Thread by @mlereese

**I am going to share a REALLY long thread** Pasting from the original posting on FB. It’s a powerful, firsthand acct from an attorney who was helping with the asylum and immigrant crisis happening at the southern border. Bear with me, here. Also, plz RT. 💙Emily

1) **Feel free to share this. My friend, Kim Jennings Martin, has a close attorney friend who just got done volunteering at the border detention facilities with the crisis that immigrants and asylum seekers are facing...because of this racist and hateful administration’s...

2) ...new policies of treatment, enacted by Sessions in April. It is a firsthand account and is credible. *It is also VERY disturbing, so read with that in mind.* Lastly, keep in mind that this isn’t about a Republican or Democrat thing in general (IMO); this is about stopping...

3) ...the cruelty of this administration’s monstrous policies toward people. The picture attached is of me, not my friend Kim or her attorney friend. Help these families stay together, get justice, and be served under the Constitution and laws with kindness and human decency.**

4) Kim: “This is a post from my dear friend who just spent a week in Texas volunteering her legal services at an immigrant detention facility. I don’t know how she did it, but I am grateful she has the expertise and heart to. If you read this and even begin to think “well they

5) shouldn’t have come to this country, they deserve it, the facilities aren’t that bad...” I can only say to you that I hope you are given a gentle nudge in this life that opens your eyes, heart and soul, for with your narrow view you are missing out on great people and...

6) ...opportunities to grow yourself. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know for a fact that NO ONE should be treated this way. I would do anything to assure my children’s safety, and this treatment would be hard to endure.
It’s disgusting.
We are failing.

7) Remember, this is a first hand account of the situation.

Firsthand Account: I am home but my heart stays with the families I left behind and the frontline attorneys and volunteers who continue to serve them day after day. I still haven’t had the presence of mind to...

8) sit down and write about my experience, but as I sat on the plane I read the journal entry of another attorney at a different detention center. She expresses very eloquently what these families have been through, so I will share it with you. (I was originally going to work...

9) with this population of detainees but the week before we got there they got transferred -in the middle of the night- to Dilley. My facility now hosts reunited men and their sons). The experience remains the same.

Written by Pamela Woldol
Day 6 – Dilley Detention Center

10) THE ICE BOX AND THE DOG CAGE

As we began to wind up our volunteer work at Dilley, we pondered whether the best way to fire the enthusiasm of potential volunteers was to warm their hearts with an inspirational success story or to chill them with some appalling...

11) true-life horror story revealing how the land of the free actually regards the human condition. That choice vanished when we learned first hand about America’s sadistic concentration camps – the Ice Box and the Dog Cage. What happens at these hellholes rivals the worst of the

12) Nazi stalags in World War II—and our country still sponsors and supports them.

Although spartan, the Southern Texas Family Residential Center – Dilley -- is clean, generally well-maintained, and the CoreCivic staff behave professionally. Given Dilley’s mission in the whole

13) immigration scenario, its activities of daily living do not spark outrage. Indeed, they may even spark hope, because Dilley is an important waypoint on the journey toward asylum. If a refugee earns a positivo on her credible fear interview (CFI) at Dilley, she (and her kids,

14) if any) are moved out of Dilley toward a modicum of freedom in the US (albeit with an ankle bracelet or a hefty bond to insure they attend subsequent proceedings in Immigration Court) to await further proceedings.

Horrors Revealed

But Dilley is only the second step in a

15) refugee’s journey; assignment to Dilley follows the days apprehended refugees first spend in the hands of the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). We learned about those days during a CFI prep session. When we meet and get introduced to, Graciela, 4, and her mother Maria (not

16) their real names), they are noticeably and notably tense. Although now dressed in clean, colorful government-issue tee shirts, both are taut and wary, both eager for help and cautious about accepting it. Graciela is trembling during our prep session, clinging to her mother in

17) a way that suggests the need for both warmth and security.

“She’s a little sick,” says Maria.

Welcome to the Ice Box

“It’s from when we were taken at the border (by Customs and Border Patrol, CBP) to a holding facility. First, all your own possessions are taken away.

18) Then you are told to take a shower. Then we were taken to a cement room with no windows. The room was ice cold. It was freezing. It was very freezing. Mucho frio. Everybody calls it the ice box. There were no beds or blankets. We just got a little piece of nylon to try to...

19) cover ourselves. We all trembled, and my daughter’s lips were blue the whole time. No one slept, but to make sure no one got any rest, the lady guard would come in twice a night and make us get up in a line. If anyone was slow, she would kick them in the calves and ankles...

20) with big sharp boots. All our eyes were red from no sleep. We all just huddled together to try to stay a little warm.

“We got a little food twice a day, “she continued. “They only gave us two things. One was ramen noodles. The other was frozen ham sandwiches. They had a...

21) piece of spam and a little bit of wilted lettuce in between a couple of pieces of white bread. They were frozen solid. You could not eat them until they thawed out a little bit.”

“The guards kept pressuring us to accept immediate deportation. Graciela and I were there two...

22) days, and because we said no to deportation, we were taken to the Dog Cage.”

Going to the Dogs

Maria describes how she and her daughter were moved to a chain link cage located inside another building. About thirty other women and children were in the small area.

23) “Everyone was lying down,” Maria says softly. “This place smelled bad, very bad.”

The guard ordered all of them to lie down and stay down. The mothers and all the children, too. No matter what their age, if a child sat up or stood up, or if they wiggled or if they cried,

24) the guard yelled at them to lie back down and be still. They only were allowed to sit up for a half hour, twice a day. So, they had to lie down flat for 23 hours per day, with two 30-minute breaks for eating and using the bathroom.

The other 23 hours, they had to remain...

25) lying down together, all pressed together like sardines in a can. “Many women and children could not hold their bladder that long and wet themselves. How can you tell a little child not to pee for twelve hours? The urine ran across the floor among us. We were cold, wet...

26) and ashamed.”

“A female guard walked by with an armful of shiny blankets. ‘These were supposedly meant for you,’ she said, ‘but I’m not going to give them to you. You should go back to your own country. You don’t deserve to be warm.’”

Although the scenery had changed, the

27) diet had not: ramen noodles and frozen ham sandwiches.

Many mothers tried to break off pieces of food and secret them in their clothing, hoping to be able to give their children a small snack during the long stretches between ”meals.” It didn’t work: the women were...

28) frequently frisked, and when contraband was detected, it was put on a table just outside the Dog Cage, a temptation in plain sight but always out of reach. It was left to rot, a tease to remind the women that they have no rights and are completely under the guards’ control.

29) Mothers with howling infants would call out for milk, which usually would take between one and two hours to arrive. During that time, the babies would continue to cry, continue to protest as only babies can. Mothers who tried to breast feed their tiny infants were told to...

30) stop and cover their breasts.

The Land Without Time

There were no windows in the Dog Cage, and the lights remained on 24 hours a day. When a woman would ask what time it was, she was told, “There is no time in here. You can keep asking but no one will tell you.”

31) One client figured out that the bathroom cleaning crew arrived each morning, so she counted the number of times that they had come during her stay. She and her daughter were in the Dog Cage for four bathroom cleaning cycles.

A World of Animals

32) At the Dog Cage, verbal insults run thick and dirty from the CBP guards. “You are pigs!” they often shout. “You are filthy pigs! You do not deserve to be here! Go home! Go home to the filthy little countries you came from!” One refugee told us how one particularly sadistic...

33) female guard loved to bait them. “Why don’t you come outside to eat?” she would say. When a woman had been removed from the Dog Cage, the guard would dump her food in the dust. “There! Eat off the ground! That’s what animals do, they eat off the ground. You’re just an animal,

34) so you can eat off the ground, too.”

As our week at Dilley wore on and we inspired greater trust, woman after woman told us, “We don’t even treat our animals the way the guards treated us.”

Yes, It’s SOP

These stories do not depict isolated events or individual guards who

35) are particularly vicious outliers. They depict SOP – standard operating procedure – for what is supposed to be the greatest and most generous country on earth They paint a picture of daily life at the border, a template for humiliation at the start of a long, humiliating...

36) immigration process.

Catch 22: Even If You Win, You Lose

We volunteers got some good news at Dilley. Once refugees had been carefully prepared for their CFI hearings, over 95% were receiving positive results – meaning their fears of future persecution if they returned home

37) were deemed credible enough to let them pass into the US and continue on with the lengthy asylum process. The next step was a series of hearings before Immigration Judges in the US.

How many asylum applicants prevail at this level? At the moment, the DENIAL rates for...

38) refugees from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are all above 75%. And the US attorney general is very upset that the positive rate is so high. He has been taking away cases from judges with a reputation for being too sympathetic and assigning sterner judges. He is trying

39) to change the definition of persecution so that fewer refugees will qualify for asylum.

These tales reflect both a pointless immigration policy and a monstrous political attitude. Here at Dilley, we listen to scores of stories like this and hang our heads in shame. Here...

40) America’s promise to stand tall in the world as the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free rings hollow and shallow. Here, our nation’s feet are shown to be made of clay as dark and as dry as the dust in some distant arroyo in Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala. Earlier in...

41) our week at Dilley, we struggled to keep the tears from welling up in our eyes in front of our clients telling us their horror stories.
After a week at Dilley, we don’t even try anymore. We let the tears come.
And so our final message to you from Dilley: Please, please help.”

42) **Whew!** That is the end of this thread. It was long and I appreciate you reading it. In a world where news cycles and gobbledegook overshadow these kids and families, we must keep them in the forefront. Plz share w your representatives and followers. Thx! 💙Emily Reese

*It was brought to my attn that the attorney who originated this piece had her name spelled wrong in the original post. It is “Woldow.” Am hoping to tag her here once we solidify contact. Thx for your patience.

I have been in contact with the attorney who originally wrote this. You can find her at @pwoldow on Twitter. Will share more in a comment under the end of this thread. Well done, Pamela Woldow!

*Important Update* I was able to get in contact with the attorney who is the originator of this piece. Her name is Pamela Woldow and you can find her Twitter page @pwoldow. Thank you, Pamela, for using your time and talents to help others who need it. #Patriot

*One Last Update* I am following @pwoldow on FB now, and I have found all 6 of her AMAZING accounts of her experience at the detention center where she worked. I am screen shotting the novellas to share easier. Plz follow my next Tweet with them all & follow her 4sure. #Patriot

*Day 1*

*Day 2*

*Day 3*

*Day 4*

*Day 4* continued

*Day 5*

*Day 5* continued

*Day 6* (Same as I shared in this thread but through images instead. God this was so much easier this way.)

*Day 6* continued