Category: Detention

By Greg Moses

With 206 workers transferred to Texas immigration prisons from Massachusetts this week, Massachusetts state authorities were quick to follow.

The Rio Grande Guardian reports that two teams of 15 officials apiece traveled to immigration prisons at Bayview and El Paso as Massachusetts Senator John Kerry demanded “full accountability as to why hundreds of children were stranded and separated from their parents.”
In Texas, there is no comparable state response to plans by federal immigration authorities to deport a long-time Israeli immigrant tomorrow, leaving his 15-year-old daughter behind.

In contrast to lackadaisical Texas officials who have been invisible on issues involving children of immigrant families, Denise Monteiro of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services told the Rio Grande Guardian that, while the federal government’s role was enforcing immigration law, the state’s role was protecting children.

“It’s our sole purpose – the children,” she said. “We’ll work through the night if we have to.”

As Jay Johnson-Castro declares in yesterday’s email, there is something shameful about the silence we have heard from Texas officials regarding the treatment of immigrant families on Texas soil. That shameful feeling now finds its silhouette against a background of Massachusetts illumination.

What did we hear from Texas officials upon word that 2-year-old Zahra Ibrahim, a Texas citizen, had been separated from her family by immigration authorities?

What did we hear from Texas officials upon word that 4-year-old twin daughters of the Suleiman family had been separated from their parents while their father was held in solitary confinement in Oklahoma City?

What do we hear from Texas officials today, now that the Suleiman twins have been deported with their parents to Jordan, leaving behind the family’s first-time home purchase?

What do we hear today from Texas officials about the fact that 11-year-old Mohammad Hazahza cannot live with his father who is imprisoned at Rolling Plains prison in Haskell, Texas?

What do we hear from state officials about the very existence of the T. Don Hutto children’s prison at Taylor, Texas?

And please don’t point me to some press conference by hand-wringing politicians proposing some resolution or other. What we are looking for is prompt action, power on the move, just like the immediate mobilization of Massachusetts child advocates working for the people.

“We’ll work through the night if we have to,” says the brave state worker from Massachusetts.

By contrast we have a Governor who will go to bat for the right to wear a confederate flag t-shirt on stage at his inauguration, but who says nothing about the right to live free with respect, even if you are an immigrant family trying to make a home in the so-called “Friendly State.”

Free Suzi Hazahza. Today.

Email from Madeleine Gibson

Very eloquent. After reading Jay’s piece on the “Symbol of the Walk to Haskell Prison Camp” and Mrs. Boone’s account of prison economics in Haskell County, and as a Taylor resident who realizes that Taylor is too far away to be a true “bedroom community” to Austin, and yet makes the trek to Austin every day with the hope that the neighborhoods and schools in Taylor will eventually somehow benefit from the Austin salary (and culture?), I am drawn immediately to ideological parallels with the Civil War.
Is it that the family farm is no longer an economically viable unit for the support of a vibrant county, and so those who would preserve the rural county’s way
of life are willing to turn a blind eye to the moral consequences associated with any possibility of creating local jobs offering salaries that might keep the local boys at home a while longer?

Williamson County is affected, although we will always deny it, by our proximity to Austin and Travis
County, which hold more liberal, urban values that remind us of (and embarrass us with) the right and humane ways of treating our fellow human
creatures. And, the county’s western half (full of Austin bedroom communities and beautiful views) is outright prosperous at the moment, so the eastern half can probably withstand the loss of CCA as a local
employer.

It will be most impressive if ICE and the Emerald Companies can be similarly moved and embarrassed in Haskell. If only the ICE would subsidize a large Best Western franchise at this rate!!!

“I don’t think America gets enough credit for trying to help improve people’s lives. And so my trip is to explain, as clearly as I can, that our nation is generous and compassionate,” said the USA President on his Latin America tour.

Meanwhile back home, Homeland Security officials:

-left two infants dehydrated for lack of mother’s milk when they flew 90 Guatemalan women to a Texas prison camp
-continued to hold children at the T. Don Hutto prison camp in Texas

-argued that a six-month term at a state prison was legal for an entire immigrant family who allegedly failed to appear for an immigration appointment

-and claimed that prison conditions were irrelevant to deciding the just cause of an immigrant family’s imprisonment

Mr. President, we read your lips. Please pick up a phone and free Suzi Hazahza.–gm

The report from the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Jorge Bustamante, on his Mission to the United States (30 April-18 May 2007) is dated March 7, 2008.

The Texas Civil Rights Review has converted the report to pdf format (350kb); click here to download.

Pasted below is the summary. We will continue to excerpt and comment as time permits. Please stay tuned.–gm

Summary

The present report is submitted in accordance with resolution 2001/52 of the Commission
on Human Rights following the official visit of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants to the United States of America (the United States) between 30 April and 18 May 2007.

The purpose of the mission was to examine and report on the status of the human rights of migrants living in the United States. For the purposes of this report, “migrants” refers to all non-citizens living in the United States, including, among others, undocumented non-citizens and non-citizens with legal permission to remain in the country, such as legal permanent residents, work visa holders, and persons with refugee status. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government of the United States for extending an invitation for him to conduct such a mission.

The Special Rapporteur was disappointed, however, that his scheduled and approved visits to the Hutto Detention Center in Texas and the Monmouth detention centre in New Jersey were subsequently cancelled without satisfactory explanation.

While noting the Government’s interest in addressing some of the problems related to the
human rights of migrants, the Special Rapporteur has serious concerns about the situation of migrants in the country, especially in the context of specific aspects of deportation and detention policies, and with regard to specific groups such as migrant workers in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, migrant farm workers, and migrants in detention facilities.

The Special Rapporteur wishes to highlight the fact that cases of indefinite detention – even of migrants fleeing adverse conditions in their home countries – were not uncommon according to testimonies he received. The Special Rapporteur learned from human rights advocates about the lack of due process for non-citizens in United States deportation proceedings and their ability to challenge the legality or length of their detention; as well as about the conditions of detained asylum-seekers, long-term permanent residents and parents of minors who are United States citizens. In some cases immigrant detainees spend days in solitary confinement, with overhead lights kept on 24 hours a day, and often in extreme heat and cold. According to official sources, the United States Government detains over 230,000 people a year – more than three times the number of people it held in detention nine years ago.

The Special Rapporteur notes with dismay that xenophobia and racism towards migrants in
the United States has worsened since 9/11. The current xenophobic climate adversely affects
many sections of the migrant population, and has a particularly discriminatory and devastating impact on many of the most vulnerable groups in the migrant population, including children, unaccompanied minors, Haitian and other Afro-Caribbean migrants, and migrants who are, or are perceived to be, Muslim or of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent.

The Special Rapporteur notes that the United States lacks a clear, consistent, long-term
strategy to improve respect for the human rights of migrants. Although there are national laws prohibiting discrimination, there is no national legislative and policy framework implementing protection for the human rights of migrants against which the federal and local programmes and strategies can be evaluated to assess to what extent the authorities are respecting the human rights of migrants.

In light of numerous issues described in this report, the Special Rapporteur has come to the conclusion that the United States has failed to adhere to its international obligations to make the human rights of the 37.5 million migrants living in the country (according to Government census data from 2006) a national priority, using a comprehensive and coordinated national policy based on clear international obligations. The primary task of such a national policy should be to recognize that, with the exception of certain rights relating to political participation, migrants enjoy nearly all the same human rights protections as citizens, including an emphasis on meeting the needs of the most vulnerable groups.

The Special Rapporteur has provided a list of detailed recommendations and conclusions,
stressing the need for an institution at the federal level with a mandate solely devoted to the human rights of migrants, a national body that truly represents the voices and concerns of the migrant population, and which could address underlying causes of migration and the human rights concerns of migrants within the United States.

The following clips from the Wyoming Department of Corrections provide perspective on the housing of prisoners at the Haskell, Texas Rolling Plains Prison. As of May 2006, Wyoming housed “162 male inmates and 57 female inmates” at Rolling Plains. Of three prisoners identified for escape or death, one was convicted of aggravated robbery, one of second degree murder, and one was serving life for first degree murder. Friends of the immigrant issue will be interested to see where the timeline begins–with the transfer of Wyoming prisoners out of T. Don Hutto Prison at Taylor, Texas to a private prison in Colorado.–gm
“Approximately 2,100 adult inmates are in the custody of WDOC, though due to a current shortage of housing space, nearly 800 of those inmates are
housed in non-department facilities. These include adult community corrections centers, out-of-state facilities, county jails, as well as a 100-bed
secure treatment facility in Casper. Nearly 5,500 offenders are being supervised in the communities on probation or parole.”
–“STATE OF WYOMING DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS STRATEGIC PLAN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY,” (July 1, 2005).

“Due to lack of room in Wyoming prisons, the WDOC currently houses some inmates out-of-state. Wyoming has 162 male inmates and 57 female inmates at Rolling Plains Regional Jail & Detention Center in Haskell, Texas; 301 male inmates at the Bill Clayton Correctional Facility in Littlefield, Texas; and 16 male inmates in West Texas Detention Center in Sierra Blanca, Texas.”
–“Disturbance Brought Under Control at Bill Clayton Detention Center, Texas,” WDOC Press Release (May 31, 2006).

“According to a spokesperson from the Rolling Plains Regional Jail & Detention Center in Haskell, Texas, Wyoming Inmate Joe Wilkinson gave himself up after about two hours following his escape. Mr. Wilkinson, 41, is serving 6 to 9 years for aggravated robbery, sentenced in Sweetwater County on September 20, 2002.

“Wyoming inmate Robert Dix, 25, serving a 45 year to life sentence for second-degree murder in Natrona County, was arrested at 7:20 pm April 16, by officers of the Stamford Police Department, according to Rolling Plains officials.”
–“Two Wyoming Inmates Arrested Following Escape from Texas Facility,” WDOC Press Release (April 17, 2006).

“Dale Geesaman, a Wyoming inmate at the Rolling Plains Regional Jail & Detention Center in Haskell, Texas, died on Thursday, April 13, 2006. He was serving his Wyoming sentence there due to lack of beds in Wyoming prisons. Mr. Geesaman was pronounced dead at Haskell Memorial Hospital. The cause of the unexpected death will be determined; however, no foul play was involved.

“Mr. Geesaman was convicted of first degree murder. Sentenced February 18, 1982 by Judge Terrence O’Brien in Campbell County, he was originally sentenced to a life sentence. In April 1994, Governor Mike Sullivan commuted the sentence to 90 to 95 years. Mr. Geesaman was born in Missouri on April 10, 1964.”
–“Wyoming Inmate Geesaman Dies in Texas,” WDOC Press Release (April 14, 2006).

“The first group of male inmates was transferred out-of-state in 1997. At that time they were moved to Texas because a closer facility was not available. Upon construction of the Crowley County facility, Wyoming contracted with the county a year ago in November 1998 and was able to move inmates from Texas to Colorado. The original Wyoming count in Colorado was 100.”
–“More Male Inmates Moved Out-of State Due to Overcrowding,” WDOC Press Release (Nov. 23, 1999).

“According to officials at the Wyoming Department of Corrections, the 97 Wyoming inmates housed at T. Don Hutto Correctional Facility in Taylor, Texas were transferred to the privately owned and operated Crowley County Correctional Facility35 miles east of Pueblo, Colorado on Saturday, October 31. The transfer was well within the time frame previously announced by Governor Geringer and Director Judith Uphoff on September 30, 1998. The inmates will be housed at Crowley pursuant to a contract between the DOC and Crowley County, Colorado.”
–“Wyoming Inmates Moved from Texas to Colorado Per Schedule,” WDOC Press Release (Nov. 2, 1998).