Our last two days in Tucson were both busy and exciting. Our sixth day—our last before our “free day”—started out at the zoo where we were approved for a field trip. Not only did we each get a seven-dollar discount off of nine-dollar admittance tickets, but we also fed the giraffes for half price.
On a more serious note, however, we also went to a court case where we met with Betzi for the last time, and met Lois, a woman who works with both Humane Borders and a similar group called No More Deaths, or No Mas Muertes. Nearly seventy undocumented migrants were condemned to a jail sentence before their deportation. The courts are able to sentence these large amounts of people by an act called Operation Streamline. The hope of the act was that, by sentencing large numbers of immigrants who crossed the border illegally to jail time, it would decrease the number who would attempt to reenter. This, however, has proven to be false, Lois told us, according to several in-depth studies. So rather than tax dollars being used effectively, they are used instead to house undocumented immigrants in private prisons, which make money for housing them. Lois also said that it has been years since she has seen these trials result in less than half a million dollars per day of tax revenue to private prisons. Because Operation Streamline is in operation five days per week, more than two and a half million dollars of taxes paid to the private prison business per week.
More upsetting than this fact is the way in which the immigrants were treated. They were called forward in groups of ten or so and, one by one, would plead guilty to the charges brought against them. Of the nearly seventy people on trial, all were found guilty. The entire process took less than two hours.
As we left the courthouse, we discussed the trial and said our goodbyes to Lois and Betzi, who’s departing words to us were, “The best way to spend your retirement is volunteering.”
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