2/3/20

By Josh Rubin

Just got back. We went to the airport at Brownsville in the dark, to find four bus loads of what appeared to be very young men and women, many looking like teens, frisked in their five-point restraints, on their way to the SwiftAir plane, destined this morning for Guatemala.

My god, they looked so young! The boys came first, many more of them than the girls, who came last, female friskers taking the place of the men to do the final pat downs before the awkward climb in shackles up the steps into the door of the deportation jet. It was sickening to watch.

Still dark, they finished loading, but as the buses pulled away, one went straight to the exit, and we got in the car and followed, thinking they miscounted, and might be returning to wherever they came from. We followed, heading toward the Gulf of Mexico, tailing the bus, taking every turn it made.

Until the final turn as the sun rose, and we stopped following. Port Isabel Detention Center, Department of Homeland Security.

Not a place for children.