Category: Detention

By Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr.

All across this country, folks are rejoicing over the latest decision coming from ICE, of the Department of Homeland Security, under the direction of the Obama administration, to begin a transformation of immigrant detention policies . . . starting with T. Don Hutto.

When it comes to the end of children being imprisoned on American soil, right here in Texas, this victory is more that just about T. Don Hutto.

After the suffering of thousands of children and their families, this decision to quit imprisoning innocent children in a privately run “for profit” prison, is a victory, for not only the children, but, for the small group of “we the people” who engaged in the confrontation of human dignity over human cruelty, a group that grew to thousands around the country.

It is also a victory for the hundreds of thousands of other innocent immigrant children in this country that would have been victims of ICE fulfilling the blueprint of Operation Endgame. By exposing the conditions of T. Don Hutto, the entire system of federal corporatism.

While we rejoice all across this country, we do well to realize that there is more to do. Because Hutto has violated every one of those international rights of children, for over two years, the Hutto grassroots citizens have featured Rights of the Child at our Hutto walks and vigils for over two years now.

That is why a growing group of these same grassroots citizens that came together to fight for the freedom of the children imprisoned in Hutto, have launched a new campaign. They have formed a new group, known as Rights of the Child USA.

Rights of the Child USA is therefore organizing for a major networking initiative…to build an alliance of hundreds of organizations from around the country . . . to promote the ratification of the UN Rights of the Child. Why?

On November 20th, 1989, the UN held the Convention on the Rights of the Child . Rights of the Child was adopted in 1990. That same year, the US Congress voted to ratify the Rights of the Child. Yet, President George H.W. Bush refused to sign the legislation.

Under President Bill Clinton, the Rights of the Child was never important enough to get it ratified. Under George W. Bush, thousands of immigrant children all across this country were victims of some of the harshest treatment, imprisoned “for profit” by the Bush cronies, and deported by the hundreds of thousands.

Untold hundreds have died under the policies of Bush, Cheney, Chertoff, DHS and ICE.

November 20, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet, with the exception of Somalia, the United States is the only country in the world that has refused to ratify the Rights of the Child.

Rights of the Child USA is planning a major event to be held this coming November 20th . . . and has every confidence that the Obama Administration, that just chose to end the imprisonment of innocent immigrant children “for profit” in T. Don Hutto, will also ratify the international Rights of the Child.

If you and-or your organization would be interested in joining this movement and supporting legislation to ratify the Rights of the Child, or know of others who would, please feel free to contact Border Ambassadors as well as share the following contact information.

Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.
jay@villadelrio.com
(830) 734-8636

By Ralph Isenberg
Special to the Texas Civil Rights Review

This will be my first attempt to communicate a message since mid-2008 when the pressure of fighting the government became too much for me to handle and my own experiences with immigration, although behind me, started to haunt me. This is better known as post traumatic stress.

Time does heal most wounds and I am slowly feeling comfortable enough getting back into the fight.

For families having immigration trouble, the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas is now a facility of the past. Families will be placed in a facility more suited for their detention or not even detained at all.

It took an amazing effort of people, the majority of which have nothing in common and do not even know each other, to come together and demand change. The struggle lasted about three years and the result is good.

The result confirms that we as Americans are good people with a heart. There is reason to celebrate and this is not the time to blend negative thoughts into what is truly wonderful news.

I contacted several families of Hutto and know they share in the celebration. So many of the families now reside back in their homelands away from the place they want to call home. Yet, they still celebrate the news for they know that their experience was not in vain.

Thousands of future families will no longer have to endure what they endured. The families of Hutto are the true heroes that must be acknowledged first.

For every situation there must be a lesson to be learned. History will judge those that implemented the policy that created Hutto. History will judge those that supported the concept for nothing more than financial gain. History will judge those that worked inside Hutto. History will judge the community of Taylor, Texas. History will not be kind.

History will not judge those of us that became involved for I suspect we are what I call a “living history” and we will continue to look not to the future, but to the present, to find the next Hutto that deserves attention. We do this knowing that already there is plenty of work to be done.

So let us celebrate what is truly remarkable news and move on. Blessed are those that make the peace.

By Greg Moses

CounterPunch

An infant girl who was nearly born into a Texas immigration prison has been ordered deported to the same occupied Palestinian territories where her older sister suffered gas poisoning during an Israeli assault on the family home in 2000.

The deportation order will be appealed, says family attorney John Wheat Gibson.

The baby girl was born to Hanan Ibrahim since the pregnant woman was released from the T. Don Hutto immigration prison in early February. Hanan, her husband Salah, and four of their children – ages 5 to 15 – received global attention when they were impounded for three months in Texas immigration prisons for the crime of not vacating to countries that would not take them. During the family’s imprisonment, a fifth child was placed into foster care with her uncle Ahmad.

“Faith of Ibrahim Redeemed” said the headline celebrating the family’s miraculous release in early February after they were granted a motion to re-open their deportation trial. But that re-opened trial in early August has now tossed the family back into the position of having no land to welcome them — not even the USA where two of the girls have been born.

The timing of the family’s treatment by USA authorities appears to coincide with an agenda of propaganda. They were arrested to headlines and a press release in early November, the weekend before the national elections. Hanan and the four children were hastily released from the Hutto prison, just one week before a scheduled media tour of the facility. And the new trial for the family was steadily pushed back into the August news hole.

According to legal briefs filed in the family’s behalf, the young Ibrahim girls, while in the USA prison, were known to “sob uncontrollably on a near-daily basis, complain of nightmares, and exhibit symptoms of psychological traumatization.”

“Maryam Ibrahim was about two years old in 2000 when a gas canister crashed into her Palestinian home, rendering her unconscious for lack of breath,” reported the Texas Civil Rights Review in January. “Pleading to USA authorities for asylum in 2002, Maryam’s father Salah testified that his little girl was fearful of people in uniform.”

Here is an interview conducted via email this week with Ibrahim family attorney John Wheat Gibson:

Texas Civil Rights Review: At last week’s trial before the immigration judge in Dallas, what arguments did you make in behalf of the Ibrahim family’s right to remain in the USA?

John Wheat Gibson: We argued that Israel continues to steal land and murder Palestinians simply because they are not Jewish. We pointed out the 59 Palestinian mothers who have been forced to give birth at check points because the Zionist thugs would not allow them to proceed to the hospital. We also argued that it was unfair for the immigration judge to allow the government to put into evidence all of its documents on the day of trial, when the rules require that they be submitted and served on the opposing side at least 10 business days before the trial.

TCRR: What reasons did the judge give for ordering the Ibrahim family deported?

Gibson: The immigration judge said Israel does not abuse human rights and that Fatah will protect the rights of the Palestinians in the West Bank. He said punishment by Hamas for refusing to give money to Hamas because of political disagreement with Hamas would not be persecution on account of political opinion. The immigration judge was just following orders. He is no Himmler; he is a measley Eichmann.

TCRR: Last time the family was ordered deported to “Palestine” there was difficulty securing travel permission from Israel. Is there any reason to think that Israel will change its policy toward returning Palestinians?

Gibson: Israel is more brutal and racist than ever. After going to so much trouble since 1947 to exterminate and expel the Palestinians so the Master Race can settle on their land, why would the Israelis allow them to return?

TCRR: Where does this ruling leave the family? What can they expect from immigration authorities in the coming months?

Gibson: Appeal has been filed to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

TCRR: Is there anything our readers can do to help the family?

Gibson: Send letters to editors and to Chief Immigration Judge complaining about racist policy of denying asylum to Palestinians simply to avoid embarrassing the Jewish supremacist governments of Israel, the UK, and the US. Law and facts, not AIPAC, JINSA, WINEP, et al, should have some influence on trial results. In the United States today Muslims get the same treatment in the courts that Jews got in the courts of Nazi Germany. This case is a perfect example. Your readers should rally to the resistance instead of goose-stepping to Armageddon behind the Furher and his Chosen Race.

TCRR: When Hanan Ibrahim was impounded by immigration authorities during a pre-election raid last November, she was pregnant. Can you tell us, how is the new baby?

Gibson: Healthy girl, which God’s Chosen People will kill when the Gestapo sends her back to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as they have killed so many other little girls, whom they view as racially inferior.

Note: The Chief Immigration Judge can be reached at:

David L. Neal
Office of the Chief Immigration Judge
5107 Leesburg Pike, Suite 2500
Falls Church, VA 22041
(703) 305-1247

By Peter Dana

I arrived at the Williamson County Commissioner’s Court at 9:30AM and signed up to speak on Item#61 (T. Don Hutto contracts). Mary Ellen Kersch had also signed up to speak on #61. All the others that I saw had signed up to speak on the landfill issue.

At the start of the meeting, Judge Gattis took several items off the agenda but not #61. He asked for citizen input on non-agenda items. Two people spoke. He asked if there were other non-agenda item comments.

I asked if Item #61 would be discussed outside of executive session. He said no. I asked if there would be public discussion of item #61. He said no. I said that I would speak then and went up to the podium and delivered approximately this:

I would like to make a statement about the county contract with ICE and CCA. My name is Peter Dana. We are 28-year residents and taxpayers in the County.

Because these issues are discussed in executive session, and because we cannot see the minutes, or even the redacted minutes, we have no way of knowing what action this court is considering today. If the plan is to move children out of the T. Don Hutto facility, that would be a good move but it would not stop the protests, the lawsuits, or the negative attention brought to Williamson County.

The mission of the Corrections Corporation of America is not to provide a service to the county, the state, or the country, it is to provide profits for their stockholders. CCA announced a 25% profit increase just this morning, tied specifically to the money from the T. Don Hutto detention center.

CCA is the largest owner of private prisons in the country and has a long history of mistreating detainees. You would know this if you talked with four-year old Angelina Carbajal and her mother who were detained in Hutto for six months. These were fully documented asylum-seeker, not criminals.

As county commissioners you have made the County complicit in the detention of children. You have put the county at risk in the inevitable lawsuits that will follow from the detention of children for profit.

I ask that you stop aiding in the process of funneling taxpayer money into the pockets of CCA executives and stockholders.

Mary Ellen Kersch then spoke very strongly against the detention of children on moral and ethical grounds. I left and spoke with Mary Ellen Kersch for about ten minutes after leaving my card with a KLBJ Radio reporter. I returned at 12:30 in time for the court to move into executive session at 12:37.

I left again and returned at 1:15 PM. At 3:20 or so the court came back from executive session. They moved through several items and were about to adjourn when I asked if there would be any discussion of item #61. Judge Gattis said that it had not been discussed in executive session at all and that there would be no discussion now. They adjourned at about 3:30 PM.

Children will be sent to Pennsylvania

The T. Don Hutto Detention Facility in Taylor, Texas will be for women only according to today’s announcement from the federal department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In a press release posted at the ICE website, the department announced several “immediate actions” that include:

Discontinued use of family detention at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility in Texas. In place of housing families, we will propose that the Texas facility will be used solely as a female detention center. Presently, Hutto is used to detain families and low custody female detainees. Detained families will now be housed at Berks Family Residential Center in Pennsylvania.