Category: Detention

Photos by Jay Johnson-Castro of the T. Don Hutto jail, taken at the Dec. 16 vigil.

Email from Dallas Attorney John Wheat Gibson

The T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor houses about 400 immigrants who entered the country illegally.
–Juan Castillo, Austin American-Statesman

Dear Mr. Castillo:

Whoever told you the people imprisoned in Taylor , Texas entered the country illegally lied to you. I have seven clients now imprisoned since November 3 at the T. Don Hutto prison, and every one of them entered the U.S. legally with a visa issued by the United States government.
Furthermore, there is no reason for the imprisonment of these children except as victims of a Michael Chertoff publicity stunt. In midnight raids on November 3 the Department of Homeland Stupidity took these children, who were enrolled in school, from their homes, with their parents and imprisoned them.

The sole purpose of the raids, political propaganda, was apparent from a DHS press release which characterized the victims as “fugitives” and “criminals.” In fact, none of the families I know of were either fugitives or criminals. The two families I represent had conscientiously kept the DHS informed of their current residential addresses.

The purpose of the publicity stunt was to make the ignorant Fox-News brainwashed masses believe that 1) the Muslims among us are our enemies but 2) the DHS is protecting us, and therefore 3) we should not mind shredding the Constitution.

In fact, there was no legitimate reason for the raids at all. The two families I represent had been ordered deported, but had never received the customary notice to report for deportation. If they had, they would have worked out through their attorneys arrangements with the government for the children to finish the school year and then to depart at their own expense.

Compare the treatment of the Colombian wife of Georgia State Senator Curt B. Thompson last week. She also was under a final order of deportation, but the DHS did not detain her, even though, unlike my clients, she had been hiding from them since November 28, according to the Brenda Goodman, writing in the New York Times, December 6.

One of the families I am representing has four children and their mother in the prison, while the 2-year-old daughter is in foster care because she was born in the U.S. Two months is a long time for a 2-year-old baby to be torn away from her mother–especially for no reason other than a cynical political publicity stunt.

The other family has a 17-year-old son who is a senior at James Bowie High School in Arlington , Texas and his mother imprisoned in Taylor . As part of its scheme to whip up xenophobic hysteria and fear in the U.S. , the DHS has now ruined his high school graduation.

Is this the United States ? Do we allow our government to rip children from their homes and schools and imprison them indefinitely for no legitimate reason whatsoever? Please encourage somebody at the Austin American Statesman to look into this horror.

Respectfully submitted,

John Wheat Gibson, P.C.
Dallas

Email from Jay Johnson-Castro

Hola y’all…

Following is a real heads up. The ICE/Hutto partnership might be even worse than we thought just a couple of days ago.

First I’d like to say that I am very grateful to the media for covering the imprisonment of the 200 children in Taylor , Tx . In particular, I’m grateful to Steve Taylor of http://www.riograndeguardian.com for breaking the story. I’m grateful to Diego Muñoz, the anchor of Univision/Austin, for following the walk so closely. I’m grateful to Javier Aparisi of BBC for making this international…and to Juan Castillo of the Austin Stateman for a great front page story.

Juan’s story in the Stateman was very comprehensive and fair. It did trigger the following letter that was written to him by an immigration attorney, John Gibson, who justifiable vents his outrage, not at the Statesman, but at the tyrannical administration that would treat humans in America like the current administration under Bush and Chertoff. You’ll see below that John Gibson has clients in Hutto that are LEGAL!!!

[The Gibson letter has been posted as a separate story–gm] It’s not Juan’s or the Stateman’s fault that such tyrannical conditions exist in Hutto. Juan did the truth a great service by bringing this subject to the readership of the Statesman. It’s the fault of the current administration and especially Chertoff…whose idea is to have even more facilities that imprison children in dog pound like conditions. At the same time, John Gibson’s outrage below really exposes an evil in this country even worse than folks like me even thought it was just a few days ago.

I appeal to all immigration attorneys who know this stuff is going on…as well as to the different organizations that give a crap…to pool the knowledge and information you have. Let get all the transparency out to the public that we can. Cock roaches cannot stand the light!

If Hutto…as a half year old experiment…is the best product of the current Chertoff tyranny…what exists below this level folks? What preceded it? What is happening in secret all over this state and all over this country…for profit?

We must not allow this to get back below the radar of the media and the public. Please help keep the light on the subject. Get access into these so called “detention centers” which are little more than prison camps that exploit desperate people only to make obscene profits.

Like John Gibson, caring attorneys need to provide the facts to the media. Organizations like LULAC and the ACLU will hopefully take legal and political action. The US Congress should demand an investigation of this situation. Even the UN should investigate this. How about Amnest International?

Human rights and dignity must be demanded for these children…and any refugee…in order to regain and preserve a free and open society. Occult and Gulag tactics must not continue to exist in America . This wharped and demented mentality must be brought to an abrumpt end!!!

Ultimately…it is “We the people” that must do something. It may be that we will have to keep walking to Hutto…and to any other facility…and keep on holding vigils…until this violation of human rights is extinguished.

Any thoughts will be appreciated…

Jay

P.S. Some media links to the plight at the Hutto facility…

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/12/15/15immigprison.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/international/newsid_6184000/6184849.stm

https://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=686

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/pages/News
/Detail?contentId=1776864&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.2.1

http://www.kut.org/items/show/6811

http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/?ArID=176608

http://eyeonwilliamson.org/?p=716

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/12/family-thats-jailed-together.html.

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Connecting the dots…making a difference…

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Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.

jay@villadelrio.com

Luissana Santibanez speaks to demonstrators at Hutto Detention center, Taylor (Dec. 16, 2006 – photo by Susan Van Haitsma)

Jay Johnson-Castro (left) among children at Hutto Detention center vigil, Taylor (Dec. 16, 2006 – photo by Susan Van Haitsma)

We have been able to locate only one news report on the vigil (although the Statesman and BBC Mundo did advance pieces). Here is the link to News 8 Austin, the 24-hour news channel for Time-Warner Cable.

Group protests children being held in Hutto prison.

12/17/2006 4:20 PM

By: News 8 Austin Staff

The treatment of immigrants brought out protestors in Taylor. Dozens gathered outside the T. Don Hutto prison Saturday.

They say the prison houses immigrants who are awaiting asylum or deportation hearings.

Of the 400 immigrants housed there, the protestors say half are children.

“Think about your infant, your little toddler your little child in jail. Think about the innocent child having to wake up every day in a jail cell,” said Frances Valdez of the University of Texas Immigration Clinic

The facility holds people anywhere from several weeks to several months.

Protestors believe the incarceration of children is inhumane and that there are better alternatives for dealing with immigrants.

“This is a travesty – this is an outrage, it’s shocking. It’s anti-American it’s anti-freedom,” said Jay Johnson-Castro, a Grassroots supporter.

Rebecca Bernhardt from the A.C.L.U. of TEXAS says, “We also need to talk about why this is an incredible waste of taxpayer resources and that they know they have alternatives to this jail”.

Adults and children took part in the protest. They held signs and banners calling for justice.

By Greg Moses

CounterPunch / DissidentVoice / UrukNet /

Indymedia Austin, North Texas, Houston /

Some of the children and a pregnant woman being held in an immigration jail in Texas are Palestinian refugees whose families came to the USA with visas, says a Dallas lawyer.

Immigration attorney John Wheat Gibson represents two families that include a pregnant woman and children ages 2, 3, 5, 12, 14, and 17. The families have been incarcerated since their midnight arrests in early November by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “The children, imprisoned with their mothers, have never been accused of any wrongdoing. Neither have their mothers,” says Gibson. “All are Palestinian refugees who entered the U.S. legally, but have been denied asylum.”

The fathers were separated from their families, the two-year-old was placed into foster care, and the remaining women and children were sent to the privatized Hutto jail in Taylor, Texas. The education of the school-aged children has been interrupted.

In an affidavit supplied by Gibson, one of the fathers, Adel Said Suleiman, says that he was identified as a refugee by the United Nations before coming to the USA in 1995. He claims that his immigration status has been mishandled by others, but that he has never been accused of any crimes or wrongdoings.

Suleiman’s wife, Asma Quddoura, is in the Hutto jail with their son, Ayman, a 17-year-old senior at Arlington’s James Bowie High School. Attorney Gibson, who now represents Suleiman, says his client was not provided with due notice of a deportation order.

Suleiman, a diabetic, sits in a chilly cell at the Garvin County Jail, Oklahoma, where the stink from an overflowing toilet “is horrible.”

“There is another diabetic, here, too,” says the Suleiman affidavit. “The guards bring us evening medication late, after supper, although it should be taken with food. The food served here is dangerous to diabetics, because it is sweet. I asked them to leave the sugar out of my oatmeal, but they refused. I take medication in the morning and because I cannot take it with food my blood sugar is very low.”

The second father, Salaheddin Ibrahim, was also separated from his family, including his pregnant wife, Hanan Ahmad. Four of the Ibrahim children–Hamzeh, 14; Rodaina, 12; Maryam, 5; and Faten, 3–are incarcerated with their mother. A two-year-old daughter was placed in foster care. Ibrahim was sent to another Texas jail in Haskell.

At one point, says Gibson, Amad’s children “became hysterical when guards wrapped her in wrist and leg chains to take her to the hospital.”

“Compare the treatment of the Colombian wife of Georgia State Senator Curt B. Thompson last week,” Gibson said.

“She also was under a final order of deportation, but the DHS did not detain her, even though, unlike my clients, she had been hiding from them since November 28, according to Brenda Goodman, writing in the New York Times, December 6.”

The privatized Hutto jail was the focus of a walk and vigil last week by Texas activists protesting the incarceration of immigrants and their children.

“Innocent children should not be jailed and forced to live under traumatizing and dehumanizing conditions,” said a statement from vigil organizers, Texans United for Families. “It is bad policy and an impractical and inhumane response to a growing refugee crisis. The U.S. should seek alternatives to detention while making sure that it legislates policies that support families and keep them together and out of jail.”

Jay Johnson-Castro, a South Texas businessman who earned recognition for his walk protesting the planned border wall, also walked from the nearby Texas Capitol to join the vigil. In a follow-up email, Johnson-Castro encouraged more activism:

“Get access into these so called ‘detention centers’ which are little more than prison camps that exploit desperate people only to make obscene profits.”

The Hutto jail is named after T. Don Hutto, co-founder of Correctional Corporation of America (CCA), the jail’s corporate proprietor. In 2004, CCA announced that the jail would be closed for lack of occupancy, but the site was revived as a result of new immigration enforcement policies.

“Although the [Hutto jail] contract does not provide for a guaranteed occupancy,” said a December 2005 release from CCA, “the Company expects the facility to be substantially occupied before the end of the second quarter of 2006.” Activists say the jail detains 400 immigrants, half of them children.

“We believe this contract represents an important step in this ongoing initiative being undertaken by ICE,” stated John Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of CCA, shortly before Christmas last year.

The Suleiman affidavit is posted below, along with a press release from attorney Gibson.–gm