically wrong with this picture," said attorney Frances Valdez of the University of Texas Immigration Law Clinic, who has clients at Hutto.

A former prison northeast of Austin, Hutto is run by a for-profit company with a controversial record. And though the facility is meant for detention measured in days, many immigrants are detained for months.

The average stay is about 55 days for asylum seekers, 40 for others, officials said.

The longest any family has stayed is 205 days. At Immigration and Customs Enforcement's other family facility, in Pennsylvania, the average stay is 59 days, activists say.

Attorneys say children at Hutto lose weight because of substandard food and suffer from untreated medical problems. Adults and children are given an hour of recreation a day, and chances to venture outdoors are rare.