Connection: Polish Family Separated

When Bogdan and Miro Babinski were arrested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Nov. 20, they were handcuffed and taken to prison.

That is procedure for the protection of INS agents, said agency officials.

Their 13-year-old daughter, Martyna, was held at a juvenile detention facility in Medical Lake called Martin Hall.

It is the only facility in Washington that takes juveniles held by the Seattle INS office. The center has contracted with the INS since Nov. 1, 1999.

Martin Hall’s deputy director, Pete Graves, said they have taken protective measures for INS cases, but the juveniles are mostly put in with the general population.

“I have them as young as 8 years old,” Graves said to a reporter while Martyna Babinski was in custody. “If there was a shelter care facility, which is less regimented, they would probably go there. But because there isn’t, they come here.”

All inhabitants wear issued pants, T-shirts and a plastic wristband that includes their name and the date they came to the center.

The number of student inmates ranges from eight to 33, Graves said. Most INS juveniles are from Mexico and South America, but the agency has also held youths from China, Africa, India, Russia and the Philippines.

When Martyna was flown to Seattle to be deported to Poland with her parents Nov. 29, she told a reporter that she waited in the Spokane airport while wearing handcuffs and leg irons.