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Photo courtesy of Manchester University
Manchester Peace Studies class visits with men being held in Stewart Detention Center as part of an experience with the Alterna and El Refugio communities in Georgia. |
The National Public Radio (NPR) program Latino USA interviewed participants in Manchester University’s “Peace Issues” January session class for a story broadcast Jan. 17.
“We were visiting with men being held in Stewart Detention Center as part of an experience with the Alterna and El Refugio communities,” said Katy Gray Brown, director of Peace Studies for Manchester University. Stewart, in remote Lumpkin, Ga., is the largest immigrant detention center in the United States and the site of numerous abuses documented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights organizations.
The students visited detainees in the center and met families who had come to visit relatives who are being detained. They also volunteered in hospitality programs created by neighbors of the detention center--reaching out to families, who often had traveled hundreds of miles to see their loved ones.
The experience gave Manchester students an excellent opportunity to meet those affected by immigration detention policies, said Gray Brown.
The story by Latino USA reporter Martha Dalton--“A Refuge for Detention Center Visitors”--includes an interview with Manchester senior peace studies major Katy Herder of Claremont, Calif. Dalton spoke with many of the Manchester group, Gray Brown noted.
As they traveled the South, the students discovered that the greatest civil rights sites in the United States today are Ground Zero for some the most contentious battles in immigration and immigration rights. Their class ends Jan. 23.
Listen to the story on the Latino USA website at http://latinousa.org/2014/01/17/a-refuge-for-detention-center-visitors.
-- Jeri S. Kornegay works in University Media Relations for Manchester University.
Source: 1/25/2014 Newsline
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