Critics Call Family Detention Center Harmful
A few hours after Mustafa Elmi slipped undetected across the Rio Grande in June, he was arrested by Border Patrol officers for entering the country illegally.
Within two weeks, he was transported to a Central Texas facility wrapped in a high, razor-wire fence and overseen by an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Somali Muslim was fingerprinted, photographed and issued a uniform.
Surveillance cameras eyed him. Guards timed his meals on wristwatches. He was counted, along with the others, three times a day. And if he stepped out of line, his mother was there to shush him into submission.
Mustafa is 3 years old.
LISA FALKENBERG in The Houston Chronicle.