Professional Documents
Culture Documents
HEARD 1
Jacky Walldez
Abstract
This paper provides a brief discussion on how undocumented immigrants should be able to live
freely among everyone else. This paper will show the dehumanizing living conditions in
detention centers and why these people should not be locked away.
A mother crying painful tears as the memories of her children cloud her thoughts. In a
crowded detention center, the woman desperately needs to know that her family will be okay,
“From then on, I didn't know anything more about my children,” the woman writes, “I asked
them for a minute to speak with my husband and they didn't let me” (Grinberg 2018). Accounts
like this happen countless time in detention centers. There are accounts of not only women, but
men, children and even infants being treated so poorly, it is dehumanizing. Immigration has been
a rising issue in America especially with the current administration. Hernández (2008) discusses
factual statistics of detainee rates during the years. His study concludes that detained individuals
tripled in the 1990s and since “increasing… to over 275,000 annually.” This number is very
concerning for me. This number represents so many families being split up, so many people
suffering, so many tears falling. Undocumented families and individuals belong among us, not in
talks about how these individuals get “treatments that you might see in a Third World country.”
Hernández discusses how an ICE members were sued due to their “delays in medical treatment
that allowed a cancer to spread to his [a detainee’s] penis, resulting in amputation.” This is an act
of ignorance all around. It is dehumanizing and painful to even think of the pain these
individuals had and have to go though. Their voice needs to be heard. López, the author of In
Rampant Abuses in Immigration Detention Prove ICE Is Rotten to the Core, goes on to report
how these detention centers are “notoriously known as “hieleras,” or iceboxes, because of the
frigid temperatures inside of the cells.” Detainees suffer from freezing temperatures and guards
are unfazed by the suffering. They also suffer from prolonged detention, which is also
dehumanizing. I can't imagine getting my hopes up about finally coming home, only to be told ill
A VOICE THAT NEEDS TO BE HEARD 4
be staying another month in detention. In The Increased Use of Detention as Part of U.S.
Immigration Enforcement Violates Human Rights, the author discusses the diversity that
detention centers have. They mentions that the centers hold “asylum seekers, torture survivors,
victims of human trafficking, the parents of US citizen children.” These people all have
something in common; they are not criminals. They all have gone through some form of
suffering and are stopped and detained to only go through more pain and suffering. These people
should not be detained! They should be with their family getting the support and love they
` Many could argue that undocumented individuals deserve these treatments because they
are cheating the system, therefore should not be part of this country. However I will argue
describes how one would look and be handled if they were a detainee:
“Living conditions are difficult at detention centers. You will likely be transported
personal belongings will be taken away from you, and you will be assigned a
specific bed. The guards will then refer to you based on the number of your bed or
This to me sounds very much like the prison system. These people aren't given rights like
Americans, yet are treated like citizen criminals. The same, if not worse consequences are given
to undocumented individuals than to regular American citizens. Yet these individuals are not
allowed to do something simple like getting a driver's license. Something needs to get done
With all things said, undocumented immigrants should not be locked up in detention
centers. They should be able to roam freely with their families and be given the chance to also
pursue the American Dream. They should be given some rights that allow them to live like
normal humans, not in constant fear of being locked up or sent away. That type of lifestyle is not
calling living but rather survival. These people should be given an opportunity to live not simply
survive.
References
A VOICE THAT NEEDS TO BE HEARD 6
Grinberg, E. (2018, July 04). 'They treated us as though we were animals': Letters from inside an
center-letters-grassroots-leadership/index.html
Hernández, D. M. (2008, April 21). Pursuant to Deportation: Latinos and Immigrant Detention.
San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from Jailed Without Justice: Immigration
Detention in the USA, 2009, New York, NY: Amnesty International) Retrieved from
http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/apps/doc/EJ3010362254/OVIC?u=asuniv&sid=O
VIC&xid=02350c48
López, V. (2019, March 04). Rampant Abuses in Immigration Detention Prove ICE Is
abuses-immigration-detention-prove-ice-rotten-core
detention-centers.html
A VOICE THAT NEEDS TO BE HEARD 7