Mother Locked In Family Detention Attempts Suicide To Free Her Kids

A federal ruling says they should’ve been freed months ago.

News Story (Texas)

Roque Planas
Huffington Post
May 26, 2017
READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Tags: Asylum, Deportation

Organizations mentioned/involved: RAICES (Texas)


DETAILS

A woman locked at a family immigrant detention center tried to take her own life this month in what legal advocates described as a desperate effort to free her two kids.

Samira Hakimi, an Afghan national, has spent the last six months detained with her two young children despite a federal ruling that dictates they should have been released within three weeks. The case reinforces the longstanding concerns of immigrant rights groups that say asylum-seeking families should not be forced into prolonged detention.

“They told us you will only be a couple of days in there,” Hakimi told HuffPost. “I never thought that I would be detained here for such a long time. That I’m detained here because I’m from Afghanistan and that’s all. But I’m human.”