Fall Soccer

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Dilley Detention Center

Here are a series of notes from my time volunteering in Dilley, TX:

I’m on my way to volunteer for a week at the South Texas Family Residential Center a/k/a “Baby Jail” per the local nonprofits. It houses 2,400 children and mothers who are seeking asylum. I will be assisting them with the asylum process, working to address family separation and medical needs, and documenting violations. My wish is to bring them hope and help!
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Dilley Detention Center prep day: Five hour training.

Some of the things we learned today:
- After arrival, the children and women are held for days in the “hielera” (icebox with freezing cement floors, foil blankets, exposed toilets, lights always on)
- Then they move to the “perrera” (dog pound, similar but with cages=worse)
- Then they move here ("baby jail")
- Their stories will make us cry all week
- We will be overwhelmed by their strength and efforts to save loved ones

I look forward to meeting them tomorrow.
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Dilley Detention Center Day 1:

7 am - 8 pm: At Baby Jail Meeting with Moms and Children
8 -10 pm: Meeting to prepare for tomorrow
Thoughts:
- Full of admiration for these strong women and the lengths to which they will go to keep their children safe.
- Nothing but love for these sweet children who are all sick and have been through so much.
- Horrified at the treatment of these traumatized souls by our government (Example: 60 sick women and children shoved into a perrera for days, not enough foil blankets for sick children, not enough space to lay down, ice cold cement floor, one thermos of water with 10 cups to be shared by 60 sick people, all while being insulted repeatedly by guards).
- So thankful for my fabulous teammate and interpreter Linda

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Dilley Detention Center, Day 2:

Dear Mothers:

I am so sorry that a gang controls your country. I am so sorry your loved ones were killed. I am so sorry that the lives of your children and families were threatened. I am so sorry that as a woman, you are viewed as a piece of property and treated like dirt. I am so sorry that you had to sell your successful business to flee. I am so sorry that you lived in fear every day and still live in fear for those left behind. I am so sorry that you had to leave the town you love so much. I am so sorry you were separated from your family members. I am so sorry that you had to make a choice about which child to take with you on such a long and harrowing journey. I am so sorry that you will probably never see those you left behind again. 

I am so sorry you were treated horribly after you arrived here.

I am so sorry that when you have to tell your story, it is so upsetting that all you can do is cry/look away/barely speak/disassociate/giggle too much. I am so sorry that I sometimes have to keep pressing you for more and more information because even though what you’ve suffered is horrendous, it is still not enough to pass your first asylum interview because of our ever-changing criteria.
I am so in awe of your resilience and your courage, how you stood up despite fearing for your life, how you managed to get your child to the safest place you could find.

I am so impressed by how you gave up everything to protect your child. You continue to work for freedom. You just want to live and work in a safe place, want your child to go to school, and be free.
You deserve all of that. Our country would be a better place with you in it.

Thank you for trusting us with your story.

With love,
Linda and Jane
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Dilley Detention Center Day 3:

Dear Brave Children:

You know terror. You know violence. You know pain. You know grief.

You are too young to know what you know.

You know a long, hard journey.

You sigh upon arrival, “Oh mama, we are going to finally be safe.” And you sleep.

You know hope.

You know love beyond measure.

With all of the hugs we were not allowed to give you,
Linda and Jane
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Dilley Detention Center Day 4:

Dear little girl who was medically evacuated today while your sobbing mother watched you fly away,

Our hearts are with you.

With hope,
Linda and Jane
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Dilley Detention Center Day 5:

Dear Jeff Sessions,

We wish you could meet our clients. These mothers and children are the most courageous people we have ever met, yet you are currently trying to change the asylum process to deny them safety and freedom.

Our biggest fear is that you will send these brave children and mothers back home, where they will, without a doubt, become victims once again of the brutally violent people who are pursuing them.

The lives of these women and children are in your hands. Please do the right thing.

We implore you,
Linda and Jane
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Dilley Detention Center: Homecoming

One of the hardest parts of the week was that after the women and children at the detention center told us their traumatic stories, we were not allowed to hug them and if they tried to hug us we were instructed to step away. It felt like adding insult to injury. We also tried our very best to not cry when they cried, despite how we felt, in order to be strong for them. Today was different.

We arrived at the San Antonio airport and after security, we saw them. A group of ten families from Dilley, women and their children, who had successful asylum officer interviews, passing the first step in their asylum cases, and were going to their new homes in the U.S. with their sponsors. They were not our clients, but they all suffered the same brutality, and would finally be safe.

Let me tell you about the beautiful thing that happened after that. We took them to lunch and gave them all of our cash. Then another person gave them all their cash. And another and another. And someone contributed $100 toward their lunch. And the restaurant gave us a discount and extra food.
Then we learned that six of the families were on our first flight. After the flight, we gathered as a group and, along with even more people who stepped up to help, brought them to their final flights which would bring them to their new homes.

And we all cried and hugged the moms and children, and they all cried and hugged us. Again and again.
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Dilley Update:

For days now, I have been searching databases for the detained Dilley families we helped prepare for their first asylum interviews, while holding my breath and simultaneously wanting to vomit, as I wait to learn their fates. If the result is negative, they are on the path to deportation to brutal violence, and if the result is positive, then they are released to their sponsors in the US for the remainder of their cases. The stakes are high. As such, I'm so thankful for the Dilley Pro Bono Project because with pro bono attorney support in helping the women articulate their claims, interviews are passed at a rate of 98%. Without it, they are less than 50%. 

During our week at Dilley, our group of volunteers prepared 321 families for interviews. Linda and I prepared 33 of those families, and of those, all have been released to their sponsors! While I am thrilled for those released families, my joy is tempered by the fact that their asylum cases may well not succeed in the end and that their families are not whole.

Family members are missing: a husband who was killed, a son still in detention, a baby they had to leave behind. My hope for all of those mothers and children is that they remember the empowerment speech Linda gave them at the end of our sessions telling them how valiente - brave and strong - they are. They were so inspiring and I truly wish they can somehow feel our collective love and support for them, and that it helps to carry them forward.