Artesia- Days 4 & 5

Posting now at about 2am, Sunday night on Labor Day weekend. Hoping for at least 3 hours of sleep tonight because it will be a long day at the FLETC tomorrow. Yesterday, we took a "day off" to organize everything, because this operation has been in guerrilla mode for the 6 weeks of its existence, with perhaps 100 volunteer attorneys rotating in for a few days to a week or so at a time. It's chaotic, but we cleaned up, went through our 400 or so cases and made a plan for receiving the ELEVEN new volunteers starting the week of 8/31/14. Laura (our fearless leader), Meredith and new girl Danielle worked in the church for 12 hours living on tortilla chips, without sight of daylight (except for a trip to the post office to mail court filings), and finished our evening at the local IHOP, unable to find another open restaurant. It was the first day in the entire 6 week period that AILA attorneys were not at the facility. The guards told us to today they were bored without us.

It was a welcome respite, but today we were back meeting clients. Yesterday, I was able to distance myself from some of the weight of this project, but it rushed back in my first meeting with a playful 2-year old and her mom. It's impossible not to be moved by children. You smile at them instinctively. You want to protect them. But these children have been in jail for two months. Many of them don't eat. They don't like the food. They have diarrhea. Most of them have lost weight, some as much as 20% of their body weight. And above all else, these are bored little kids. They are now allowed crayons and coloring books in our waiting room, so they color for hours on end. There are few other toys. One of the moms today told me her daughter hates it. "Let's GO, Mommy! Let's get out of here!" She was amusing herself by throwing all the crayons on the floor and picking them up again, over and over. Unaccompanied minors who are caught at the border are being released from custody fairly quickly, but not so in Artesia, which is full of children that were far too little to cross on their own. It seems the idea runs that it's ok to detain these kiddos because they have their mothers with them.

One of my clients today asked me to arrange for her deportation. She was breastfeeding and said that her son will not consume anything at the facility and is sustained entirely on breast milk. He is constantly sick. She had her bond hearing and the Judge set a $20,000 bond for her and another $20,000 for the 1 1/2 year old. I'm concerned that returning to living in fear of her life in Honduras is preferable to her life in ICE custody. She cannot stay in Honduras; she is a refugee, but she will find another country to flee to next time.

Today, we welcomed Katy, a volunteer from North Carolina. She has no experience with removal defense, asylum or bond hearings, but she was willing to learn and jumped right into client meetings. This evening, no less than 4 new recruits showed up, all struggling to get a handle on things. With my 5 days on the ground, I am organizing the new recruits and they think I've been here for months. This will be an exciting week. We have 50 client meetings scheduled tomorrow, and a long list of hearings this week, including our first 3 full asylum trials in Artesia.

I've decided to extend my stay.