Exclusive: Detained Honduran Woman, Moved to Mostly Male TX Prison After Hunger Strike, Speaks Out

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Web Exclusive, Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Prison

Image Credit: Human Rights First

At the end of October, 27 immigrant women detainees began a hunger strike, demanding an end to mistreatment and their immediate release from the T. Don Hutto detention center near Austin, Texas. Most of the women were asylum seekers from Central America, which has seen a surge in migrants fleeing violence and abuse. The hunger strike reportedly surged to as many as 125 women, even as immigration officials denied it was taking place. Then, the hunger strikers said they faced retaliation. At least two women who participated in the hunger strike were transferred from the women’s detention center near Austin to an overwhelmingly male detention center run by the GEO Group, another major private prison operator, in Pearsall, Texas, nearly 200 miles away. On Thursday, one of those two women, Amalia Leal, a Honduran asylum seeker, called Democracy Now!’s Amy Littlefield from detention. She has been detained for seven months after re-entering the United States following a prior deportation. “We came to seek refuge, and instead we found punishment,” Leal said.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCKRDUvWjxw]

To see our interview with Francisca Morales Macías, a Mexican domestic abuse survivor who was transferred along with Amalia Leal after taking part in the hunger strike, click here.

TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We turn now to the latest developments in Democracy Now!’s coverage of the Obama administration’s detention of asylum seekers in privately run prisons. At the end of October, 27 immigrant women detainees began a hunger strike, demanding an end to mistreatment and their immediate release from the T. Don Hutto detention center in Austin, Texas, which is run by the Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest private prison companies in this country.

Most of the women were asylum seekers from Central America, which has seen a surge in migrants fleeing violence and abuse. The detainees said they faced threats and unjustified surveillance as they languished in custody without hope of freedom. The hunger strike reportedly surged to as many as 125 women, even as immigration officials denied it was taking place.

Then, the hunger strikers said they faced retaliation. At least two women who participated in the hunger strike were transferred from the women’s detention center in Austin, Texas to an overwhelmingly male detention center run by the GEO Group, another major private prison operator, in Pearsall, Texas, nearly 200 miles away. On Thursday, one of the imprisoned women, Amalia Leal, called Democracy Now!’s Amy Littlefield from the Pearsall detention center, where she had been moved after taking part in the hunger strike. Leal is from Honduras. She said she has been detained for about seven months after re-entering the United States following a prior deportation.

AMY LITTLEFIELD: Amalia, where are you detained?

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