The population in detention is made up of criminals and non-criminals, those in detention because of the sin of trying to seek a better life along with a minority of those who have committed crimes. Jails and prisons throughout the country are filled with immigrants and refugees. Manuel lives at Casa Juan Diego. His son, eighteen years of age, has been at the county jail in Angleton for months. We hope he won't be there permanently.
Many immigrants linger in jail without legal representation.
There is simply no one to represent them, or if lawyers are available, it is very difficult , if not impossible, to communicate with them. Immigration Detainees in Jails in the United States, documents the magnitude of the problem. In one case, Emanuel Obajuluwa, an unrepresented Nigerian asylum seeker detained in Dallas County Jail, told Human Rights Watch that none of the legal assistance organizations on the list the INS had provided to him would accept his collect telephone calls, so the only way he could communicate with the organizations in order to find a lawyer was by writing a letter. But, he stated, he did not have any envelopes and stamps to write a letter since the jail would only provide two sheets of paper and one envelope once or twice a month. Although the human rights reports were given to Obajuluwa, the writing paper and envelopes he needed to write letters in search of a lawyer were confiscated by the jail.