Author: mopress

By Faddy MacMough
Texas Civil Rights Review Columnist

As a Red-Neck with Lefty tendencies I have to laugh out loud at the way us Americans react along the lines of the racial divide. Isn’t it passing strange that the one group of folks who find the Good ole Rev Wright most objectionable are the very white folks that come the closest to sharing his hell and brimstone style of preachin.’

As a study in masochism, as well as the occasional goad to the religioso from a self-acclaimed non-theist, I admit to listenin’ to our local pastors rant and rave about the end times and the evils of this, that and the other thing. They mostly go on about how we are sailin’ merrily to hell as an apostate nation . . . and their fav’rit targets are the usual ‘enemies of gawd’ . . . queers, people with AIDS, lib’rals, and other folks who just haven’t got around to believin’ them by not comin’ to church and not turnin’ over the tithe that gawd wants them to share!

On Fridays a goodly portion of what passes for the daily paper in this hick-up, wide-spot we built around a refinery, town is devoted to the mentally ill ninnys who hide behind the pulpit and preach hate and division on Sunday mornings to the oil field workers and their generational wives. These good ole boys universally have had more than one marriage . . . about one a decade . . . to an ever younger group of ‘wimmen’ who like themselves think the return o’ Jesus, which sounds amazingly like Cheeses, will result in the splattering of bodies of the damned all over the place as a function of the rapture. Their real bibles are the vicious Christian-hate literature of end timers like Tim LaHaye who relish in the afflictions inflicted on the damned by a gawd who has had his patience stretched to a breakin’ point and is going to set things right by wiping out everybody.

When you think about it, the hate they preach on Sundays is remarkably similar to what the good Rev Wright was accused of saying! And, if you run deep enough into what is really ranklin’ those white boys, it really isn’t so different from what is upsetting the black folks in their churches . . . poverty, the inability to get ahead, no health insurance for themselves or their kids, rising oil prices blamed on them Arabs instead of the corporatocracy makin’ obscene profits, the fact that even Wal-Mart prices are beyond their means, and the general fact that they are on the bottom of the heap when it comes to education, and dreams for themselves and their children.

They also share another thing . . . these bottom of the barrel whites who share the dregs with the bottom of the barrel blacks and immigrants . . . total contempt from their so-called betters on the left and the right who look down on them and criticize their teen pregnancy rates, their tendency to get sent to jail or prison all out of proportion to their numbers, and the fact they are just potential voters IF they vote right.

In other words, these folks share the fact that they are a permanent underclass . . . a group of people who have been shut out of the American dream and live instead what amounts to an American nightmare! They live in squalor and the one time in the week they are treated as though they might just matter, that their souls are as good as anyone elses, is on Sunday morning. So they dig deep into their pockets and help to build ever larger churches with ever more convoluted preaching and ever more indoctrination of their children in that one hour a week when gawdless humanism is kept at bay, Sunday school! The fact that they are underclass and they are no different in the eyes of the people who pull the levers of politics to protect their own economic and social interests than the blacks and immigrants they share dumpster diving with only tends to increase their resentment.

So the political elites think Wright is a problem? Well, he is symptom of a racial problem kept alive in order to keep the under-classes in their places in our socially, economically and racially divided empire.

Sadly, I don’t think any of the political classes (O’Bama, he’s Irish right; Billary, er is that W in Drag; and his McNastiness) give a damn . . . and even if they do, how the hell are they going to change things in a society that is so connected by cell phones it is totally unable to think long enough to really communicate? We really worship at the altar of consumerism and the idea that my thingy is newer than your thingy seems to matter more than just about anything.

The red-neck pastors rant; the black preachers rail; and the punditocracy wring their hands about this sound bite, or that . . . and together we all seem to be doomed to division rather than seeing problems we have in common as the stuff that really matters!

And that is the way it is . . . here in this woebegone wide spot in the road where our football warriors are the only real hope we ever have of looking other than the way we are . . . low down on the totem pole of life!

Fredegar N. MacMough (his friends call him Faddy) is a self-styled leftie, of redneck parentage, holding forth from one of those nasty little oil towns where the glories of Friday Night Lights sustain a population so used to being abused that they think things are just fine and dandy . . . where a peppermint patty world is an illusion foisted upon them because the boys did take state again.

Posted by permission of the author.

By Nick Braune
Mid-Valley Town Crier

Last week I reported the visit of Jay Johnson-Castro, protesting Raymondville’s detention facility for immigrants. This week he was in Northern Texas, drawing attention to another private facility, Rolling Plains in Haskell. I’ll briefly tell you about one detainee there, a woman whom Jay and others have been hoping to free.
A 21-year-old, Suzi Hazahza, along with her father, mother, and several siblings, were ordered out of their home, at gunpoint, just before the November election. They were handcuffed and taken away; half were sent to Rolling Plains and half to another center. The beautiful young woman was very frightened and clearly mistreated. Although she has a chance of getting out in May, she is still being held.

Why did the government go after this family with guns drawn? Was the family engaged in terrorism, robbery, drug smuggling? No. The family had simply missed an appointment. But Suzi’s parents said they never knew about the appointment.

With the Hazahza case on my mind, I re-interviewed Harlingen’s Jodi Goodwin who is board certified, practicing Immigration and Nationality Law.

Author: I have read that authorities in the Hazahza case admitted they couldn’t prove a letter had been sent to her family requesting an appointment. It had not been sent return-receipt requested, no one could produce affidavits from personnel that it had been sent, and there were no service documents. Are immigration officials often that careless with important paperwork?

Goodwin: Indeed the non-receipt of such important documents as appointment letters, work authorization documents and even permanent resident cards is a great problem as they always go regular mail. Many times my clients don’t receive their documents properly, even receiving interview notices days, weeks, and sometimes months after the supposed appointment. I have always wondered why Immigration puts so much faith in regular mail with such important items.

Author: Suzi Hazahza’s supporters reported that the judge’s face showed “anguish” when he discovered he could not rule on her improper detention. There’s a new rule preventing the judge from acting in her kind of case until six full months of detention has passed. Are there lots of rules or provisos with such an ad hoc, apparently sadistic, side, and strange enough that they would make an honest observer feel anguish?

Goodwin: Thanks to such brilliant legislation as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the Patriot Act and Real ID, immigrants’ rights to redress in Federal Courts is extremely limited and in some cases non-existent. Even the Great Writ, habeas corpus, which has not been suspended since the Civil War, has been suspended for immigrants. There are only very narrow exceptions to the suspension of the Great Writ for immigrants. So, the short answer to the question is: Yes, there are a lot of rules, provisos, statutes, regulations, policies and practices that are ad hoc, sadistic and strange enough that an honest observer would feel anguish.

Author: I am also concerned about Suzi Hazahza’s seventeen-year-old brother, Ahmed. In general, how well are juveniles handled and are the best interests of children being served?

Goodwin: Juveniles are generally treated as adults as far as immigration proceedings are concerned. There are no special rules in immigration court for children; however, many judges try to make the proceedings less formal. Detention of juveniles is a touchy subject because there are many different ways the Department of Homeland Security detains children. Some are placed in foster care, some in group homes, some in converted prisons, and in the case of Ahmed, in solitary confinement because ICE “inadvertently” placed him, a seventeen-year-old, in an adult facility. The level of care and concern for the “best interest of the child” is almost absent. There is no provision for ad litem attorneys or guardians for the children in immigration detention. Children from two to seventeen are treated the same. How in the world can two-year-olds appear in immigration court and be able to express to the judge what they want to do in their cases?

Author: The editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review (online) recently wrote that Homeland Security has pulled loose from Constitutional moorings. “It’s a pirate operation unto itself.” Any comments?

Goodwin: Although I have not used the terms mentioned, I would definitely agree the Department of Homeland Security has a much different view of the Constitution than I do.

Author: In your practice with immigration and nationality law, has there been one case of injustice that has particularly saddened and angered you?

Goodwin: I am saddened and angered on a daily basis. To choose one case would be impossible. The cases that affect me most are generally those cases dealing with abuse victims, children, and men and women who have served in the military during times of war being deported.
Author: Thank you for your time and your work.

Along with the Dallas Morning News, local ABC and CBS stations have logged stories aobut the Hazahza family during the first week of April. Here are the headlines and lead paragraphs.–gm

Concern over detention of immigrant family

02:00 AM CDT on Saturday, April 7, 2007

By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV

Brett Shipp reports

A federal magistrate in Dallas says he is deeply concerned by the government’s continued detention of an immigrant family from Irving.
But that concern is nothing compared to the disappointment being expressed tonight by the man whose fiancé remains behind bars.

Reza Bacardi of Plano wants Americans to see a few photographs, as well as the immigration issue from his perspective.

His fiancé is Suzi Hazahza.

************

Palestinians’ detention case to be revisited

Dispute of Irving family jailed for 5 months to be taken up May 2

12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, April 5, 2007

By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News
dsolis@dallasnewscom

A federal magistrate recommended that a detention dispute be revisited May 2 in the case of Radi Hazahza and his four adult children, Palestinians formerly living in Irving who have been held in a rural Texas jail for five months over deportation conflicts.

Magistrate Paul D. Stickney said his jurisdiction was limited because of recent immigration law changes. But the judge recommended to a federal judge that a habeas corpus writ over the detention be held in suspension, and not dismissed, until May 2.

The case illustrates the difficulties in deporting stateless Palestinians to a region not recognized as a nation by the U.S. government. Attorneys for the Hazahzas have attempted to get them travel documents to more than 50 countries, including the occupied territories and Jordan.

************

Apr 4, 2007 9:52 pm US/Central

Texas Judge Rules To Free Palestinian Family
Image

Jay Gormley
Reporting

(CBS 11 News) IRVING A judge has found that there is not enough evidence to hold a Palestinian family at a detention center in Haskell, TX.

The Hazahza family has been living in Irving since 2001. But last November, the federal government detained the family after their request for political asylum was denied.

************

April 1, 2007

Five months later, detainees in limbo

Jurisdiction issue snarls case for 5 members of Palestinian family

By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News
dsolis@dallasnews.com

Two weeks ago, 19-year-old Suzi Hazahza would have celebrated an elaborate wedding with 29-year-old Reza Barkhordari. The Arabic music had been chosen, along with a few U.S. pop tunes. And Mr. Barkhordari’s parents had selected a special gift for the hazel-eyed bride: an antique jeweled headpiece.

Instead, Ms. Hazahza and other family members remain in a rural Texas jail on immigration charges of failing to appear for deportation.

A federal magistrate said last week that he does not have jurisdiction in the case and that his authority is “severely limited.” That’s snarling the fight for release of Ms. Hazahza, her father and three siblings.

NOTE: the Solis story includes the following passage:

In the documents, the Hazahzas’ attorney alleged humiliations such as body cavity searches of the two Hazahza women, lack of medical attention, and holding the two women in the bedless drunk tank for two days in the Haskell jail in west-central Texas.

At ICE offices, spokesman Carl Rusnok denied that detainees have been subjected to the searches.

The medium-security Haskell facility is under contract with ICE to provide services. It also houses state and county inmates, but the populations are kept in separate areas from the immigration detainees.

“In short, they have been fully afforded their due process,” said Mr. Rusnok. “Since their arrest Nov. 2, they have been treated fairly and humanely.”

On April 5, the Morning News published the following letter from Ralph Isenberg:

ICE lying about abuse

Re: “Five months later, detainees in limbo — Jurisdiction issue snarls case for 5 members of Palestinian family,” Monday news story.

Carl Rusnok of Immigration and Customs Enforcement hides behind the fact that ICE contracts detention to a for-profit vendor.

He should explain how he can deny the Hazahah family’s contentions, when I have testimony from current and former employees outing those abuses and worse.

Detention of foreign nationals does not make those detainees criminals. The criminals are those at ICE who lie about the abuses.

Ralph Isenberg, Dallas

Attorney Joshua Bardavid also issued a statement in reply to ICE denials of abuse, saying that ICE had every opportunity to deny the abuses under oath, but chose not to. We haven’t seen Bardavid’s statement published anywhere else but the Texas Civil Rights Review.–gm

In Texas they call it privatization. In Argentina they call it neo-Liberalism. In both places today they are calling it a bad idea. See stories from Austin and Argentina below….

A shift away from privatization

Around Latin America, countries are eschewing privatization dating from the ’80s and ’90s in a trend back toward government-controlled utilities.

BY MONTE REEL
Washington Post Service

LOMAS DE ZAMORA, Argentina – Carina Grossi turned on the tap in her kitchen sink and raised a glass of water to the light, her eyes narrowing in disgust.

”Look at that,” said Grossi, 32. “Look how cloudy the water is, how dirty.”

Like many of their neighbors in this working-class suburb of Buenos Aires, the Grossis are convinced their water is contaminated and blame the French company that has provided water and sewer service since the federal government privatized the utility in 1993.

Across Latin America, a growing number of people say the privatization of public services, a movement that swept the region in the 1980s and 1990s, has failed. Protests have erupted over the issue in several countries, and some governments are beginning to reverse these policies. Last month, Argentina said it was rescinding its 30-year contract with the French company Suez and reinstating government control of the water supply.

The Grossis, among many others, welcomed the about-face….

—–

Troubled social services call centers on hold

Web Posted: 04/07/2006 12:00 AM CDT

Elizabeth Allen
Express-News Staff Writer

A much-touted rollout of privately operated call centers to replace state workers who screened applicants for Medicaid, food stamp and other social service benefits has been put on hold for at least 30 days because of staffing shortages and a variety of technical problems.

In announcing the delay, Texas Health and Human Services Commission officials essentially scraped the early summer date by which applicants in San Antonio and South Texas were to have been on the system, which the state initiated because it said it would save hundreds of millions of dollars.

After the 30-day hold, the officials will take another look at the privatization schedule that would have changed Bexar County services over in June. The commission is also taking steps to slow the hemorrhaging of state workers after 2,900 got news last year that their jobs were going away this year.

It is not clear how many of those workers have actually left state employment. One union representative estimated at least one-third of the targeted state employees left their jobs.

Nor is it clear how the delay will affect the more than $600 million that the agency promised legislators it would save by privatizing those functions.

Critics of the process cheered the move.

“I think it’s very good news that they are acknowledging that there are very significant problems,” said Celia Hagert, an analyst with the Texas Center for Public Policy Priorities.

“Our only hope is that if they determine that more time is needed to fix those problems, they will take that time.”

The new system, run by contractor Texas Access Alliance, lets people apply for benefits over the phone, online or in person. Using the new system, the state plans to replace 99 of its 310 eligibility offices with four call centers run by the contractor.

But long wait times and computer problems have plagued the pilot program in Hays and Travis Counties center, in part because of state staffing shortages related to layoffs that the Texas State Employees Union is urging the state to rescind.

Late last year, Texas Access Alliance, a private consortium anchored by Accenture, a Bermuda-based firm, also took over the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which has always been contracted out.

CHIP was designed to provide basic coverage for children of families who earned too much for Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance, essentially the working poor.

While coverage has fallen by more than 200,000 statewide since the state began cutting the program and toughening eligibility requirements in 2003, the rolls have dropped by more than 20,000 since Texas Access Alliance took over.

It began operating the Travis and Hays County pilot program in January.

Health and Human Services spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said the state wants to fix two major issues: better management of high call volumes and better training.

Some people have spent as much as 20 minutes on hold and many hung up in frustration. Goodman said that wait time has been sharply reduced “but we want to get that down a little more.”

Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said he hopes the delay is an early indication that the state will decide that privatizing benefits services is a bad idea, while Texas State Employees Union Vice President Mike Gross said the unstable climate is causing the state to lose its more experienced employees.

Gross called for the state to hold off on the layoff of the 2,900 employees who were told last fall they would not have jobs after the call centers began operating this year.

He estimated that about 1,000 state workers have already left.

Hagert agreed that the heavy turnover is causing even more headaches, but that it’s too late to stop that leak.

“I’m not saying we don’t support that recommendation. It just might not be a realistic one,” she said. “But we certainly support the idea that it’s going to take more state workers to make the system work.”

Goodman said the state hasn’t actually laid anyone off, but it has seen more people leave for other jobs faster than expected. The agency is taking steps to keep people in place for now, especially in the Travis-Hays counties area, because of the numbers jumping ship.

She noted the agency is now developing a retention plan that will include a bonus to state workers whose jobs were to have been eliminated.

In light of the April 4 release of a map for the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor, it might be worthwhile to re-consider Richard D. Vogel’s February analysis in Monthly Review that the larger strategy at work is a plan to re-route Asian container traffic through the ports of Mexico (to reduce labor costs of course).

Sparked by organized resistance and wildcat actions by workers against falling wages and deteriorating working conditions at America’s ports and on the nation’s highways, the flow of container traffic is being shifted to a south-north orientation. By leveraging both the U.S. and Mexican governments and taking advantage of the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), big capital is developing container terminals in Mexico and using that country as a land bridge and labor pool to deliver shipping containers to destinations in the United States at discount prices.