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WITNESS JOSHUA RUBIN reports-Despite the consensus that detention in a place like Homestead prison for refugee children does lasting damage, & the longer the stay, the worse the damage is, there are those who advocate for extending those stays, and making it worse.1/9 
We can, & will someday, discuss the psychology that leads people down such a path, repeating abominable behavior perhaps in an effort to make it more normal, unconsciously hoping for another outcome.
But our task is more urgent, and our concern must focus on the victims...2/9
But our task is more urgent, and our concern must focus on the victims...2/9
...who R now arriving in full buses from airport, kids who join ranks of other refugees in Homestead. But among victims we must remember, R people employed here. In my months at gates of prison camp at Tornillo, Texas, I had a chance 2 speak with people who had worked there.3/9
They told me about prohibition against speaking to kids about their ordeals. They were told never 2 listen 2 their unhappiness-that was not allowed. Same rule applies at Homestead. I heard about what happened 2 an employee the day that he could not shut out what...4/9
... one child had told him & others about the journey that had brought him there, about the devastation he was feeling without his family, about despair. The employee heard it, & he was not able to unhear it.
Shortly after, he lost his job there, & struggled with his life.5/9
Shortly after, he lost his job there, & struggled with his life.5/9
He sought help. He was told that what he suffered from was PTSD. Outside gates of Homestead we watch employees go in 4 their shifts, & come out after their long days w/refugee kids. Many tell us the kids R happy 2 B here despite fact that psychologists who have visited...6/9
...tell us something else, something much sadder & more horrifying about what these children suffer. The people who work here, this suggests, may have a day of reckoning themselves, like that employee I described. And steady stream of new employees suggests that this isn’t...7/9
... a job people want 2 do 4 very long, despite higher than average pay. The human mind is capable, 4 periods of time, of extraordinary rationalization, of self-deception. But truth penetrates the human heart, & it will have its day.8/9
The tragedy of Homestead prison has enough reach to seep into every heart within its walls.9/9
