Category: Detention

By Pedro Ruiz

Protest at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center was on June 20, 2009. We marched through the town of Taylor, Texas, to the detention center. The march started at about 1:10 p.m. as we arrived to the detention center at about 1:35 p.m. We had about 175 people in attendance at the demonstration. The platform of speakers and musicians was from 1:40 p.m. to about 3:50 p.m. People started to leave about 4:30 p.m. at the end, in which we took this picture.

There is a yellow line that you are not supposed to cross, as I had approached the van earlier in which they threatened to arrest me for wanting to take a picture of the facility owned by Corrections Corporation of America.

Free the Children! Shut Hutto Down! Picture of Antonio Diaz of the Texas Indigenous Council and Pedro Ruiz.

Marching to the T. Don Hutto Residential Center through the detention center’s backyard.
Marching for the first time over the downtown bridge in Taylor, Texas. Free the Children-Shut Hutto Down sign.

The Beyond Point in which only authorized people are allowed beyond this marker at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center. Antonio, Pedro, and Chuck.

People demonstrating their freedom of speech in front of the entrance to the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, completely blocking the entrance from any vehicles entering the detention center.

For more information on the movement to Free the Children, please visit the website www.tdonhutto.blogspot.com or see Tlazocamati – Ollin Quetzalcoatl 21 at myspace.

Also, please read the article I was in exposing Lulac’s connection to Corrections Corporation of America.

Join Free the Children Coalition on Aug.22, 2009, in Taylor, Texas, to close the T. Don Hutto Residential Center down and free the immigrant children being detained by the Department of Homeland Security and Corrections Corporation of America.

The Freedom Walk starts at 1pm from Heritage Park towards the detention center where a Protest/Vigil will take place from 2pm-5pm. For more info, contact:

texasindigenouscouncil@yahoo.com

Peace be with you,
Pedro Ruiz

www.youtube.com/pedroruiz21

Note: According to a report by Juan Castillo in the Aug. 8 Austin-American Statesman, the last family will not be removed until the end of 2009. The children are not gone from Hutto yet.–gm

The Aug. 22 Freedom Walk and Protest Vigil of the T. Don Hutto prison for immigrants is still scheduled as planned. Organizers are calling for a noon gathering at Heritage Park in Taylor, Texas, and a 1p.m. walk to the Hutto facility. A rally is scheduled from 2p.m. to 5p.m.

Organizer Pedro Ruiz of the Texas Indigenous Council remains critical of the detention status quo. Although the federal government has announced that families with children will no longer be assigned to the Hutto facility, Ruiz says moving the issue to the Berks facility in Pennsylvania is not a satisfactory solution:

“They can call it whatever they want to call it,” Díaz told the San Antonio Current. “But if families are not free to go, it’s still a detention center. We used Berks as a template of what we wanted Hutto to look like but, in my mind, a golden cage is still a cage. If you’re not free, you’re not free.”

TOMORROW, Tuesday morning, December 23, when most folks will be focused on the holidays, the Williamson County Commissioners Court will vote to extend their contracts for Hutto with ICE and CCA. Is there anything YOU or your organization can do write, call, fax and/or e-mail to stop such a decision that will only prolong the imprisonment and abuse of these innocent children?

Is there any kind of mobilization at the Williamson Country Commissioners Court tomorrow that you could help with today? Below is a statement regarding the extension of Hutto…along with contact information. From Washington, D.C. to Washington State…please consider letting your voices heard. — Jay J. Johnson Castro, Sr.

By Mary Ellen Kersch

WCCC Judge Gattis quoted in AAS re. TD Hutto vote: “Unless something jumps up and bites me, I will vote to renew”

Bite him. Before Tuesday’s vote!

Contact WCCC members and tell them to vote NO Hutto Renewal(See contact info below)

Putting non-criminal families, including little children, in prison for infractions comparable to running a stop sign is immoral and un-American.

Imprisoning people charged with no crime, while they await decision re. applications for citizenship and asylum, is NOT effective immigration policy, does NOT secure our borders, and has NOTHING to do with patriotism. It is a corrupt means to enrich an already wealthy corporation by exploiting the weakest among us!

As partners in the contract for the most expensive method to effectively assure that non-criminal immigrants appear at their hearings, the Williamson County Commissioners Court (WCCC) exhibits a disregard for fiscal responsibility with taxpayer dollars during a national economic crisis.

This prison is exempt from any governmental regulation and has no government oversight—and a continuing record of abuses. With the lapse of the only outside (court-ordered) oversight of this facility in August of 2009 those risks are greatly elevated in renewal. (Article in March 2008 NewYorker provides a good chronicle)

Partnering with Corrections Corporation of American, with its less-than-admirable record of management, is a bad business practice, and exposes Williamson County taxpayers to financial risks from poor management, bad employees, and external lawsuits—all of which are beyond their capacity to control. (See attached “Letter to WCCC re CCA Business Practices.)

Williamson County’s reputation has been damaged as a result of a number of specific offenses relating to the operation of the facility, as well as its very existence. Contract renewal would affirm WCCC’s approval of the disgraces of T Don Hutto and further damage our image locally, nationally, and internationally

Evidence presented at the September public forum (which WCCC boycotted) stated that T Don Hutto’s operation is probably a deterrent to future, clean, economic development in the area; renewal would send a very bad signal for the future of such growth; it is actually anti-economic development!

This proposal fails the simple “risk vs. benefits” of any business undertaking. The less than $16,000 monthly maximum that Williamson County collects under this contract cannot be reasonably argued to compensate for the negatives that exist.

WCCC has had a very rough record re. contracts to date; re-entering this partnership does nothing to convince citizens that WCCC has been learned anything from those previous costly contract mistakes.

Please Contact:
Judge Dan Gattis: ctyjudge@wilco.org(512) 943-1550
Commissioner Lisa Birkman: lbirkman@wilco.org ( 512) 733-5380
Commissioner Cynthia Long: clong@wilco.org(512) 260-4280)
Commissioner Valerie Covey: vcovey@wilco.org (512) 943-3370
Commissioner Ron Morrison: rmorrison@wilco.org (512) 846-1190

Phone, email, by end of business Monday and tell them NO to Hutto! And broadcast this plea on behalf of good government and the babies in jail.

News from Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr.

In this period of giving…

Can we share a few hours out of our holiday season and show solidarity with imprisoned immigrant children?

Border Ambassadors and Freedom Ambassadors endorse the following notice and attached flier for a special toy and gift drive and vigil for the imprisoned innocent women and children in the T. Don Hutto “for profit” prison…

Hutto is a money laundering facility between Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE)…with Williamson County Commissioners Court (WCCC) as the money laundering mechanism.

No where in the world, let alone in America, should a child be locked up or forced to forfeit his or her freedom for a 8′ x 12′ prison cell. Perhaps, under a new President “Change we can believe in” will restore “Liberty and Justice for all”.

We must press on with our demand that the end of the era of the current Administration’s immoral practice of imprisoning innocent children and their mothers…for profit.

In solidarity with the women and children imprisoned in Hutto and all those who have fought for two years to free them…

Jay
Border Ambassasors
Freedom Ambassadors

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Hutto Toy Delivery and Vigil to End Family Detention

Saturday, December 20th, 3-5pm, T. Don Hutto Detention Center (1001 Welch, Taylor, TX)

Please join organizations and individuals from across the state in the third annual December vigil to end family detention, Saturday, December 20th, from 3-5pm. Since May 2006, immigrant families with small children have been jailed in the facility while awaiting asylum or immigration hearings. The prison has been criticized by human rights organizations worldwide as an inappropriate facility for children and their families. Organizers will deliver more than 500 toys, books, and children’s clothes to the facility in time for the holiday season. Toys should be in their original packaging and not be on any recall-list to be accepted into the facility. Contact: Bob at (512) 971-0487 or blibal@grassrootsleadership.org

Caravaning information:

Austin caravan will leave PODER building at 2604 E. Cesar Chavez at 2pm for the Hutto detention center.

San Antonio caravan will leave from the Cesar Chavez Learning Center,1414 E. Commerce Street, San Antonio. Arrive at 11am to get organized; the caravan will leave at noon. Please contact Carlos De Leon at 210-627-3647 for more information.

Houston caravan will be leaving from the parking lot of Fedex Kinko’s (Magnum exit, Hwy 290, Houston) at around 10:30. Meet up at 9:30 if you would like to make posters for the vigil. Contact Maria Elena Castellanos at castellanoslaw1 [at] gmail [dot] com for more information

Endorsed by: Texans United for Families, Grassroots Leadership, WilCo Family Justice Alliance, Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition, Border Ambassadors, CodePink Austin, Texas Indigenous Council, San Antonio Brown Berets.

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WCCC to vote on T Don Hutto Contract—12/23/2008

Williamson County Judge Gattis announced this morning (12/16/08) that the vote on the proposed renewal of the contract(s) with CCA/DHS to operate T Don Hutto Detention Facility will take place on December 23 at the Williamson County Commissioners Court’s weekly meeting.

After that announcement, several citizens spoke against the renewal, and WCCC was reminded that:

Putting families in prison for infractions comparable to running a stop sign is “inappropriate.”

The lack of oversight and assurance of humane treatment for families held at T Don Hutto is alarming, and contradicted by our national sense of right and wrong, —and does serious emotional damage to the young prisoners who end up gaining American citizenship.

Communities that locate a prison in their borders suffer immense long-term economic damage because “clean” economic growth avoids them. The uglier the facility, the greater the damage.

There are alternatives to locking up babies and families, and they are proven to be less expensive– and just as effective. But they provide no profit for the prison industry.
So, between now and the eve of Christmas Eve, it is essential that those of us who oppose this corrupt contract:

1. Contact anyone in the county hierarchy who might be able to help us; certainly the WCCC members, but also anyone who could talk to them with good audience.–minister, friends, family members, etc. WCCC contact info can be found at http://www.wiliamson-county.org.

2. Write letters to the editor to the Williamson County Sun, Austin American-Statesman, Austin Chronicle, or other newspaper; contact your local TV affiliate station’s news department. Ask for folks to join our effort on the blogs and email lists.

3. Consider getting a few other supporters to go with you to visit with your Williamson County commissioner–or go on your own; small settings can work far better than large, public ones because the commissioner needn’t be defensive of the issue.

4. Come to Saturday, December 20 vigil in front of the Hutto facility from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. to show support and generate more.

5. Attend the December 23 WCCC meeting that starts at 9:30 a.m.; come early ( CCA often tries to pack the place before it starts), bring others, and seriously consider speaking. Write a three-minute speech to deliver.

The new faces and voices who have recently come out against the contract renewal have had a huge impact. We can’t lapse now; let’s celebrate Christmas with the gift of an end to imprisoning innocent families and babies in Williamson County —-in Texas—-in the United States of America.

Please stay in touch if you see a road-block or an in-road; we need to maximize our chances in these final few days! My email is maryellenkersch@verizon.net

MaryEllen Kersch