Clergy visits give hope to ICE detainees, but access is inconsistent
All prisoners in the United States have religious rights, undocumented or not. But human rights groups and a government inspector report concerns at various ICE detention centers, such as the right to worship being denied or disrupted.
Roberto Rauda went to a Connecticut courthouse in May to pay a fine for carrying an open container of beer. Instead he was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a routine sweep and ended up in the Bristol County House of Corrections in Massachusetts.
Rauda, 37, who is undocumented, came to New York from El Salvador as a teen and later found work in construction and at a lobster processing plant. He was released in September after members of the advocacy group Unidos Sin Fronteras paid his legal fees and $3,500 bail.
Sitting in his lawyer’s living room, Rauda grimly recalled conditions at the Massachusetts facility, such as cramped sleeping arrangements and inedible food. His face softened as he recounted how prayer helped him endure.
