ICE bans hugging inside California’s largest detention center. Families are fighting back
In the California City facility, ‘contact visits’ are strictly forbidden – but detained residents aren’t staying quiet. Are officials listening? Teresa Reyes drove 300 miles to be with her son on his 32nd birthday in May, but she couldn’t give him a gift, share a meal with him or give him a hug. She couldn’t even touch him. Her son, Guillermo, a tattoo artist from San Jose, is locked up in the…
In California's largest detention center, immigration officials have banned physical contact between detained individuals and their family members. Teresa Reyes, 63, drove 300 miles to be with her son in the California City facility, but was barred from hugging or touching him. Her son, Guillermo, is locked up in the center, which houses about 1,600 people, and can only interact with his mother through a glass barrier.
Families are now resorting to phone conversations instead of face-to-face visits, with the total denial of contact visits being seen as an extreme restriction, particularly for a long-term facility housing people accused of immigration violations. Allen Tayson, 37, a father of two, echoed similar sentiments, stating that the inability to hug his family makes their detention experience feel more like a prison.
Advocates are working to bring awareness to this issue, arguing that the lack of access to visitation is a growing human rights crisis across the US.
Written by urgent.news from The Guardian US's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
