The ICE detention facility in Otero County: Viewed as a mental torture center

Margaret Brown and Nathan Craig from the Advocate Visitors with Immigrants in Detention, Chihuahua Desert, and NMSU, presented an examination of ICE detention centers focusing on the Otero facility. The speakers presented the torture-like conditions immigrants face in the Otero facility. Based on ethnographic data, government reports, and private prison marketing materials, researchers concluded this incarceration system is not only growing fast, but profits are their only goal. Their overall argument is that immigration detention cannot be reformed and should be abolished. The impacts on mental health are devastating. This presentation not only gave awareness and engaged the audience with questions but also motivated people to volunteer in visiting immigrants at the processing center that are desperate to talk to someone.