Women Detained in Federal Immigrant Center Complain of Feeling Unsafe
As men are moved into a federal immigrant detention center in Pennsylvania, mothers who usually make up the majority of its residents say they feel uncomfortable and unsafe. By telephone from the Berks County Residential Center in Leesport, one detained immigrant mother repeated the word “fear” over and over. She said she was scared “that something is going to happen here,” and asked to speak anonymously, afraid of retaliation. The center, which provides lodging for immigrant families as they await deportation, typically houses primarily mothers and children who have been denied asylum, with a few fathers with children sprinkled in. It is one of three family detention centers in the country. But after 10 families who had stayed long-term at the facility were deported in May, men and their children replaced them, said Karen Hoffmann, a legal advocate for immigrants at Berks. Harvey the Hawk Rescued and in Recovery Gender ratios vary at the Berks County-run facility, which makes...