Email from Jay Johnson-Castro.
Hola y’all…
Exciting news in the making. Freedom Ambassadors has been contacted by yet another coalition. The Valley Coalition…of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. This is a coalition of. La Uni*n Del Pueblo Entero(LUPE), People for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, MEChA, Student Farmworker Alliance, Pax Christi, Holy Spirit Peace and Justice Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, UTPA Environmental Awareness Club, Foro Socialista del Valle.
As you will see from the attached press release…this coalition has scheduled a vigil at the largest and ugliest concentration camp on the planet…in Raymondville (see attached pic).
The date of the Raymondville Vigil II coincides with the Amnesty International sponsored Hutto Vigil X. The vigil would be held on Sunday, June 24th…the day after the Hutto Vigil X. It too is scheduled at the end of the week of the June 20th International Day of the Refugee.
The Raymondville is a concentration camp of 10 vinyl tents, with 200 refugees each. The 2000 immigrants are men and women from some 50 different countries…no one who has been charged with a crime. It is there that spoiled milk is served, raw sausage is served with white bread, sewer lines back up with maggots crawling out…and no medical help is available.
It is the intent of many from the Valley Coalition to attend the Hutto Vigil X…in solidarity with freeing the innocent children. It is the intent many of us from the Hutto Vigil X to attend and…in solidarity…support the Raymondville Vigil II. Some of us will make a weekend of it….in honor of the international refugee…and show that we feel that imprisoning innocent children, women and people from around the world is immoral and is a human rights violation on an scale that is shocking internationally.
Please disseminate this notice to all the groups and coalitions within Freedom Ambassadors and allied organizations like LUPE and CAFHTA. Let’s make June 23rd and June 24th two meaningful and historical days…in total solidarity with the international refugees who are victims of tyranny right her in our country.
Lado al lado. Side be side…
Jay
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PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Vicky Lorraine (956)-605-6036
For Immediate Release: May 31, 2007
Coalition of community groups calls press conference to address the detention of undocumented immigrants in Raymondville
McAllen, Texas
Time: 12:15pm
Date: Monday, June 4, 2007
Location: Outside The Monitor’s office
(1400 E Nolana Ave
McAllen, TX 78504)
Who: La Uni*n Del Pueblo Entero(LUPE), People for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, MEChA, Student Farmworker Alliance, Pax Christi, Holy Spirit Peace and Justice Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, UTPA Environmental Awareness Club, Foro Socialista del Valle.
What: Press Conference
Why: To announce an upcoming protest/vigil in solidarity with other community groups across the state of Texas, in conjunction with ‘International Refugees Day’. To protest the unethical incarceration of thousands of undocumented immigrants (including children) in the private, for-profit, prisons in Raymondville(“Tent City”) and elsewhere in Texas.
Texas Civil Rights Review 