Hutto Family Detention Center draws protestors

News 8 Austin
Feb. 15, 2007

For decades, it's been a state prison on the outskirts of Taylor.

But last year, the occupants of the former prison moved out, while others moved into the T. Don Hutto Family Detention Center. But many people across the country aren't happy about that.

About 20 people demonstrated outside the Hutto center in Taylor Monday. They might have been small in number, but their message was loud.

Inside the center, close to 400 undocumented immigrants are waiting for one of two things -- to be deported, or to be granted asylum.

“It's a sad day, a dark day in the history of America, that we would have a prison for these 400 families. What is even more, very more appalling is that 260 of those 400 families are children,” Rosa Rosales, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, said.

The center is one of two like it in the country. Before it housed undocumented immigrants and their children, it was a state prison.

The former prison is now run by a private company called the Corrections Corporation of America.

According to LULAC, the company has agreed to sit down with them and discuss their concerns in the near future.