Category: Detention

  • Alert: UN Rapporteur to Tour Hutto Prison May 7

    Email from Jay Johnson-Castro

    Notice

    MFor months…we’ve asked for it. Pleaded for it. And now we have it…!!!

    When have you ever heard of a UN Human Rights investigation being done in America…right here in Texas? Well…here it is! And…it’s about time. It could have come sooner…but it isn’t coming too late. Let’s see how long national media can keep this a secret as they’ve kept the Hutto prison camp with innocent children a secret.

    I just spoke with Jorge Bustamante, the United Nations, Human Rights Council’s independent expert on migrant rights . He will be visiting the Hutto prison camp on May 7th.
    In concert withr. Bustamante’s inspection of the Hutto prison camp, and with his approval, we will be holding Hutto Vigil VIII on May 7th…in support his visit. We’ll send out the specific details as we get them. Meantime…please mark your calendars for this important vigil. Let your family, friends, neighbors and organizations know.

    It is understood that the national media, which is complicit with the Administration, will resist publicizing the UN Human Rights inspection of Hutto. It’s their little secret. At the same time…the ruling elitists all know that when the national media has been forced to report on Hutto and prison camps like Haskell, Raymondville and Bayview…we will have won! That is why we should be ever so proud of our local media here in Texas. TV, radio, newspapers and electronic media…both English and Spanish. They keep the message alive! With their reports and articles…blogsphere is full of reports and opinions. It is the local and state level media that gives the foundation for further investigation and reporting. I also want to thank BBC Mundo! that has been there from the start.

    We trust that the national media will be forced to cover this investigation of human rights violations at the Hutto “for profit” prison camp…along with the other camps all over the state and the country. We have long said that this is not just a local, state issue…but a national and international tragedy. Members of our human family are being treated inhumanely…right here on American soil…in “the land of the free”.

    As a coalition of Americans, we are focused on this one thing. FREE the CHILDREN. Our motto for now…is “NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND BARS”. There are many issues over which battles are being waged in this country. Today…May 1…is proof of that. For us…the bar couldn’t be any higher than to free innocent children from the grip of a cruel administration that would commit such an atrocity.

    May 10th is also a key date. Correction Corporations of America (CCA) the nation’s and the world largest “for profit” prison company…and the owner of the Hutto prison camp where the innocent children are imprisoned, will be holding its annual stockholders’ meeting in Nashville, TN. We are calling on any and all individuals and organizations to hold a protest at their stockholders’ meeting on that day. If you have any suggestions, please let us know.

    Currie Hallford and a team of fellow Americans are working up and down the hallways of the Texas Capitol…trying to keep HCR 64 alive. HCR 64 is the resolution drafted by Rep. Eddie Rodriguez and Rafael Anchia to demand the Homeland Security…Chertoff & ICE…desist from the immoral imprisoning of the immigrant children in Hutto and come up with a more humane and dignified solution. Seventeen other representatives have signed on to that bill.

    Shame on Rep. David Swinford for holding up HCB 64! Shame on the Williamson County Commissioners for renewing the lease which perpetuates the immoral treatment of innocent children.

    We’d also like to share this link with you. http://eyeonwilliamson.org/?p=1071. It’s a very comprehensive summary about the latest findings on Hutto, HCR 64 and the money flow…all nicely packaged with supporting links. The editor of the site appropriately uses this quote.
    “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Also, attached, is a program for an upcoming event. The International Solutions Forum to be held on May 5th in San Antonio and sponsored by LULAC. If interested, you can contact Armando Garcia at (210)525-9191 Ext. 32 or at armando.garcia@imfge.com.

    As always, journalist, Greg Moses of http://www.texascivilrighs review.org has for months been dedicated in presenting on his on-line news site, comprehensive posts and archives of our battle to free the children as well as all the immigrants who are immorally detained “for profit” in our state and our country.

    Jay

    P.S. As y’all know…I started my personal protest against American tyranny by walking in protest against the border wall back in October, November as well as in February. The border wall issue is very close to my heart and is coming back into view…fast and furious. We’ll be coming up with plans to continue our protest of the wall. In the mean time…here’s a powerful expose on the issue.

    jjj

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    jay@villadelrio.com
    (830)768-0768

  • Remember the Citizen Children

    Jay Johnson-Castro sends a link to this April 2 Washington Post story by N.C. Aizenman. Undocumented immigrants in the USA have 3.1 million American-born children, whose rights as citizens have until recently been widely ignored. When we read stories like this, we remember the 4-year-old twin citizen chidren of the Suleiman family who were split from their mother and father during an early November raid, only to be reunited at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport for deportation to Jordan in early 2007. We do not give up hope that the twins will be brought home with their mother and father.–gm

    In December, immigration agents descended on six meat-processing plants belonging to Swift & Co. and arrested 1,297 illegal workers. At one plant, in Worthington , Minn. , the workers had at least 360 U.S.-born children and probably many more, according to a local pastor who raised money for them.

    Similarly, of 361 workers arrested during a raid of the Michael Bianco Inc. manufacturing plant in New Bedford , Mass. , last month, about 90 were the sole caregivers for one or more children in the United States, according to federal and state authorities.

    On Thursday, a chubby-cheeked fifth-grader named Jessica Guncay joined the ranks of such children when immigration agents raided a Dixie Printing and Packaging Corp. plant in Baltimore , where her parents were working under false Social Security numbers.

    During an interview in her home in Pikesville the next day, Jessica, 10, said that although she had known her Ecuadoran parents were in the country illegally, she never imagined they would be arrested.

    “I feel sick inside,” she mumbled, staring at her white sneakers.

    Her mother, Ana Tapia, who sat next to Jessica on the family’s brown velvet couch, pulled her daughter in for a tearful hug.

    Although Jessica’s father, Jury Guncay, 45, remains in custody, Tapia, 40, was released several hours after the raid so Jessica would not be left without anyone to care for her. But the black monitoring bracelet around Tapia’s ankle testified to the limited nature of that reprieve: She must remain under partial house arrest until her case comes up in immigration court. Jay also sends the following links about immigrant rights.

    For those who care and keep up on the atrocities being committed against the innocent and helpless…”for-profit”…here’s some references…

    (ACLU video on Chertoff and ICE’s children prisoners at Hutto)

    (Editorial from the Houston Chronicle)

    (texasprisonbidness.org: A new blog that has been formed to deal with for-profit prisons)

    (KPFK Audio from Beneath the Surface with Michael Slate (March 27, 2007): Interview with Jay is 40% into the talk)

    ( Ronnisrant: A blog that has just discovered and has weighed in about the atrocities that are being committed against immigrants in concentration camps in Texas , USA )

    (A report by the Brownsville Herald and interview with our heroine, pro-bono attorney, Jodi Goodwin…about the Raymondville concentration camp. Jodi calls it Ritmo.)

    (Update of the Abilene Reporter News on the Hazahza hearing this past Friday)

    (xicanopwr.com: A comprehensive overview of the prison camps for immigrants)

    (A great aztlanelectronicnews.net: overview of the immigrant prison camp atrocities)

    (On Hutto…from Sean Cunningham of PBS)

    (The ABA ’s March ’07 report and criticisms of ICE detention in pdf format)

    (Dallas Morning News: On the hearing in the matter of Hazahzas v. Chertoff)

    Jay

  • Hutto Walk II: Showdown Between American Democracy and Fascism

    Email from Jay Johnson-Castro.

    Greetings amigos…

    Is it legal to imprison innocent children? Is it moral? Is it humane? What kind of human can answer “yes” to any of those questions? On the contrary…it is absolutely inhumane and immoral…and therefore thoroughly illegal. Criminal.

    The architect of fascism, Benito Mussolini himself said, “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.”

    The next walk is being planned. It is the Hutto Walk II. It will be a showdown. It will be American Democracy vs. American Fascism.

    Nonetheless…we need your input, your support and networking. The walk will once again be from the Capitol of Texas …in Austin …to the Hutto prison camp of innocent children in Taylor , Texas . It is tentatively scheduled for April 13-15th. If this plan catches on…we would hold the Hutto Vigil VII on April 15th.
    This would occur four months after our first walk and first vigil that we did December 14-16 (2006). Could you please let me know if you or your organization would be willing to support and or assist in this? If there is anything that you can do to share this notice, please do. If your network or organization can help in any way…please let us know how you can help. If your media can let your audience know…please do. If you can do some research…please let us know. If you can lend some legal assistance please do. Print matter, web help. We’re open to your input.

    Here’s the reasoning behind this second walk and seventh vigil…

    All that the Whitehouse, Chertoff and ICE have done since the first walk and the first vigil is justify, defend, lie, willfully misinform and cover up…along with bringing in some plastic plants, remove the razor wire, expand the education and give the kids teddy-bears that they previously denied the children. The media still cannot interview the children or their mothers. So much for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

    To this day…the only ones freed have been by means of big money and legal maneuvering. That is not what we the people want. We want the children and their parents freed! NOW! Not months or years from now. We don’t want a bunch of drawn out political game playing. Every day that a child is locked up…is a day of suffering. A day of callous cruel and inhumane criminality being committed with impunity.

    From the very beginning…we have been demanding freedom for the children, reuniting of families and the cessation of concentration camps. Does anyone believe that the White House’s henchmen, Chertoff & ICE, will yield to the voice of we the people and our wishes? I for sure do. If this is a democracy…they have to! It’s true that they don’t yield to the people or Congress over the Iraq war. We believe that if they don’t comply with the will of “we the people”…that the we the “government of the people, by the people and for the people” will cease to abnegate our role…and rise to the cause of the preservation of American principles and we will not continue to allow fascism to get further entrenched in our land of liberty.

    This isn’t Iraq . This is not about funding and supporting our troops there at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and $2 Billion a week. […] Standing up to free the children is however about courage vs. cowardice on the part of each and every one of us. This is about stopping the corrupt flow of money from the elitist shadow government…along with their politically purchased puppets…who commit these atrocities on the pretext of national security. This is about the preservation of the American ideals and our nation’s moral conscience. Talk about saving face with the world community. Imagine how the world is beginning to feel about America …an America that permits the imprisoning of innocent children and helpless refugees!!!

    We must exercise all of our rights and freedoms that are constitutionally guaranteed…or continue to loose them. This is no time for seeing if we can somehow tear away from the normal routine of our lives and try to squeeze in a moment of protest and dissention. This is all about the future of our country…for our children and grand-children.

    We cannot be silent about the imprisonment of innocent children just because they are not ours, or that they are of another country or race. We must also protect and defend their mothers as well…some of whom have been victims of sexual violations…in the ICE prison camps of CCA, Emerald, GEO, KBR and MTC.

    For those with dedication to a faith…one of the principles of all forms of sincere worship is the caring for innocent children and helpless women (I Pet. 1:27;Isa. 58:7;An-Nisa 4:75 ) Such worshipers would compassionately provide food, clothing and shelter…even in their own homes…to suffering children and women. That surely would not allow for cells in a “for-profit” prison camp.

    We the people cannot be silent and allow concentration camps like Raymondville, Laredo and Del Rio to continue to be built to hold an additional 30,000 immigrants. If someone wishes to use the framing adjective illegal to brainwash the public to look down on desperate people…may they learn the truth through transparency. What is truly “illegal” is the imprisoning of innocent people for-profit, without cause and without defense.

    To be effective, successful…and yes, victorious…we Americans need to come out of the shadows of fear of the fascism that is spreading all around us like malignant cancer. We need to come out of our hiding places and the safe havens of cyberspace…and be counted…openly and publicly. We need to muster up the courage that it takes to preserve the freedoms that our country guarantees…not only for us…but for all fellow humans that share the same inalienable rights that we do. If we don’t protect the innocent while we have the opportunity…we will become the next victims…with no one left to protect us. And then…what kind of country will our children and grandchildren live in?

    On this Hutto Walk II and Hutto Vigil VII…we will give those in positions of authority one last opportunity to do the right thing…and a final warning if they don’t. Free the innocent children now. Turn them over to the loving and caring people of America and the organizations that have a heart and a conscience.

    The voice of grass roots American will not only be heard…but will prevail. Those who are committing these atrocities are committing criminal acts. From prison guards, county commissioners, private prison owners and operators, federal agents all the way to the administration…as we speak…we hold them responsible. We the people are the majority. The dark side is the minority. If they do not comply, if they do not “cease and desist” to commit these illegal acts, if they do not sever themselves from this criminal activity…we the people, the majority of this 21st century American democracy, will seek indictments against anyone and everyone of those who continue to be complicit with these crimes. We would rather have the accomplices of concentration camps prosecuted…than allow them to continue to abuse these innocent children. We would rather have the participants and accomplices of these atrocities on the inside of their prison camps…where they now hold these children, their mothers or anyone humbly seeking refuge in the land of the free.

    This is not a game. We all have things and priorities lined up in our lives. We all have our pet causes. But…this is about the freeing of innocent people…and the preservation of our country as the land of the free. We have to be the freedom fighters at home…and the domestic battle is on.

    When sworn in, the President pledged to “support and defend
    the
    Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”. He has not only failed to protect us from the domestic enemy…he and the corporate elitists who pull his strings are the principal domestic threats against our Constitution and the freedoms that it guarantees.

    Since the Congress has yet to successfully stand up against the demise of the Constitution, the Geneva Convention, the Bill of Rights, the Rights of the Child…who is left to defend, protect and preserve the fundamental human liberties? We the people! And we better do something more than blog with log in names! We must defend the Constitution and the rights and equality of every fellow human. We have to do so openly and with as much courage as we would expect from a combat soldier on the battle front.

    Why will we be victorious? Because we will fight with our hearts and our minds. The dark side fights with weapons of fear and cruelty. The same dark side, with all of its secrecy and police state, cannot deal with conviction, passion, morality, dedication and loyalty…along with intelligent reasoning, truth and transparency. How do we know? Because without one act of violence…we got the media into razor wire protected Hutto…to check it our for us. Likewise…we will now open wide the doors of Hutto without one act of violence…and the children and their mothers will walk out. The police state will be ineffective…if we stand together.

    Does anyone remember watching the Berlin wall get torn down? Who tore it down? The Russians government? Hell no!!! It was the people! People from both sides of the wall. They were joined by people from all over the world who flew in to share in the elimination of such a demented device. The whole world rejoiced at the demise of cruel human rulership. When Hutto’s doors are opened and the children and their mothers are set free…the world will once again have cause for international rejoicing. They will rejoice with us! And…they will rejoice because the spirit of America ’s freedoms will once again be the banner and the envy of the world.

    So…we will continue to walk against the prison camp that holds these children from some 30 countries. Share with us in our protest against such atrocities. Share with us in what very well might go down in American history as one of the acts that preserved the American that the world loved so much.

    Just two weeks to prepare. Your thoughts are very welcome?

    Jay

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Connecting.the.dots…making.a.difference…

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.
    Del Rio , Texas , USA
    Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila , Mexico

  • Raiding the Family Room in Texas: Lan Ying and the Rapporteur for Migrant Rights

    By Greg Moses

    OpEdNews / Dissident Voice / CounterPunch / FameHall

    “Family life is a basic privilege,” says Fort Worth photographer Ryan Pace as he catches a breath or two between morning photo sessions, lunch, and a sales meeting. “It’s a simple privilege that everyone should have. An American has a right to live with his spouse.”

    Ryan, age 52, has known his 32-year-old spouse Lan Ying since 2003. They have been married since July, 2005. But since the time when immigration authorities shipped Lan Ying off to Haskell Prison for three months, he has lived with a fear that any day could bring the handcuffs that drag her out of his life forever.

    As Ryan tells the story of his love and life with Lan (he pronounces the name Lane), it is not difficult to hear echoes from Geneva where the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants last week delivered a critical report on migrant rights in the USA.

    “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State,” says the report from Jorge A. Bustamante, quoting directly from Article 16, paragraph 3, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 23, paragraph 1, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

    “Furthermore,” states Bustamante, “article 23, paragraph 3 states that the right of men and women to marry and found a family shall be recognized. This right includes the right to live together.”

    The Rapporteur’s report cites family rights in early paragraphs, because the USA has agreed to honor these principles. Yet Rapporteur Bustamante alleges, as the example of Ryan and Lan Pace illustrates, that the structure of immigration enforcement in the USA tends to disrespect family rights.

    Lan Ying Pace left China in 2000 following a forced abortion, says Ryan. She applied for asylum as soon as she met USA immigration authorities at the airport gate. She has a legal record without blemish. Not even a traffic ticket. And now that she’s legally married, her husband doesn’t understand why the American government would keep trying to break the family apart.

    Lan Ying was three years into her legal battle for asylum when Ryan met her in Dallas. He has participated in some of the legal efforts to secure her residency in the USA, but he claims to be no expert on the law. He just wants to make a plain case based on family rights.

    Ryan remembers how on Nov. 30, 2006 he accompanied Lan to an “interview” at federal offices along Stemmons Freeway in Dallas. He assured Lan that her skepticism about the interview was unfounded. Since they had been married, Lan had been issued a Social Security card, a work permit, and a Texas driver’s license. The immigration authorities had simply called them for an “interview” to make sure things were going okay. Ryan and Lan brought along friends to wait in the parking lot with Lan’s 3-year-old child, Teresa.

    Today, of course, Teresa cannot forget the day when her mother went into the Stemmons Freeway building and disappeared for three months. Instead of an “interview,” Lan was handcuffed and taken away.

    “I didn’t have any idea why they arrested her,” recalls Ryan via telephone. “They told me they probably were not going to keep her very long. For two days I played hide-and-seek trying to find her. Then I found her at the Bedford Jail (near the Dallas-Fort Worth airport), where they would not let me see her.” When he went back to immigration offices the next day to post bond, the story had changed dramatically.

    “They told me she had her day in court, her asylum claim was denied, and she would be immediately deported to China,” recalls Ryan.

    “‘We don’t know why you’re bothering with her,’ they said.”

    “And I looked back at them and said,’because she’s my wife.’”

    ***

    Migrants in detention include many classes of victims, says the Bustamante report: “asylum-seekers, torture survivors, victims of human trafficking, long-term permanent residents facing deportation for criminal convictions based on a long list of crimes (including minor ones), the sick, the elderly, pregnant women, transgender migrants detained according to their birth sex rather than their gender identity or expression, parents of children who are United States citizens, and families.”

    “Detention is emotionally and financially devastating,” writes the UN Rapporteur, “particularly when it divides families and leaves spouses and children to fend for themselves in the absence of the family’s main financial provider.” The report is sharply critical of mandatory detention laws that were placed on the books during backlash politics of 1996.

    “Estimates based on the United States census find that 1.6 million adults and children, including United States citizens, have been separated from their spouses and parents because of the 1996 legislation and the expansion of the aggravated felony definition,” says the Bustamante report. “Families have been torn apart because of a single, even minor misdemeanour, such as shoplifting or drug possession.”

    “In addition to the devastating effect that mandatory detention has on detained individuals, the policy has an overwhelmingly negative impact on the families of detainees, many of whom are citizens of the United States,” writes the Rapporteur.

    In fact, Ryan began to fear that he, too, might be jailed without warning, leaving Lan’s daughter without a custodian. So he arranged to have the little girl placed with one of Lan’s relatives in the Dallas area. Lan’s daughter, a US citizen, had only recently been reunited with her mother. And now, following the “interview” on Stemmons Freeway, the family of three had been completely torn apart.

    “Mandatory detention and deportation policy, therefore, has significant effects on United States citizens and the children of permanent residents, and other family members,” says the Bustamante report. “Families consistently bear many of the psychological, geographic, economic, and emotional costs of detention and deportation.”

    ***

    Immigration authorities told Ryan to look for Lan in Dallas or Haskell, but he found her in Euless instead. At least in Euless, they let Ryan talk with Lan through a phone receiver across a glass partition. For two or three nights he could see her and speak with her for a half hour or so. Then, indeed, she was packed off to Haskell.

    The Rolling Plains Regional Jail and Detention Facility in Haskell, Texas, is a 550-bed operation located 160 miles west of Fort Worth managed by the Emerald Companies. While Lan was there, it held men and women prisoners from Wyoming, but Wyoming reported bringing the women back in 2007 and expects to bring back the men in the near future. Of course, the Dallas immigration office sends people there, too.

    Albanian asylum seeker Rrustem Neza languished for a year at Haskell prison under “indefinite detention,” separated from his wife and two boys. He was released on bond in late February, 2008, following a discussion of his case before the US House Subcommittee on Immigration.

    Several asylum-seeking Palestinian families rounded up by immigration authorities days before the 2006 election were divided between Haskell prison and the T. Don Hutto prison in Taylor, Texas. Lan was placed into the Haskell cell that confined 20-year-old Suzi Hazahza and her 23-year-old sister Mirvat, who have since been deported.

    “Immigrants indefinitely detained are left uncertain of their status, their rights and their futures,” says the Bustamante report. ”

    Indefinite detention subjects the families of detained immigrants to the agony of not knowing when their loved one will be released or removed. It exacerbates existing mental health problems and retraumatizes individuals who have been subjected to torture or other forms of persecution in their home countries.”

    ***

    In order to get Lan released from Haskell, Ryan collected 85 letters from family and friends. She was released after three months. Since that time, Lan has reported to immigration authorities on a monthly basis via telephone. Last summer, Ryan said the couple was summoned for another “interview” which he attended by himself.

    “I just told them that they didn’t really want to clean the room, because Lan gets really ill over these things now.” It was a real interview that time, and apparently it went well.

    At the end of the UN Special Report on Rights of Migrants in the USA, Rapporteur Bustamante makes a few recommendations. He suggests a second look at the 1996 policies which invoked the structure of mandatory, indefinite detentions. He recommends a genuine system of independent immigration judges who are not bound by Justice Department structures to ignore important questions of family rights.

    “United States immigration laws should be amended to ensure that all non-citizens have access to a hearing before an impartial adjudicator, who will weigh the non-citizen’s interest in remaining in the United States (including their rights to found a family and to a private life) against the Government’s interest in deporting him or her,” says the UN report.

    “I find it appalling,” says Ryan. “My family has been here since the 1600’s. I’m a 3rd generation Texan. We’ve looked into moving to Canada, but I’m too old and too poor to go anywhere. It’s the land of the free and it’s appalling. Lan’s been treated like an animal. And I’m not allowed to live with my wife in my country.”

    Recently, Lan and Ryan bought a new television screen. Ryan remembers hesitating over the question of whether to hang the screen on the wall. Deep down, he still doubts whether tomorrow he’ll have a family in the family room anymore.

    Related Links:
    keepmom.com
    www.petitiononline.com/keepmom

  • On Children's Rights, We Stand with the World

    Newsweek’s Ellis Cose reports that mail is running 50-to-1 in support of a Texas legislator’s attempt to criminalize births in Texas. But Jay Johnson-Castro answers with international law.–gm

    Hey y’all…

    I sent the following e-mail out nearly two months ago. To my knowledge, not one legal mind or organization has keyed in on the UN’s Rights of the Child. If someone had…there would be Congressional outrage by now…and even an international investigation.

    I know it’s a lot to ask…to keep reading about innocent children that are in prison on American soil. But one day of a preschool, elementary school or a high school student being imprisoned in American because he or she is an immigrant is one day too long.
    BUT…someone has to free these kids and their moms! Who will do that? We must keep pushing until they can “breath free”. Knowing that razor wire was taken down and plastic plants put in the prison hallways of Hutto does not make Hutto any less a gross violation of the Rights of the Child. …

    Aside from Texas …Just ask Tacoma , Washington . Ask Massachusetts . How American is ICE? How humane…or rather…inhumane is the conduct of Chertoff’s armed forces that is ravaging our county? But…don’t ask Tony Snow.

    Bush directs his henchman, Chertoff, to use his ICE company to round up the helpless and innocent…and then spend $7000 per month of our hard-earned taxpayers’ money per child to keep them in a prison cell. $7000 per month…to hold one innocent child in a cell…is paid to a private for-profit prison company…friends of the administration.

    DeLay took $100,000 from Corrections Corp of America…the Hutto for-profit prison company. Gov. Perry took $10,000 last year just before CCA opened Hutto. Is it any wonder that he’s so quiet and has yet to speak out about this inhumane children’s prison in Texas…just 35 miles northeast of his luxurious surroundings in Austin. And then we the taxpayers pay billions of dollars to round up these working people…sometimes with their children…and sometimes not.

    Most of Americans think Walter Reed is disgraceful American…and a failure of the current administration. But that’s because it got national coverage. Treating American troops as a commodity in a privatized for-profit hospital scheme is repulsive. Ask those very same Walter Reed soldiers how they’d feel about the same government imprisoning innocent children…in America…by the same for-profit elitists…and see what they think. Is that why they serve and sacrificed themselves for their country?

    Will someone with a legal or international relations mind…PLEASE…try to explain why Americans get all outraged over the torture camps in other parts of the world and can’t see what’s going on right here in our own country? And these same demented, immoral and corrupt acts are being committed by the same for-profit forces.

    To imprison a child is an international crime. And…will someone PLEASE look at the attached Rights of the Child document and tell me what part of that United Nations resolution IS NOT being violated with depravity by Bush, Chertoff & ICE?

    And where’s the courage of the free press of America? Has investigative reporting in this country become that corporate and ratings driven that the great investigators can’t challenge Chertoff and ICE? Why don’t they demand to interview the hundreds of innocent children and their moms who are not even charged with a crime? My gosh! Murderers on death row get comfy feel good interviews by the media all the time.

    So…what is it that ICE does NOT want you, the media…or we the public…to know? Does not the very secrecy of ICE in itself belie the darkness that is being hidden?

    Is it time for indictments…yet? But of course…who has the power to indict Chertoff? Gonzales? How about Congress?

    How about “We the people of the United States ”? Think about it. Do “We the people”…a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”…have jurisdiction to indict the abusers of these children?

    Jay

    P.S. Hot of the press from Newsweek/MSNBC…

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17552883/site/newsweek/from/ET/

    JJJ

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

    From: Jay J. Johnson
    Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 12:07 PM

    Subject: UN Rights of the Child

    Afternoon amigos…

    For those within our ranks that are legal experts, I have attached a copy of the UN’s Right of the Child…along with some highlights.

    Essentially, Chertoff, ICE and Hutto are in flagrant non-conformance with he most basic laws and moral standards on children’s rights by the way they are treating the families and the children in Hutto and other prison camps in Texas and elsewhere. This is not only immoral but criminal. There should not only be a Congressional investigation but an international investigation as well.

    Additionally, I am sharing the following link. Perhaps someone knows how to access the UN’s High Commissioner on Human Rights. http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/index.htm

    Jay

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The Border Ambassador

    Connecting.the.dots…making.a.difference…

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.
    Del Rio , Texas , USA
    Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila , Mexico

    jay@villadelrio.com