Email from Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr. with forwarded message from Beth Freed.
Hey folks…
It’s official. It’s exciting. It’s moving. It will be history making…
Amnesty International is sponsoring Hutto Vigil [X]. Following that lead is an assortment of organizations that will be supporting and participating in that vigil.
June 23rd is the selected date. It is the Saturday after the International Day of the Refugee. So mark your calendars. We have over a month to make our personal and organizational plans.
Tomorrow LULAC National will hold a press conference in San Antonio to make official their participation.
A coalition of organizations from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex CAFHTA has already announced their participation. You can read their announcement below.
What is this all about? Something very morally fundamental. In the country that banners “inalienable rights” and “liberty and justice for all”…no child should be imprisoned…let alone for greedy callous profit. Hundreds of children are imprisoned with their mothers in the Hutto prison camp in Taylor, TX. This is shocking to many Taylor and Williamson County residents. This is immoral and criminal. It violates the conscience of thousands of Americans. Yet the elected officials at all levels…from the City, County, State and National…are complicit in this atrocity.
Our country has fought against those who would have camps with out due process. Somehow our government is committing this heinous crime of imprisoning children…an act violates all moral and human decency. It is an international embarrassment that our government would be at war on the other side of the world while this very same government would imprison innocent and desperate people…and allow private for profit prison companies to be making grotesque amounts of money off of their desperation….and then deny a U.N. Human Rights “rapporteur” from inspecting conditions at Hutto. And it’s OUR country and our money…so we have a right to say “Hell no!”…we won’t allow this.
I’m also sending you an Action Alert. This relates to Congress making a disastrous decision within the next 24-48 hours…to increase imprisonment of refugees and asylum seekers…who come here as victims of these very same forces who would now imprison them for profit…and now want to legitimize their atrocities. You can weigh in here and now http://capwiz.com/rightsworkinggroup/callalert/index.tt?alertid=9757966
You can also open the attached Immigration Action Call…
Now…from CAFHTA…
Jay
Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.
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Forwarded message
Hi there, friends,
Throughout the Metroplex, civil rights groups have joined hands to take action against the injustice currently taking place in our state. Entire families, including infants and children, are being detained at the Hutto Family Detention Center in Taylor , Texas . This is a privately-run, for-profit facility. Read the ACLU write-up on the prison camp here. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prefers to sugar-coat the prison by calling it a “residential center” – read their spin here. Read about the Corrections Corporation of America , the company that makes money off of imprisoning children, here.
Recently, the U.S. government denied a U.N. inspector access to the facility. Isn’t that one of the reasons we are currently at war?
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), the NAACP and the Dallas Peace Center are a few of the partners who have joined the new coalition. Children and Families for Humane Treatment Alliance (CAFHTA) will work as long as it takes to educate the public to the atrocities taking place here at home and shut down these concentration camps.
Please visit the CAFHTA Yahoo Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CAFHTA/. Sign up to receive ongoing information about the plight of immigrants in our nation and upcoming actions in response to the deplorable conditions at the Hutto Family Detention Center. We are currently planning an action in conjunction with Jay Johnson-Castro and his Free the Children campaign for June 23 on-site the Hutto prison.
Please join us in the fight for justice, for the kids’ sakes.
In peace and solidarity,
Beth Freed
MLFA/CAFHTA
Texas Civil Rights Review 