Text: T. Don Hutto Residential Center
Family Detention Facility, Taylor, Texas

President Bush: ÒSee part of the problem is we didnÕt have a place to hold these folks, so now IÕm working with Congress to increase the number of detention centers along our boarders to make sure if we catch someone from a place other than Mexico thereÕs a place to hold Ôem. And our mission is to end catch and release once and for all on the southern boarder of the United States and we intend to do just that.Ó

Man: IÕm not sure that a lot of folks here in town understood what it really entailed.

Protesters: ÒFree the children now. Free the children now.Ó

Woman: Its hard to imagine what the government was thinking when they contracted with an adult correction facility to run a facility for children.

Man on the news: ÒIf you enter the United States illegally, you are somewhat of a criminalÓ

Woman (in Spanish): ÒMy daughter said, ÔWhy doesnÕt God love us? If God has power then why doesnÕt he come and take us out of here?ÕÓ

Woman: Do we want to be a country that has figured out how to detain families?

Text:
Clark Lyda, Film Director
v Michelle Brane, Director, WomenÕs Refugee Center ÒThe Last of TheseÓ

Clark Lyda: We had three things in mind when we made the film. The first was to explore this narrow issue of family detention, whether thatÕs really something that we as a country need to be involved it. Secondly we really wanted to explore the power of community activism and the limitations of community activism. Thirdly we wanted to make a point about the importance of transparency and oversight when the government is running facilities like this. This facility was open for 6 months before any outside party, Michelle was the first NGO allowed inside the building, and IÕm convinced now that had the activists not been involved the conditions that were occurring would still be the same and kids would still be kept in these former prison cells in uniforms and with an hour of education a day and I think Americans need to understand that regardless of where they stand on the immigration issue.

Michelle Brane: It was quite shocking to me and IÕve been in a lot of detention facilities and jails and prisons as part of my work. Seeing children locked up in what really still looked very much like a prison and who knew and felt like they were locked up in what was a prison was pretty shocking and really got to you in your gut. For me it was kind of an overwhelming feeling actually. One of the things that really struck us in our visit was that while we were on our tour, a child slipped a note into the hands of the woman who was with me and she opened it later on and the note said Òhelp us, ask us questions.Ó And that I think really threw us off, that a child would be handing us a note in a facility in the United States, something like that was really surprising.

Clark Lyda; It was important for us to reduce the impact of the political rhetoric down to its practical effects, and we were quite careful to portray the context of Hutto in the film. President Obama is purportedly about to introduce immigration reform that closely mirrors the immigration reform that George Bush introduced in 2005 and 2006 and the reason that Hutto came into being was the uproar that arose both on the right and on the left about that immigration reform and the Bush administration decided to enforce before reforming, and Hutto was the logical out come of that, you know whether you agree or disagree with it thatÕs what happened and I think its important for people to understand that this political rhetoric has real life consequences for people.

Michelle Brane: it is kind of a good American story in a sense if you want to look at it positively in that there was an action by the government that was uncovered, unfortunately it wasnÕt transparent from the beginning. But it was uncovered, there was action on the part of the public and the media and there was a response. The fact that it had to go through a lawsuit and to that extent to get there is unfortunate, but in a sense some of the issues raised have been addressed, and thatÕs great that that can happen in this country.