Dear Editor
Worse of the worst. Vicious murderers. Violent criminals. Monsters. Pedophiles. Sex traffickers. These are the people that Donald Trump and his Republican allies promised, over and over again, to rid the country of.
So, where are they finding these so-called monsters that ICE is grabbing?
In farm fields picking tomatoes. Washing dishes in restaurants. Working in car washes, construction sites, factories, and waiting in Home Depot parking lots, hoping to find work. Many were grabbed at traffic stops where ICE smashed their car windows, even if children were inside. Many were waiting in line outside courtrooms and other offices to renew work permits, visas, and other documents.
Overnight, they were thrust into hastily built detention centers — many with substandard facilities and sometimes sleeping on concrete floors. Some were sent to CECOT, a prison in El Salvador, which has been called the most brutal prison in the world.
One man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was mistakenly taken there and described his experience: “We were forced to kneel on a concrete floor all night. If someone fell over from exhaustion, he was beaten with batons, punched, and kicked in the head. Some gangs were having fights with no one stopping them. Many prisoners had broken limbs and other injuries.”
In this country, a Human Rights Watch group reported that detainees were herded onto buses, shackled by both hands and feet, for up to 10 hours without food or water, and taken to Alligator Alcatraz, deep in the Florida Everglades. Once in the camp, they were put in cage-like, overcrowded cells and subjected to bright fluorescent lights 24 hours a day, making it difficult to sleep. Sinks and toilets were not working. There were high temperatures, worms in the food, and swarms of huge mosquitoes that may have carried diseases.
NBC News toured detention facilities across the nation and reported many credible instances of mistreatment, both physical and sexual abuse, of women and children. One pregnant woman was left alone in a hospital room to miscarry without food and water for 24 hours. Sometimes, mothers and children were parted and had to sleep on concrete floors. One woman said it was hard to sleep at night because so many women were crying for their children.
A worker at one of the centers said, “They have been pulled from their families and livelihoods. They’re scared, and they don’t speak our language.”
The great majority of these people have no criminal records. Some have minor offenses, such as traffic tickets. They have been denied due process under the Constitution, which they are entitled to regardless of their legal status. The abuse of these helpless victims is surely more criminal than illegally crossing the border.
Marilyn Ooms
Perryville
