“Thirty to 40 percent of these women came with children who had been forcibly taken away from them. None got a chance to say goodbye to their children—they were forcibly taken away. One said she was deceived, because they were in detention together. Then the CBP officers told her she was going out to…”— Pramila Jayapal, thenation.comTagged: Refugees, Spanish Speaking, chinese speaking, asylum seekers
“They came from the southern border. The majority are from Texas, those exact same checkpoints that have been written about before. But because there’s no place to keep them there, they’re being transferred around the country. Interestingly, we do have an immigration detention center in Tacoma, but t…”— Pramila Jayapal, thenation.comTagged: Refugees, Bureau of Prisons, Detainees, Employees
“Some of them said they could hear their children screaming for them in the next room. The children ranged anywhere from one to teenagers.”— Pramila Jayapal, thenation.comTagged: Refugees, asylum seekers, Screaming, Heartache
“I met with 174 women, in three different pods. I went from one pod to the next. The vast majority were Spanish speaking, but there was a group of Chinese speakers and some others. We had a Spanish interpreter. The women would all answer at once sometimes. I did a lot of ‘raise your hand’ questions.…”— Pramila Jayapal, thenation.comTagged: Refugees, Spanish Speaking, chinese speaking, asylum seekers