"The Least of Three"

A new film "The Least of Three" explores one of the U.S. government's newest approaches to immigration policy: family detention. As part of its new policy to end the 'catch and release' of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. government opens the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in May 2006 as a prototype family detention facility. The facility is a former medium-security prison in central Texas operated by CCA, the largest private prison operator in the country. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings. The facility is initially activated with little media attention or public knowledge. Soon, however, immigration attorney Barbara Hines is contacted by detainees seeking representation, and she becomes increasingly concerned about the troubling conditions there. She joins forces with Vanita Gupta of the ACLU and Michelle Brané of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children to investigate conditions and seek changes. Their efforts are initially hampered by a lack of openness and oversight within the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) organization. Undeterred, the three attorneys attempt to bring about changes in both policy and conditions, by making their findings public, encouraging involvement by activists and the media, and ultimately by filing a historic lawsuit. As these events unfold, the film explores the government rationale for family detention, conditions at the facility, collateral damage, and the role (and limits) of community activism in bringing change. The film leads viewers to consider whether core American rights and values - due process, presumption of innocence, upholding the family structure as the basic unit of civil society, and America as a refuge of last resort - should apply to immigrants, particularly children.