“People are really gearing up for the vigil Monday evening,” says Jay Johnson-Castro by telephone. He has just finished a 2,000 mile border caravan from San Diego to Brownsville. And he says Rio Grande Valley media will be following his travel north to the T. Don Hutto jail for Vigil IV at 5:30 pm, Feb. 12.
“Valley media have given wide coverage to the border caravan in English and Spanish, on the television, radio, and print,” says Johnson-Castro. “It is front page news at the Brownsville Herald.”
Media have also been busy with the story of Hutto prison since yesterday’s press tour of the facility hosted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Now that we have the media in there, we still have hundreds of innocent children and moms in prison cells. Until they are free we are going to keep putting up pressure,” promises Castro as the sound of heavy rain comes through the phone with his voice.
“And we want to get everybody to say which side they are on. Are they in favor of imprisoning children for purposes of national security or does this shock you and offend you? What kind of America do you want our future to be?” he asks.
“I feel in my heart that the power of the American people will put an end to this demented policy.”
When he hears how the Suleiman family have lost their first home to a policy of deportation, he pledges to get their home back, and get them back in it where they belong with their 4-year-old American twin daughters.
“We have gone up against the most powerful force in human history and we have won,” says Johnson-Castro regarding the release of the Ibrahim family father Friday, the Suleiman mother and son Wednesday, and the Ibrahim mother and children last Saturday.
“We have to get what is right. And the Department of Homeland Security is going to have to back down. What they are doing with their power is criminal.”–gm
Texas Civil Rights Review 