In a newly created video, “Hidden System,” Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) documents the impact the enforcement practices that are currently putting an undue emotional and physical hardship on families and children. The video is based on the June 19 Night of 1,000 Conversations vigil and action ICIRR held at the Broadview Detention Center near Chicago.

In the wake of expanding enforcement operations, over 100 community members and people of faith came out to protest what they saw as a system out of control. This action was just one example of how people are beginning to speak out against the conditions in which immigrant men and women are being separated from their families, locked up, and denied fair trials.

The hard question we should start asking ourselves is, “What drives a person from one society to hate another person from another society to the degree that they want to segregate them, even demoralize them?” Roberto Lovato, of Of America, writes:

Among the principal concerns to be discussed during the nationwide events are what critics say, is nothing less than a “Guantanamization” of migrant detention within the borders of the United States: death, abuse and neglect at the hands of detention facility guards (many of whom are former military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan); the prolonged and indefinite detention of thousands including children and families denied due process and other fundamental rights as they languish in filthy, overcrowded and extremely unhealthy facilities; orange-uniformed detainees sedated with psychotropic drugs, attacked by growling dogs and physically and sexually abused by guards; multi-million government contracts for prison construction and management given to high-powered, military industrial and prison industrial giants like Halliburton and the Utah-based Management and Training Corporation, whose former director set up the infamous Abu Ghraib detention facility.

It is difficult for the average American to believe all of this happening within our borders because many of us would like to believe we are courageous enough to resist unjust authority and would never abandon our core beliefs in the face of social pressures. However, the reality is, we can never predict our actions without being placed in similar situations.

Perhaps no one comprehends the roots of cruelty better than Philip Zimbardo. He is known for conducting the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, which demonstrated how, under the right circumstances, ordinary people could swiftly become amoral monsters. In his latest book, The Lucifer Effect, Zimbardo describes his own prison experiment that turned an ordinary group of young men into power-hungry “guards,” humiliating equally ordinary “prisoners” in the basement of Stanford’s psychology building.

The recipe for behavior change is not complicated. Dehumanization is the central process that changes a normal person into someone indifferent. The process clouds the mind of one’s thinking and foster the perception that “other” people are less than human. It will even drive some people to see others as enemies deserving of torment and torture.

I had the opportunity to meet with the families who were affected by the Houston raid. I have written many posts on how ICE raids have destroyed many families. While I have expressed my concerns, however, I was also grateful their problems were not mine. While I was in graduate school, I was taught it was better separate yourself from someone’s pain because it would protect you from feeling overwhelmed and helpless.

However, I have come to realize this only perpetuates a fear that if the situation were to happen to us personally, we would not be able to bear it. It was easier to keep an emotional safe distance, so we could avoid the truth of their experience. While it is natural to feel sympathy when someone is hurting, there is little sense of what to offer as meaningful support.

When I was at the meeting, I failed to find the words to comfort them. It was not until my professional detachment began to fade that I could not stop the sadness that engulfed me. To hear their stories on how ICE treated them was truly heart breaking. The underlying story is the same throughout the country. Because Congress has failed to act on reform, more than 40 states have been busy trying to crack down on undocumented immigrants, whether they are parents or minors.

I left the meeting in tears because even animals are treated more humanely. How anyone could not shed a tear hearing their traumatic stories is beyond me. Shining a light on the massive violations that took place in Postville, Iowa, this past May, Marisa Trevino of Latina Lista, writes:

The secretive and isolationist nature of how the federal government conducts deportations and immigrant detentions naturally lends itself to abuse of the system and the erosion of human rights.

The construction of modern day human zoos, such as the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, TX or the Willacy County Detention Center in Raymondville or the numerous deportation prisons throughout this country represents the collapse of a system that is not capable of making good on its promises of liberty, justice and democracy.

Under the guise of the rule of law, families are being separated as parents are pulled away from jobs, arrested, and deported. An estimated 2 million mixed families are living in fear that their breadwinner will not be home for dinner if stopped for an auto violation or found to be working without appropriate documentation.

Human ignorance in observing differences among different races has always been a burgeoning subset of other human frailties. When I left the meeting, I could not help but break down.

- they were not allowed to close the door whenever someone needed to use the restroom
- sexual harassment. women being touched in private areas in from of the men
- been told if they did not go through the voluntary deportation, the proceeding could take over a year, which would mean they are not allowed to work.
- no water was granted to them. One said when they asked for water, ICE dumped the water on the floor, saying “There is no water for you.”
- one woman fainted because she was thirsty and still no water was given to them
- before they were interviewed, they remained in a hot van with no running a/c for over an hour forced to share among 10-13 detainees one bottle water.
- when given something to drink, it was one of those frozen concentrated drink that was still unthawed.

Being at the meeting brought me to a new state of being and I have come to realize that the best gift I can give is my willingness to share their experience of a “hidden system” to others.