Editor,

Why are there so many migrants locked up in detention centers around the country?

We do have other methods to monitor them until their asylum hearings come up, such as ankle monitors, which have been used in the past. These centers are mostly operated by private companies for profit.

The conditions are terrible, deplorable. With non-working toilets, mildew in showers and rotting meat left out in the kitchen and children sleeping on concrete floors.

These conditions were documented from the Aurora, Colo., facility. We should not have private, for-profit companies operating these centers. They need to be shut down, and the government should step up to operate them with transparency. In all, 24 migrants have died, and children were left in vans for 24-36 hours until they were reunited with their parents. Unacceptable.

These migrants fled their countries because living conditions were terrible; some fleeing gangs or others because the land could not support them any longer. They come to America for asylum or a better life and are put in detention centers and treated like criminals just for crossing a border.

This is wrong in my opinion. These “for profit” detention centers are so deplorable we would not allow our dogs to stay in them. Where is our compassion for our fellow human beings? Just because migrants were treated badly in the past does not justify this treatment in the 21st Century. We are better than this, even if the Trump group is not. Speak up to shut these centers down.

Nancy Mayer

Freeland