A 19-year-old immigrant at a family detention facility is reported to have attempted to commit suicide after being told she was being denied parole and asylum. She was staying in the Karnes City, Texas, facility which was opened last year after a flood of unaccompanied minors and families crossed the border illegally. Another facility in Dilley, Texas, also had to be opened.
This comes almost a year to the day after Breitbart Texas released leaked internal federal government photos showing the conditions of foreign children being warehoused in border security and processing facilities after they had been overrun by the influx of unaccompanied minors.
President Barack Obama has been accused of encouraging the flood of women and children to take the dangerous journey over the border by his illegal executive amnesty actions.
Breitbart News reported that U.S. Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) accused the President of using his immigration policies in an attempt to “turn Texas blue” and potentially “turn America blue.”
Gohmert, the vice chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, said “If you bring in hundreds of thousands or millions of people and give them the ability to vote,” and you “tell them if you want to keep getting the benefits you have to go vote,” “it would ensure republicans will never get elected again.”
Lilian Yamileth and her 4-year-old son journeyed from Honduras and crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally and she has been detained since last October.
According to the Huffington Post, Yamileth claims she will face severe abuse and rape from her son’s father. She told an asylum officer that her former partner said he would kill her if she was deported to Honduras. She also alleges that she was raped by three men and went to law enforcement but they did nothing.
Her attorney told the publication that another mother in detention called RAICES, an immigration advocacy group, and reported that Yamileth was found in a bathroom after a suicide attempt.
An ICE spokesman told the Huffington Post that “the minor injury was not life-threatening, but that the help of specialized mental health care providers was appropriate.”
In February, the young woman was denied asylum, and in mid-May, her appeal was denied.
Yamileth had also asked to be paroled so that she and her son could leave the detention center while her case was being decided but this was denied in March.
In April, Yamileth and a group of about 10 mothers at the Karnes City facility were reported to have threatened a hunger strike in an effort to obtain the release of women pursing asylum claims.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Adelina Pruneda told the Associated Press last Fall that “ICE’s family residential centers are an effective option to maintain family units as they await the outcome of immigration hearings or return to their home countries.” She continued, “ICE ensures that family detention facilities operate in an open environment that includes play rooms, social workers, medical care, and classrooms with state-certified teachers and bilingual teachers.”
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2
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