Report: Illegal-immigrant detainees ill-treated

posted: February 21, 2007

The nation's two family detention centers for illegal immigrants - one in Berks County, Pa. - are plagued by problems including inadequate medical care, lack of privacy, and abusive behavior by staff toward detainees, two advocacy groups alleged in a report being released today.

Of the two centers, the Berks Family Shelter Care Facility in Leesport has the more humane conditions, but even there detainees reported harassment by staff including the threat of separating parents from their children, the report said.

"Every woman we talked to in the facilities cried," said Michelle Brane, one of the authors of the report, prepared by the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children. "Many of the children were clearly sad and depressed. Some feared separation from their parents, a common threat used to ensure that children behaved according to facility rules."