Luis Mancheno. Lawyer, Refugee From Ecuador
The Flores Exhibits
The Flores Exhibits is a project that is part of a national campaign to establish legal protections for immigrant children held in U.S. government facilities.
In June 2019, a team of lawyers who work as independent monitors of the detention facilities took more than 60 testimonies from children detailing lengthy stays, ongoing family separations, and dirty, unsafe conditions. These sworn testimonies were submitted as exhibits in a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order filed by the National Center for Youth Law. The motion seeks to provide immediate relief to children living without access to basic hygiene supplies and adequate nutrition or sleep.
Artists, lawyers, advocates, and immigrants read the sworn testimonies of children held in detention facilities at the U.S. / Mexico Border as part of The Flores Exhibits project. Each reader read strictly what is presented in sworn testimonies taken on June 2019 by a team of lawyers visiting detention facilities as monitors for the Flores Settlement Agreement. This 1997 agreement set limits on the length of time and conditions under which children can be held in immigration detention, which were upheld by a 2017 court order in Flores v. Sessions.
Xorje chatted with one of the participants — Luis Mancheno. You can follow Luis at @LuisFMancheno
