PAUL SCHRAG: A LOOK INSIDE THE NORTHWEST DETENTION CENTER >>>

Allisa and Caesar Keymolen are normal, happy, goofy kids until you ask them about what happened to their father.

They maintain composure when their grandmother Gena Mejia talks about Allisa and Caesar’s mother Liberty Bell, who died of a medication overdose several years ago. During a long recounting of how Mejia’s family was tormented by a racist neighbor, the kids keep their cool. Ceasar Jr., 8, is a handsome kid. He sports a short Mohawk and an Ecko Unlimited T-shirt. He squirms and makes a lot of faces. His sister, who is 10, is an unnaturally calm, beautiful girl. She fidgets with her hands, fights back giggles and eventually joins in the conversation, telling how their neighbor smeared feces on their house and called them racist names. These are some brave, resilient kids.

But when Mejia starts to talk about the day federal law enforcement agents came to take the children’s father to a private detention center for illegal immigrants on the Tacoma Tideflats, everything changes.

The Weekly Volcano takes a look inside the lives of people targeted by the United States government for deportation. It ain’t pretty, Tacoma. And it’s happening in your backyard.

Read my full story on the Weekly Volcano Web site.