For the second time this month, Seattle Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal visited immigrants being detained in a federal prison in SeaTac. Inside, Jayapal talked to 26 male detainees, almost all of whom are seeking asylum, she said.
Jayapal asked the detainees whether they believe the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy will deter other immigrants from coming to the United States.
“They all said absolutely not,” Jayapal said in a video statement posted after her visit. “They said the conditions that we are fleeing are so horrible, so hopeless, we fear for our lives, so we will continue to do whatever we can.”
Jayapal first visited the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac earlier this month, shortly after a group of immigrants, mostly women, were transferred there from the southern border. After that visit, Jayapal relayed stories from the women, including some who were not given the chance to say goodbye to their children and did not know where their children were being held.
Under its “zero-tolerance” policy, the Trump Administration has separated more than 2,300 immigrant children from their parents. Last week, the president signed an executive order to stop the separations, but that order will not stop the “zero-tolerance” policy. Instead, families will be detained together. It is not clear how children already separated from their parents will be reunited.
In order to detain more immigrants under the policy, Immigration and Customs Enforcement began transferring inmates to federal prisons, including the facility in SeaTac. According to Jayapal, 206 total inmates were transferred to SeaTac. On her first visit, she met with 174 women. This time, she met with 26 men. Another six men had recently been transferred to another facility.
“These men broke down,” Jayapal said. “They broke down with tears. It was just as emotional [as visiting the women]… You keep hearing about these scary criminal men who are crossing the border. You’re made to think that all these people are doing harm, and that is just not the story.”
Jayapal said the men she met in the SeaTac prison were “seeking to escape violence, persecution, and had seen terrible, terrible things.”
According to Jayapal, one detainee fled Honduras after Honduran police attacked him with a machete when he refused to turn over account information from the bank where he worked. Another saw his 14-year-old sister raped while police did not intervene. Another said Border Patrol agents stopped him and his 3-year-old child from entering a legal port of entry into the United States. (A Border Patrol spokesperson declined to comment without further information about the man.)
Jayapal also visited some of the women at the SeaTac facility for a second time. Many are seeking asylum but have not yet had credible fear hearings, Jayapal said.
Jayapal has become a leading critic of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. On Saturday, she called for expedited credible fear proceedings, the reunification of families, and allowing immigrants seeking asylum to stay with family in the United States instead of being detained. She and other activists are planning a march in Washington, D.C., on June 30 with affiliated events across the country.
