These same men observed what the young activists were there to do and belligerently thwarted their work. When the women sat down with clients in a small side office, the guards paraded the center’s unruliest detainees outside, making it impossible to talk over the din. Then they crammed so many immigrants inside the room, which was only about a hundred square feet in size, that there wasn’t space for the volunteers and translators. Some days, meeting hours were abruptly and inexplicably suspended; without warning, the guards would take two full hours for roll call.
