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The Lost Children: What Do Tougher Detention Policies Mean for Illegal Immigrant Families?

The article by Margaret Talbot, which appears in the March 3 issue of the New Yorker, quotes Michelle Brané, director of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children's detention and asylum program. The article cites the investigative work of the Women's Commission into conditions at the two U.S. immigrant-detention facilities that house families, the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Texas and a smaller facility in Berks County, PA. article focuses on Majid Yourdkhani, an Iranian man who was detained with his family at Hutto. Brané, who managed to get a tour of Hutto in December 2006, describes the facility as "an incredibly punitive-feeling place. People there told us that children were being punished for normal kid stuff—running around, making noise, tantrums….I think [the people running it] thought it was a great place."

The New Yorker