Category: Detention

In the following email, Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr. responds to news that the UN Special Rapporteur for the Human Rights of Migrants has not been approved by USA authorities for a planned visit to the T. Don Hutto prison for migrant families.–gm

This is really good news folks…!!!

This whole thing more than amply exposes the epitome of Texas corruption…and how it goes all the way to the White House. Corruption that is the stench of Washington…and traumatizes our own country and the entire world.

Bush, Chertoff, ICE, CCA, DeLay, Gonzales…Perry, Craddick, Dewhurst…Swinford…and corrupt Texas elected officials of every level, city, county, state and those that have infiltrated all the way to the Administration are making a mockery of democracy by prostituting themselves to the corporate elitists. And we’ll expose them all. Now we have more need to than ever! They’re imprisoning children for profit…and they think they can use our government to get away with it!
Remember that we recently shared information with you how the D.A.of Willacy County, Juan Guerra, who was prosecuting corrupt officials that were on the take in the rush to build profit prisons like the concentration camp of immigrants in Raymondville. And…how Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales blocked federal investigations into how high up the government the corruption went…which we already know goes all the way to the White House?

Remember how we showed you how much money that CCA gets of our taxpayers money to imprison innocent children here in Texas? $7000 per month/per child….to be in 8’x12′ cells?

Remember how we recently showed you documents exposing how the State of Texas Department of Family Protective Services exempted CCA based on lies and deception so that ICE and CCA could get away with child abuse?

Remember how we showed you the $500,000+ that Texas Governor Perry, Speaker of the House Craddick and Lt. Governor Dewhurst, and how the mostly anti-immigrant legislators recently received from “for profit” prison companies?

Remember how we showed you how David Swinford, who heads the House State Affairs Committee has blocked a public hearing of HCR 64 which was authored by Rep. Eddie Rodriguez and Rafael Anchia…and co-authored by some 20 other Texas legislators. The resolution denounces Chertoff and ICE’s imprisoning innocent children and their moms at Hutto as immoral. Yet…he who receives money from CCA…serves as a buffer between corrupt tyranny and democracy…in favor of greedy corporatism. Monday is that last day that the resolution HCR 64.

Remember that we showed you that Homeland Security itself is based at HUTTO? Why else would their marked vehicles be there. Why else would they need to double the parking lot last month…for 400 children and women?

People all over the country were celebrating the fact that UN Human Rights Commission special investigator, Sr. Jorge Bustamante, was going to visit Hutto this coming Monday…and report his findings to the UN next month. The US has never been faced with an inspection by the UN for human rights violations. We should have been in previous eras. But now…we really should be. Our government is violating everything that stands for human rights…right here in America.

National media has been frighteningly uninterested in the cause of our extremely diverse group of grass roots Americans. They will embrace our desire to free innocent children from the grips of a cruel, immoral, tyrannical and therefore criminal regime that would greedily profit off of imprisoning women and children. They will learn that most some of the victims of ICE who are in Hutto have fled murder, rape, torture…while the White House, Chertoff and ICE…and of course CCA…all call it humane…and in the best interests of national security…branding them their victims as “illegal”. . . .

We are now faced in this country with something quite sinister. Our government is not allowing a UN inspector to investigate what we Americans and Texans already know to be human rights violations that resemble things we thought were horrifying when committed in other countries. And we know why they are not letting the UN investigator to tour Hutto. Our government is hiding their moral stench…!!! Maybe they can decoy, avoid, silence, prevent the U N inspector…but they will not silence us.

“We the people of the United States” will not back down? Why not? Because WE KNOW! Because this is a battle front. This is a new kind of war. Those in power who swore to “protect the constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic” have not only failed…they have become the “enemies…domestic”.

Morally…this dark side is at war against “Love thy neighbor”, the “Golden Rule” of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. A war against the “Good Samaritan”. This is a moral war. And those in control are truly of the criminal and organized crime element. They are cruel and hateful.

We all know that atrocities are being committed against our human family…and they are being committed with the same false pretexts as those that put us…and keeps us…in Iraq. So that the Administration’s cronies can bilk us of $2 Billion dollars a week from the Iraq war. Like Walter Read, New Orleans, education and medical care have all but failed…they have created the State of Fear…inside of our own country…and they do it so that they can imprison children, women, asylum seekers, refugees and desperate humble people…and bilk billions of dollars through privatization doing so. We do not need to dwell for long on Halliburton…but how about Blackwater? Now we are learning about CCA, GEO(Wackenhut), Emerald, Cornell, MTC.

Mr. Bustamante knew that all across America there are people like you and me that know that our government has gone way beyond indecency. Their actions are immoral and criminal. They are above the law. They are outside the law. They are really “out laws” that have seized control of every aspect of America. They crush justice and erase the constitution in order to continue with their corrupt ways.

Mr. Bustamante was encouraged that grass roots Americans would hold a vigil in support of his visit…and to FREE the CHILDREN of Hutto. We will not let him down. We will not let ourselves down. We will not let the children and their mothers in Hutto down. Sure…they can bully the UN inspector…but WE will not be bullied…let alone by cowards. They can stop Mr. Bustamante from seeing the inside of Hutto…but they cannot stop our voice of outrage. Their decision to prevent Mr. Bustamante will sting them like the scorpion that stings itself with its own tail. Even the national media will cease to suppress this shocking atrocity. Now…the child victims of Hutto will now come to the light of America…and the world. We may finally see the likes of Geraldo Rivera, Anderson Cooper, Keith Oberman, Cris Matthews. Maybe now Oprah, Angelina Joli and Chuck Norris will weigh in. Maybe even Dan Rather?

Regardless…we WILL proceed with our Hutto Vigil VIII this coming Monday…May 7th…just as we resolved. Chertoff and ICE will not…and cannot…dissuade us by their impeding Mr. Bustamante. What Chertoff and ICE are trying to hide from the UN…we already know. Either way…we have won this battle.

Hutto Vigil VIII will take place all day in front of the Hutto prison camp. We’ll start at 10am. We’ll stop after sunset. Come any time during the day that you can. Feel free to share this invitation. Please feel free to bring your friends, family, neighbors…and members of your faith or organization.

Our statement to the leaders of this country?

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND BARS

FREE the CHILDREN

Jay

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jay@villadelrio.com
(830)768-

0768
(830)734-8636 (Saturday-Monday’s Hutto Vigil VIII) (cell)

Alert!!!

We just got word from a reliable source that Chertoff is denying access to the Hutto prison camp to the UN Human Rights Commission independent inspector, Sr. Jorge Bustamante….who was to inspect human rights violations against the innocent children and their mothers from some 30 different countries.
And we know why!!! Immoral and criminal conduct!!! Sleazy, callous and greedy exploitation…and child abuse…committed by the corporate controlled state. The military-industrial complex is committing its atrocities on innocent children and their mothers…right here in Texas. Taylor, Texas.

For years, we’ve criticized other dictators for refusing UN inspections. We even go to war over their refusals.

The State of Texas Department of Family Protective Services exempted CCA…actually exempted itself from Texas supervision over the child abuse being committed by Chertoff at Hutto.

Is it not time for a national outrage?

Will you join our outrage? Will you help?

Jay

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jay@villadelrio.com
(830)768-0768

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May 3, 2007, 5:33PM
U.N. representative visit to immigration center rejected

By ANABELLE GARAY Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

DALLAS — A planned United Nations visit to a highly criticized central Texas center for detaining immigrant families was never approved by federal immigration officials, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said Thursday.

ICE didn’t immediately respond to questions of why the visit by Jorge Bustamante, the Human Rights Council’s independent expert on migrant rights, wasn’t approved.

Bustamante had been expected to tour the T. Don Hutto facility on Monday. The U.N. human rights office in Geneva announced late last month that he was going to tour the former prison in Taylor, as well as two border areas where U.S. officials say they will crack down on people illegally crossing the border.

ICE spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs said no tours of Hutto are scheduled.

Bustamante still plans to discuss migrant issues with government officials, campaign groups and immigrants during a mission this month that includes stops in Tucson, Ariz.; Austin, Texas; Fort Myers, Fla.; New York; and Washington, D.C.

Bustamante, who is from Mexico, is expected to present his findings to the 47-nation rights council at its next session in June.

Civil liberties and immigration advocates sued federal officials in March on behalf of several children detained at Hutto, which typically houses about 400 non-criminal immigrants awaiting deportation or other outcomes to their immigration cases.

The groups contend families at Hutto are subjected to psychologically abusive guards, inadequate medical care and inhumane conditions in a facility run like a prison.

A federal judge was critical of the facility in an order setting the case for trial in August.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks in Austin wrote that living conditions at the Hutto may be unsuitable, and federal officials overseeing the facility should have spent more time researching how to properly care for children in detention.

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SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON RIGHTS OF MIGRANTS TO VISIT UNITED STATES

27 April 2007

The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Jorge Bustamante, will visit the United States from 30 April to 18 May 2007 at the invitation of the Government.

The purpose of his visit is to witness first hand the situation of migrants at the borders and in immigration detention facilities and discuss migrant rights related issues with United States officials, experts and advocates from the civil society.

During his visit, the Special Rapporteur is scheduled to meet senior government officials, local authorities, representatives of non-governmental organizations and individual migrants. The Special Rapporteur will begin his mission in San Diego and then visit Tucson, Austin, Fort Meyers and New York. His mission concludes in Washington DC. His agenda includes visits to the Florence, Hutto and Monmouth detention centers. [emphasis added] He will also visit the Nogales border in Arizona and the border in San Diego.

The Special Rapporteur will report on his findings to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Prof. Bustamante was appointed Special Rapporteur by the Commission of Human Rights in August 2005. The mandate was established in 1999 and further extended by the Human Rights Council to “examine ways and means to overcome the obstacles existing to the full and effective protection of the human rights of migrants, including obstacles and difficulties for the return of migrants who are undocumented or in an irregular situation”.

hr07071e

By Greg Moses

DissidentVoice / CounterPunch

The thing about courthouse reporting is the stories come packaged for delivery. For a thirty-dollar check and a five-minute wait, the clerk at the federal courthouse will hand you a document whose news value comes pre-certified by affiants with impeccable credentials, signed off by a U.S. Magistrate Judge.

“That’s sixty pages,” she says, not meaning to remind you of the audio thud that television producers delivered yesterday when they dropped this report in front of the camera from two feet above the desk.

Walking back out the silent stone building, past the metal detector, wishing the courteous guardian a nice afternoon, I wonder that times have changed so many of these heavyweight buildings into inner sanctums. Thank goodness that I could explain myself briefly.

Standing later in the May shade across from the Texas capitol, sipping a short cup of coffee, I am nothing but depressed, having stopped off at the pizza joint for a stuffed slice and preview of the thudding federal litany that served in late February to warrant the search of the South Austin home of Riad Hamad. It is a summary of the last chapter of his life.

“We had a very unpleasant visit from the FBI and IRS agents yesterday morning and they walked out with more than 40 boxes of tax returns, forms, documents, books, flags, cds etc.,” wrote Riad Hamad in a Feb. 29 email that was quickly forwarded across the internet. “The special agent said that they have a probable cause for money laundering, wire fraud, bank fraud..etc and I think that all of it stems from more than 35 years of watching me.”

Indeed, the 60-page package, unsealed last week by the federal court in Austin, contains an affidavit which swears that Riad Hamad’s home had been under surveillance enough to be able to report license plate numbers from his car and those driven by his closest companions in life.

There is a fourteen page inventory of the stuff that was taken from Riad Hamad’s house on Feb. 27. Miscellaneous bills seized from the dashboard of a BMW. Notepad with notes seized from a briefcase in a Ford Explorer. Tax return info found in a canvas bag. Deposit slips. Paycheck stubs. Spreadsheets of addresses, names, phone numbers. Articles of Incorporation for the Arab-American Cultural Society. Miscellaneous medical records.

From the top stereo shelf of the kitchen the feds seized CD Roms. From the second shelf they took cassette and camcorder tapes. From the dresser in the master bedroom they grabbed various letters. From the kitchen table some W-2 forms. From luggage in the master bedroom they removed the airline luggage tags.

They took the Dell Optiplex, the HP Pavillion, the Gateway laptop, and both Compaq Presarios, along with two generic thumb drives, one Kingston 2GB media card, and two floppy disks.

From master closet (hers) they took passports. From master closet (his) they took 80 video tapes. From the master bedroom nightstand they took a sheet of paper with handwriting. And from the family room they took something called “Volkswagon of America.”

From the master bedroom desk they took medical bills (’98 forward) and house purchase documents. From the trash can outside the house they pulled a postal service package sent from Stone Ridge, NY to Riad Hamad.

And David Rovics, if you’re out there listening, they took your CD, too, from a file cabinet in the office. That’s some of the stuff listed up to page 8 of 14, but that’s enough, don’t you think, to get the picture. They came to Riad Hamad’s house, and they cleaned him out.

Well, maybe we should also mention (from page 11 of 14) that on the piano they found a book entitled, “War on Freedom.”

They don’t say what they found in the safety deposit box when that was searched, too.

The federal agent who asked for the search warrant works for the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and he sets forth a case of probable cause involving “an illegal fraud scheme through the use of non-profit organizations, false documents submitted via U.S. Postal Service, false documents transmitted via wire communications, the failure to file federal income tax returns for the years 1999 through 2003 and 2005, and tax evasion for the years 1999 through 2006.”

There is absolutely no probable cause that Riad Hamad had anything to do with terrorism. Some sizable cash payments were allegedly delivered via ATM to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. But according to Google, the man named in the affidavit as the one who received those payments appears to be a well-known nonviolent activist. In fact, the affidavit says very little about where Riad Hamad spent his money.

“Hamad sends large amounts of money to the Middle East and/or to charities that forwarded these funds to the Middle East. The disposition of these funds is unknown at this time.”

At the website for the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund, is a list that has not been referenced in the affidavit or by any press reports about the affidavit. There Riad Hamad offers some accounting of his donations and spending. According to my calculations, based upon the materials that he posted online, Riad Hamad publicly declared donations in the amount of $491,751.05 and expenses in the amount of $331,897.00 for the period starting Jan. 1, 2002 and ending Jan. 31, 2008.

Beginning in 2005, however, there are large gaps in the online numbers, some of them apparently due to inadvertent sloppiness. For example, Riad Hamad posted a document that purports to show donations from 2005, but actually shows donations from 2006. Therefore, he posted the 2006 numbers twice, probably without realizing that he had overwritten his previous file.

“Most small nonprofits have terrible record-keeping,” writes an Austin attorney who helped Riad Hamad find a lawyer after the Feb. 27 raid. On that count, Riad Hamad appears guilty as the rest.

Federal agents hinted that Riad Hamad may have been a tax protester, too.

“Hamad also filed a document titled ‘Redirect TAX Money AWAY from Israel’ with the IRS,” says the affidavit. “Your affiant believes that this form is used by ‘anti-tax’ groups as a way for them to justify not filing federal income tax returns or not paying income tax to the IRS.” Riad Hamad sent in the form twice, during 2002 and 2007. He also declared zero withholding from his paychecks. And when he filed for an extension in 2005, “Hamad listed his tax liability, Total 2005 payments, Balance due, and Amount you are paying as being $0.00 for all of the line items.”

So far, we have a story of a big-hearted man with a temper for justice who worked fast but loose in the cause of Palestinian children’s welfare. This is the man that everyone says they know well. It is the man that I talked to once by telephone when he was helping the incarcerated Palestinian families at the T. Don Hutto prison in Texas.

As a boy growing up in Beirut, Riad Hamad would look from his widow over tented communities. This is how he remembered it for me:

“What are those tents, Daddy?”

“Those are the Palestinians, Riad. They are waiting to return home.”

Could that boy grow up to be capable of drowning himself at the age of 55 in despair over what things had come to? Could he put duct tape over his own eyes, bind his own feet and hands, and shuffle himself down into Austin’s Lady Bird Lake?

“He didn’t seem suicidal,” says one Austin attorney who met with Riad Hamad after the raid. And in an email to me on March 1, Riad Hamad dashed off the phrase, “will fight like hell.”

But when Riad Hamad called his friend Paul Larudee via cell phone on the evening of April 14, he spoke in a hushed voice. And when Larudee shared news that a donation

had arrived at the new California address of the PCWF, Riad Hamad said, “Well, it doesn’t matter.” He would be dead by April 15. Was it the ultimate tax protest?

Beyond this point the affidavit veers into pathetic allegations about the background details of Riad Hamad’s home finances. Checks written via credit card accounts. Student loans from several colleges. Stock accounts. I can understand why Riad Hamad would not want to face these public humiliations.

By chance on the bus home I am reading Derrida’s discussion about the role that pity plays in Rousseau’s account of human morality. Isn’t pity a good word for what young Riad Hamad must have felt as he peered out his window upon the Palestinian refugee camps of the 1950s? Isn’t pity a good word for what motivates so many people, as Paul Larudee explains, who actually travel to Palestine and experience the pain of dispossession up close? And isn’t pity what I right now feel for the kind of pain that must have consumed the last days of Riad Hamad’s life?

Riad Hamad never could reconcile himself to a world where so many people could know so much about the Palestinian children, and care less.

Salamat, Riad Hamad. They are selling your suicide note down at the federal courthouse today.

Salamat, Riad Hamad. Would you have us buy it?

Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr. walked from Abilene to Haskell in solidarity with the Hazahza family. In the following email he responds to news that four of five family members have been released.–gm

Hey amigos…

You’ve endured a lot of e-mails about the “for profit” prison camps. As you know…we put a lot of focus on the Hazahza family. Tonight…we rejoice that four more of their family free.
Many people protested and fought for their “liberty and justice”. They never really got “liberty and justice”. The fact is that they endured 6 months of inhumane treatment in a prison camp…being incarcerated with convicted felons. They never committed a crime and were never charged with a crime. Yet they endured…and they are once again free.

Bush, Chertoff, ICE and the Emerald “for profit” prisons, along with Texas legislators and Washington insiders, county officials…all corruptly profited off of their incarceration. It is a sad and sick system when the Governor of Texas and his own hometown folk would profit from this atrocity and protect the corruption.

It’s interesting that the youngest son, Ahmad, was wrongfully incarcerated in this adult prison at the age of 17. When the error was realized, he was put in solitary confinement. While there, he became ill and was mocked by the guards and refused medical treatment. The daughters were subjected to violations of their bodies.

Vigils were held in their behalf. Asma Salam, MD, stood outside of the Federal Courthouse at 1100 Commerce in Dallas everyday for over the past month and a half. Patricia Juarez joined her. Josh Bardavid, a NY attorney argued aggressively in their behalf. The federal judge scolded the federal attorneys for having no case against them…and scolded Homeland Security for committing offenses that in themselves were not legal.

Ralph Isenberg and his assistant, Jose De La Rocha tried to pull all the strings they could. Brett Shipp of WFAA in Dallas repeatedly reported on the case. Even Dr. Javier Iribaran from California came out to walk in protest to this crime. Reza Barkhordari, Suzi’s fiance, took care of his future mother-in-law during all this time. And Greg Moses of http://www.texascivilrightsreview.org had the story on his front page since February. All to no avail.

According to our current unconstitutional laws…ICE can detain an immigrant for up to six months without cause…without due process. Damned convenient for the cronies of the Bush administration who own stock in “for profit” prisons like Emerald’s Haskell prison camp…and CCA’s Hutto prison camp where the mother and youngest son were imprisoned and separated from the rest of the family.

In the end, Chertoff and ICE virtually snubbed us Americans and Texas citizens who have been deeply grieved over such atrocities. I am personally committed to seeing that each and every corrupt and complicit person be held responsible for these crimes that are being committed against members of our human family like the Hazahza, Ibrahims and the some 30,000 more that we don’t even know about. The real felons are the ones who have committed these crimes against the Hazahzas. They just have not been charged yet. But their day is coming. From the guards to the county judge and commissioners, the councilmen and the state and national officials who all receive money form this corrupt scheme.

The only real victory is that the Hazahzas have not been deported…yet. I hope they are allowed to stay in our country. I hope that they choose to stay in our country. I hope that they realize that most Americans do not even know what atrocities our current administration is committing…and that once we do know…we are willing to stand up along side them and in their behalf…in solidarity. I wouldn’t blame them if they choose to get the hell out of this tyrannical atmosphere. Yet, that would be a grievous loss…for we need an America whose future includes decent families like the Hazahzas.

Enough of the racist, supremacist elitists!!! Their arrogant power will be stripped from them…in the same way that they keep trying to strip us of our freedoms…and strip those who come to this country of their dignity. The end of that tyranny is soon.

Now…let’s free all of the children and their mothers who are victims of this same tyrannical regime in the ICE/CCA run Hutto prison camp…

Jay

Good mornin’ Sr. Bustamante…

This is an urgent and personal appeal. PLEASE speak with the mothers and the children in the HUTTO prison camp.

In the beginning, ICE and CCA would not allow the inside of the prison camp to be visited or viewed…not by the attorneys that visited their clients, nor by the media. We pushed to get freedom of speech and freedom of the press for those on the inside and the media. Requests from all over the country for freedom of information and for a tour of the Hutto prison camp flooded ICE and CCA. We scored for “freedom of the press” when ICE and CCA were forced to allow a media tour on February 10, after they did some superficial modifications to disguise the previous conditions. But there is still no “freedom of speech”.

The children and their mothers are not allowed to speak to the media…and the media is not allowed, but prohibited, to speak with the mothers and children. That violates the international “Rights of the Child”, even though the United States is the only country aside from Somalia that has not ratified those most basic of rights.

So…PLEASE interview the mothers and children. Privately. Confidentially.

We need to know what they think, how they feel and and what suffer in Hutto.

We need to know how they’ve been treated, what they were escaping if seeking asylum.

We need to know from what countries they come.

We need to know if there has been translators to convey their thought, feelings, circumstances.

We need to know if they are able to communicate their needs to the prison guards and to our government.

We need to know if they need help, counseling, medical care.

We have been told that some mothers have given birth in the Hutto prison camp. Why was that? Was their adequate medical care for the delivery? We’ve been told that some women have been taken to a hospital in Round Rock, blind-folded and cuffed. If that is true…why? We have been told that once in the hospital that the women are cuffed to the beds while exams are being done. It that is so…why?

We the people of the United States, who are endeavoring to free these victims, are shocked that our country would commit this atrocity against the most innocent and helpless of our human family. We need help to help them. Our government is very secret about who is there, where they are from and what their circumstances and conditions are. Please help us get freedom of speech, press and freedom of information.

As we spoke yesterday, we will be holding Hutto Vigil VIII in front of the Hutto prison camp in concert with your visit on May 7th. This will be the eighth vigil since the beginning of our fight for the “liberty and justice for all” of members of our human family that are imprisoned in the Hutto prison camp.

Hasta el Lunes…

Jay

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NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND BARS
FREE the CHILDREN
jay@villadelrio.com
(830)768-0768