Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

WATCH: He Lives Outside Refugee Holding Pen — To Bear Witness

Joshua Rubin, a software developer from Brooklyn, has been bearing witness to the child refugee concentration camp in Tornillo, Tex., since mid-October.

He sits outside its locked front gate, watching trucks carrying toilets, construction materials and children go in and out. He believes, based on estimates given to him secretly by the camp’s staff, that there are 2500 children inside.

He says he’s doing it because he got sick of watching the news unfold on his TV at home. The distance is taking a toll on him and his family in New York, but he hopes to stay until at least Christmas. He thinks that enough national attention and pressure could shut the camp — run off generators and operated as an emergency field camp — down for good.

“The fact that there are children involved here is kind of a window into people’s hearts,” he told the Forward. “I was hoping I could show people that immigrants are just children who need help.”

You can read more about Rubin’s story here.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.