"Children should not be detained. Any amount of time in detention is harmful."

An interview with Julia Valero of RAICES; plus, links and book club details.

Like many, we were horrified by the stories of family separation that exploded into public view in the first half of 2018. Eager to do something, Michelle got in touch with a dear friend, Eunice Cho (now at the ACLU), who recommended that we contact the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) in San Antonio. Around the same time, a viral fundraising campaign pushed the organization into the front pages of the national newspapers. In a week and a half, the fundraising generated more than $20 million, a reflection of the broad outrage that family separation provoked.

That summer we traveled to San Antonio to volunteer with RAICES. One of our responsibilities was working at Karnes, one of the three family immigration prisons in the country. It was there that we met Julia Valero, who oversaw volunteers, coordinated client intake, dealt with unpredictable guards, and offered legal and emotional support to detained children and parents. We were blown away to se…