Rotting in Texas Jails in the Land of the Free

They languish in American custody, although many stand accused of no crime other than perhaps having dark hair and skin and sharing a nationality with a leader who rails endlessly against America's evils. Abandoned by the country of their birth, they have sat rotting for years now behind bars, imprisoned without trial by a nation whose proudest claims are to freedom, civil liberties, and the rule of law. Some have serious crimes in their pasts -- but even those debts to U.S. society were paid long ago. Many others were originally arrested for minor crimes -- throwing a rock through a windshield, buying a set of stolen stereo speakers -- but still have been kept in prison for years after serving out their original sentences. The government keeps them shrouded in secrecy, refusing to give out their names or the details of their cases, sometimes banning photographs and restricting interviews. Lawyers willing to take their cases are hard to find. They are Marielitos, part of the tidal wave of refugees who braved a deadly crossing from Cuba 24 years ago to reach -- they thought -- sanctuary in a country whose president had promised to welcome them "with open arms. [more ]