Seven people have been detained in Alabama after blocking the entrance to a detention center for undocumented immigrants. The protesters — each of them also undocumented — chained themselves in front of the Etowah County Detention Center. An activist with the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice said the rally was called to oppose harsh conditions for detainees.

Yazmin Contreras: “We’re asking that the Etowah Detention Center treat their detainees better. A lot of them have been complaining that they’re not getting the appropriate food, that they’re not allowed to practice all of their religion, are being abused. And three, that they don’t have an area in which they can actually go outside and breathe fresh air.”