Lifestyle
These Immigration Attorneys Can No Longer Bring Crayons to Kids
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently created a new rule for attorneys who visit the Karnes City immigration detention center in South Texas. According to Chron.com, they can no longer bring crayons along with them for children to play with.
Apparently, some kids marked on the walls and furniture of the visitor area. Instead of brainstorming another way to prevent the unwanted wall decorating from taking place, ICE determined that taking the crayons away from the kids altogether would be the easiest solution.
Why is it important that children have a way to express themselves while at the center? Six volunteer lawyers involved with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) told Chron.com, “Having children color and draw provides a distraction for children while their mothers relate incidents of trauma, violence and abuse. Other children sit outside the interview rooms and draw at the tables, so they are not forced to listen to their mothers’ harrowing narratives nor witness their mothers’ fragile emotional states during these interviews.”
According to the San Antonio Current, the lawyers say this is another in a list of “significant impediments” they’ve faced from ICE when trying to provide women seeking asylum with a comfortable experience.
An official stated that children were allowed distractions in other parts of the center, but not in the visitor’s area.
