LUMPKIN, GA - An asylum-seeking immigration detainee held in a south Georgia prison said he hasn’t seen his 7-year-old son in over a month. He’s been held in the state’s largest facility for immigrant detainees, south of Columbus.
"I asked for asylum," said "Arturo," who declined to give his real name for fear of reprisal from the government. "They treated me very badly."
Arturo said he is 27-years-old, from Honduras with a wife and two young children.
On May 5th, he and his 7-year-old son left their home in Honduras. He said it took him 12 days to get to Reynoso, a Rio Grande town in Mexico. He brought his son because of the turmoil in his home.
"I brought him because there is a lot of violence over there, threats – life threats and also because of drugs. I want him to be able to come here go to a school and have a better life."
On May 17, Arturo said they crossed onto the bridge approaching Hidalgo, Texas and reached an immigration checkpoint.
"They told me I was a criminal and I had no rights," Arturo said, speaking of US immigration agents in Hidalgo. "I have not (ever) been arrested for any crimes, not even small ones."
They took him to Stewart, the sprawling, privately run, for-profit prison south of Columbus. It sits just outside Lumpkin, a small town with a courthouse surrounded by mostly empty storefronts.
Attorney Michelle Lapointe said immigrants like Arturo are starting to swell the population of the Stewart facility. She spoke to 11Alive as she entered the facility to interview new detainees.
"They’re trying to protect their children. That’s why they’re here and instead of getting that protection, instead of getting access to the rights they should have under U.S. and international law, the children are being ripped away from them," Lapointe said.
LaPointe is part of a team of attorneys now based in Lumpkin providing free legal help to the adults detained at Stewart.
"Many of them, affirmatively seeking asylum," she said.
She added that she has no idea how President Donald Trump's order stopping the border separations will impact families already detained.
Arturo said the ordeal had broken him.
"I am destroyed," he said. "I think it is inhumane what they are doing to children."
Arturo said he had hoped to win his asylum case and enroll his son in an American school. Instead, he now has no idea when or if the government will return the child to his father.
