Monday, December 29, 2008

Jingle Bells of Justice for Some Children

After some weather delays and a re-routing of his sleigh , Santa Claus stopped in to visit children at a Texas detention site. Children detained with their families at T. Don Hutto Detention Center in South Texas received presents collected in a toy drive organized by community members, New America Media reports.

Unfortunately, the injustice of detention almost stole Christmas from the children. "We only got to deliver these toys as a result of lots of litigation and many protests" said Luissana Santibanez, an immigrant rights advocate with Grassroots Leadership and one of the toy drive organizers (New America Media). She explained that the toy delivery was allowed because of the community outcry about the horrific conditions in privately-run immigration detention centers for children and families including lack of medical treatment, food with cockroaches, and deaths.

“The fact that we’re able to bring these toys to children is a huge victory.” said Santibanez. "We can’t let them be so cruel to kids; we can’t let them hide this,” she said.

Learn more: Visit http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/ to learn how you can take action.