Native Lampod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reason Choice Media. This country has its own history with internment camps, thinking about Japanese internment, and as we sit here in Black History Month, we are witnessing people who are black, who are brown, who are Asian, who are also white, who are being held in modern day internment camps.
And so I want to.
If we can andrew pivot to this recent pro public apiece where there were letters shared from young people who are currently detained by ICE. There's one where we can actually hear the words from the young lady herself, a fourteen year old Venezuelan girl, and I also hope that we would also read the letters. The link is over here in the chat if you guys need to see to pick a letter to read.
But I think we should read letters.
And then maybe we can end with Arianna in with Arianna's letter, and then.
Absolutely we can get to CTAs. So I guess I can start.
I'm going to read a letter from a nine year old Susie. Sorry susage, susage, Sorry I don't know how to pronounce. This is s us e j F, a nine year old from Venezuela who's living in Houston, Texas, detained for fifty days, and this is her letter.
Hello.
My name Miss susage F is what it says. I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing, and I am nine years old. I am from Venezuela. I have been fifty days in Delli Immigration Processing Center and I want to go to my country, but I missed my school and my friends. I feel bad since when I came here to this place because I have been here too long. I have been two years and six months in United States, and I was happy with my friends in the school, but now I need to leave. I miss my family and
my country. So now I want to go to Venezuela, but my mom do not want to leave because she wants a better future for me. Seeing how people like me immigrants are being treated, changes my perspective about the US. My mom and I came to the US looking for a good and safe place to live, and my mom was looking for a good job.
I can read Gabby MM, if you'd like me to please, oh. I my name is Gabby MM. I'm fourteen years old from Colombia, Colombia. I've been detained in Dalli Immigration Processing Center for twenty days, and I haven't been getting the right education due to being in here. I haven't been able to see my family and friends since I got here. I started to feel so sad. Also, I haven't felt happy since I got here. The officers have a bad manner of speaking to residents when they are asking anything.
The workers treat the residents unhumanly verbally, and I don't want to imagine how they would act if they were unsupervised. I really want to go home. I don't care if I have to go to Katie or Columbia because in both places I have a home. In school, I get bored a lot and I don't know what to do. I made friends here and they told me how how long they've been here for seven months, and I get really surprised because I can't imagine how bad and sad
and stressed being here. I want to tell you guys how I feel, and it's hell, Like I really want to go. The food is bad. I'm tired of almost the same thing. I feel so much sadness and depression of not being able to leave. It's really sad to hear that people's cases are being denied and getting sinned back to their countries. Gabby MM is a fourteen year old from Colombia who was living in Houston, Texas, detained for twenty days.
I'll read this one from a young girl named Mia. It's rett it's Spanish. I'll read it piece by piece and just quickly translate it. She wrote, Mia Valentina pasvaria yoso de Venezuelao dengos. So her name is Mia. She's been living in the US for three years and she's only seven years old. Uh thngo set alua ko raqui keo ameguelaelos. She said she's been in detention for seventy days. She doesn't want to be there anymore. She said she
misses her grandparents xos a misamegos aquiuela. She said she misses her school, she misses her friends, and she doesn't like the foodikio the aquio amisteos esperos. She just keeps repeating, I don't want to be here anymore. I miss my uncles and I hope that I can leave soon. And she drove. She drew a picture excuse me, of herself, her mother and her sister.
Hmm, you know, just for the benefit of our listeners. This is a part of a great reporting work done by Pro pro Publica.
The reporter here.
Was Mika Rosenberg, and she visiting this facility, asked the detainees if if their children would be willing to either write letters or indoor draw pictures depicting what their experiences had been there at Delhi. And what you heard from my co hosts were a few of the reflections we obviously for you all on the listening side. Couldn't see the images of the pictures that were drawn, but we
will include them in the show notes. A link to the Pro Publica article and you can go back and have a look at the letters that are that are that are held there and and and the pictures that they have drawn.
Andrew can can we listen to the letter from.
I just going to say well, end with Ariana's well in with the contribution, as Angela just indicated from Ariana.
Hello, my name is Ariana Vie. I'm fourteen years old and I'm from Monduas. I've been detained for forty five days and I have never felt so much fear to go to a place as I feel here. Every time I remind myself that once I go back to hondudas a lot of dangerous things could happen to my mom and I. My younger siblings haven't been able to see their mom in more than a month. They're very young and you need both of your parents when you're growing up. Since I got to the center, all you will feel
is sadness and mostly depression. When people have their court, the longest they will last is fifteen minutes. Our rights are not being provided. A rest are happening when people don't even have any type of arrest order. A rest are happening illegally. It's sad to hear that people's cads are being denied and are getting sent back to their country places where they're escaping from and are looking for
protection and want to feel safe. Not a lot of people know what is happening in the centers where immigrants are placed that I haven't been getting any school time either or the other kids in here. Every single person in here had their jobs, they have their lives. They are any danger for this country. I've been in this country for almost seven years, and in those seven years, my mom and I found a home and made a
bigger family. I have never been separated from my siblings, and it's honestly sad because they're little and they knew their mom and their sister. Yeah, they're with their dad, but it's still different for them and my mom and I. Since the day my mom and I got detained in Manhattan, New York, my life was instantly paused. From my knowledge, you can't be on the custody for more than fifteen
or twenty days. Well, here in daily Immigration Processing center, people have been in this place for seven five months. For the two months, it's not fair that the ice officers are not following the laws. All kids are being damaged mentally. They witness how their parents and other people are being treated. They don't have schools or doctors. All
they have are nurses. If you need medical attention, the longest you have to wait is three hours, But to get any medicine pilled or anything, it takes a while. There are various viruses in here. People are always sick. Serious situations happen and the officers can't take them serious enough. There are no consequences. They don't even care.
Jesus for those of us who are out there thinking, you know this, you know, why does this matter? And why does it matter to me? You certainly know, at least ought to know that if they could do, if you could, if we can witness this for any group of people in this country. It's proven, it's been shown that those harms can and likely will be visited upon us right this. This country does have a history of internment.
It's done it before, it is doing it again. We also have a history of enslavement and discrimination and racism and.
So much more.
More importantly, I think the democracies like the United States of America, which you used to stand as a beacon, has laws asylum laws included, which make way for these kinds of people to make their way to the country and to be able to establish a life that doesn't take anything from us, but does extend the opportunity for them. And that's all being snuffed out right before our eyes.
So I hope folks will check out the article pro Publica and thank you from us here at Native Lampid to the folks at Pro Publica for the really incredible work that you all do on this subject and so many others. Native Lampid is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reisent Choice media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.