Category: Detention

The following item previously appeared in the announcements section of TCRR–gm

This message is from Antonio Diaz of the Texas Indigenous Council in San Antonio. He and his sisters and brothers have been leaders in the campaign against the TDH immigrant family prison since early in the protests, which began in December, 2006:

“Native people celebrate death as it is apart of the circle of life, there is no need to fear physical death, the death of innocence on the other hand is a sad thing indeed. We will be going to Taylor on Sat. Nov.1st to recognize the Death of innocence of the Children Detained at T.D.Hutto Prison, Nov.1st is known as “Dia de los Inocentes”.

“Dia de los Muertos from Nov 1st to Nov 2nd. This loss of innocence due to incarceration because of greed of private prison corporations like Corrections Corp. of America must be addressed and the policy of fear and division that allows for rampant greed to dictate immoral immgration legislation must come to an end. Reinstating the Catch and Release program will be the first step to bringing justice into immigration reform. Join us if you are able 6 to 8 pm in Taylor TX. at T.D.Hutto Res. Ctr. — for more info (210) 396- 9805
Antonio Diaz”

T. Don Hutto is at 1001 Welch St., Taylor, TX (map). From Austin, take I-35 north to Round Rock. Exit Hwy 79. Turn right on 79 and drive east to Taylor. Just before you enter Taylor, go right on the 79 bypass (sign says to Rockdale). Take the first left onto S. Edmond St. Edmond ends at Welch. Go right on Welch and you can’t miss the prison.

Solidarity,

Leslie Cunningham

“Las luchas obreras/No tienen fronteras.”

Email from Bob Libal, Grass Roots Leadership–gm

[On Tuesday] Marc Moore of Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote a letter to the Dallas Morning News defending the T. Don Hutto family detention center. The letter was written in response to a terrific op-ed authored by University of Texas Professor Barbara Hines in last Monday’s Morning News arguing that ICE’s three new proposed family detention centers are an inappropriate response to immigrant families, especially given the troubled history of T. Don Hutto. Both Professor Hines’ op-ed and Mr. Moore’s letter are below in their entirety.

Please take the time today, if possible, to write a letter to the Dallas Morning News stressing the inappropriate nature of family detention and Hutto. Letters can be sent using the site’s online form, and should be 50-200 words in length. Letters can include the following points:

1) Detention of immigrant children and their families is inappropriate, costly, and inhumane. The experience at Hutto, a converted medium security prison operated by a private prison corporation where children as young as infants have been held with their parents, demonstrates that detention of families is a tragic response to the immigration issue. In addition, at an estimated cost of more than $200 a day per detainee at Hutto, the financial cost of such detention is unreasonably high, especially when more humane and cost-effective alternatives exist.

2) Congress has called on ICE to fund alternatives to family detention, saying that detention of immigrant children and their families should be the last alternative, not the first. ICE should be listening to the wishes of Congress and implementing alternatives to detention rather than soliciting new family detention centers. These alternative to detention programs are effective at ensuring that immigrants return to their immigration hearings and are much less costly than detention.

Thank you for your continued efforts to end family detention and close the T. Don Hutto detention center.

—

Bob Libal
Grassroots Leadership
Austin, Texas
http://www.grassrootsleadership.org

Check out www.texasprisonbidness.org for news and info on the private prison industry in Texas.

*****

Barbara Hines: New ICE family detention centers a step in wrong direction

June 16, 2008

The federal government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is accepting bids today for contracts to construct three new privately run detention centers across the country for children and their families awaiting immigration proceedings.

These facilities, each to be built with up to 200 beds, will expand the system of family detention made controversial in recent years at the T. Don Hutto detention center in Taylor, Texas.

The proposal for new centers is a step in the wrong direction. Congress has repeatedly called on ICE, the agency within the Department of Homeland Security responsible for immigration matters, to implement alternatives to detention programs for families, stating that detention of families should be the last alternative and not the first.

In 2006, when I first went to Hutto, I was appalled by the living conditions. Children as young as infants, along with their families, were detained in a converted medium-security prison run by the Corrections Corporation of America, a for-profit prison management corporation. Children received one hour of education a day and wore prison uniforms. They were required to be in their cells for long periods during the day to be present for multiple cell counts.

Many of the detainees at Hutto have come to the United States fleeing persecution or social turmoil — asylum seekers fleeing civil conflict in Eastern Africa, Iraqi Christians targeted by fundamentalists and Central Americans seeking refuge from drug, gang and domestic violence. No detainee has been accused of a crime.

The psychological toll on children in detention is significant. Often already traumatized by conditions in their home countries and the process of being uprooted during migration, children and parents at Hutto reported being threatened with separation from one another as a disciplinary measure.

After widespread public advocacy against the facility, national media attention, a lawsuit and a settlement, conditions at the facility are significantly better. Children no longer wear prison scrubs, and they now receive seven hours of education a day. Also, they remain at the detention center for a significantly shorter amount of time.

Fundamentally, however, family detention remains an inappropriate response to asylum seekers and immigrant parents and children. Advocates continue to be concerned about news reports from Hutto, such as an alleged sexual assault of a detainee by a guard and the separation of a child from her mother for four days. Both incidents occurred last year.

Alternatives to detention include community-based, homelike shelters that provide access to counseling and legal services. Intensive-supervision programs also keep families together and out of detention. In fact, alternatives to detention programs have proved effective at ensuring that immigrants appear for their court hearings through a combination of telephone reporting and home visits. These programs are also substantially more cost-effective than detention.

One study by the Vera Institute found that more than 90 percent of immigrants on a supervised release program attended their immigration hearings. The average cost of a supervision program was $12 a day, compared with $61 a day to detain an immigrant. The cost savings are likely more pronounced in the context of family detention, which is more expensive than detaining adult immigrants.

Instead of contracting the construction of more family detention centers, ICE should seriously invest in alternatives to detention programs.

Barbara Hines is a clinical professor of law and director of the Immigration Clinic at The University of Texas School of Law. She was co-counsel — along with the national ACLU, the ACLU of Texas and the law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and McRae — in the lawsuit challenging conditions at Hutto. Her e-mail address is bhines@law.utexas.edu.

*****

Hutto center picture incomplete

Re: “There’s a better way – ICE should not be accepting bids to build new family detention centers, says Barbara Hines,” last Monday Viewpoints.

Since its inception, the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center has been a safe and humane alternative to separating the families who enter the country illegally.

Many positive changes have been made. Families have access to high-quality medical, mental health and dental care 24 hours a day. Children attend school seven hours a day with state-certified teachers who provide a curriculum based on state standards. There are many recreational and social activities for all residents and few restrictions on movement throughout the facility.

Many of the conditions mentioned in the column have not existed for some time. The razor-wire fence shown in the picture accompanying the column was removed more than a year ago. ICE has taken a proactive approach to enhancing the facility since it opened. Many of the improvements were in place, under way or planned before the lawsuit referred to in the column was filed.

Marc J. Moore, field office director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, San Antonio

Note: The following item previously appeared in the announcements section of the Texas Civil Rights Review.–gm

IF THESE PICTURES LOOK CHILDISH, ITS BECAUSE THEY ARE. THESE PICTURES WERE DRAWN BY CHILDREN THAT WERE DETAINED AT THE HUTTO DETENTION FACILITY. WE CAN NOT IGNORE THE CRIES OF THE CHILDREN, IT DOESN’T JUST GO AWAY!!!

Si alcaso estos debujos parecen infantil es porque lo son. Son los debujos de ninos detenidos tras las rejas de T.D. Hutto. No se les olvide el llanto y sufrimiento de las familias tras las rejas de T.D.Hutto.

Texas Indigenous Council

Free the Children Coalition
San Antonio, Texas

Freedom Walk and Protest Vigil

May 24, 2008
12:00 PM – 4:00 pm
T. Don Hutto ‘Residential’ Facility
1001 Welch Street
Taylor, TX

Assembles at Heritage Park, 4th & Main St., Taylor, TX

Assembly Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Procession to Hutto Prison – Protest from 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Music:
James Perez y Carnival, Karma & Arma Musical will be performing on behalf of this cause: Please contact Javier : 210- 724-3400 for further details.

Contact:

Antonio Diaz ~210-396-9805

Jose Ortha ~512-914-7292
Jina Gaytan ~210-884-8597

Back in May, Jay Johnson-Castro was walking through Arizona, talking about a federal plan called “Operation Endgame” to remove every last undocumented migrant from the USA. Meanwhile, Operation Streamline had been well underway — a federal program developed in Del Rio, Texas, that sentences undocumented migrants to one month in jail before they are shipped back home. In March, the monthly total of migrants prosecuted had reached a record 9,350 per month, “up by almost 50% from the previous month and 73% from the previous year” says the TRAC project of Syracuse Univ. Many of the new detention facilities along the border are operated for shareholder profit. Below is a series of clips about the campaign to produce a nation for profit only:–gm

New Year 2008

The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during January 2008 the government reported 4739 new immigration prosecutions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 21.6% over the previous month, [and represents the largest monthly number of such prosecutions in the past seven years].

Virtually all federal criminal prosecutions for immigration offenses in January 2008 (99 percent) were referred by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The two lead investigative agencies in DHS are Customs and Border Protection (CBP) whose border patrol agencies guard the county’s borders, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), responsible for conducting most immigration criminal investigations under the immigration laws.

In January 2008, 67 percent of immigration cases for these matters took place in U.S. Magistrate Courts which handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called “petty offenses.” In the magistrate courts in January the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 8 U.S.C Section 1325 involving the “Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc.”. This was the lead charge for 56 percent of all magistrate filings in January. Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: “8 USC 1326 – Reentry of deported alien” (35.3%), “8 USC 1324 – Bringing in and harboring certain aliens” (5.8%).

The Southern District of Texas (Houston)—with 354 prosecutions—was the most active during January 2008. The Southern District of Texas (Houston) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.

“Immigration Prosecutions for January 2008,” TRAC, Syracuse Univ. (Apr. 30, 2008).

Quoted in Cali

“The private prison industry was on the verge of bankruptcy in the late 1990s, until the feds bailed them out with the immigration-detention contracts,” said Michele Deitch, an expert on prison privatization with the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin.

Tougher immigration laws turn the ailing private prison sector into a revenue maker. By Leslie Berestein. San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER (May 4, 2008)

Meanwhile

No government body is required to keep track of deaths [of immigrants in detention] and publicly report them. No independent inquiry is mandated. And often relatives who try to investigate the treatment of those who died say they are stymied by fear of immigration authorities, lack of access to lawyers, or sheer distance.

Few Details on Immigrants Who Died in Custody. By NINA BERNSTEIN. New York Times. Published: May 5, 2008

Shoot the Messenger

So it was no surprise that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials were upset about a four-part series that ran May 11-14, about the health care of immigrant detainees.

Veteran reporters Dana Priest and Amy Goldstein detailed mistakes that led to some of the 83 detainee deaths in the past five years, showed serious gaps in mental health treatment, suicides that could have been prevented and the medically unnecessary drugging of deportees for the trip back to their home countries. Immigrant health care is managed by ICE’s Division of Immigration Health Services.

“An Investigation Raises Ire at ICE,” By Deborah Howell. The Washington Post (Sunday, June 8, 2008; Page B06)

Stop

In 2007, the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) rounded up more than 30,000 immigrants in raids. While more than 186,000 immigrants were deported in 2006, an alarming 300,000 were detained in immigrant detention centers, such as the T. Don Hutto Center in
Taylor, in 2007 alone. According to ICE, the purpose of immigrant detention centers is to “detain and remove criminal and other deportable aliens … in part of the strategy to deter illegal immigration and protect public safety.”

Put for-profit detention centers on ICE. By Ulylesia Thompson, Carla Bates & Sarah Robinson. The Daily Texan (4/30/08).

Full Steam Ahead

The federal government is accepting bids for up to three new family detention centers that would house as many as 600 men, women and children fighting deportation cases.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a call for proposals last month and set June 16 as the deadline. New facilities are being considered on both coasts and on the Southwestern border. The agency calls for minimum-security residential facilities that would provide a “least restrictive, nonsecure setting” and provide schooling for children, recreational activities and access to religious services.

Immigration agency plans new family detention centers: The federal ICE, which already runs two such facilities, is taking bids for as many as three more. Critics say detaining families is punitive and unnecessary.
By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer (May 18, 2008).

P.S.

It would be ludicrously gullible to swallow the government propaganda that “The need to imprison families stems from the presence of so many illegal families sneaking across the border or hiding in the United States.”

In truth, the “need” to imprison families stems from the “need” of congress members and the executive branch to deliver taxpayers’ money to prison for profit corporations like Wackenhut and CCCA, that buy their elections, to build more prisons and fill them up, so the politicians can continue to send our money to the prison profiteers, so they can continue buying the politicians, and so goes the cycle.

Of course, the for-profit prisons are not the only pigs that our government slops at the tax trough. But in combination with other special interests like money lenders and war profiteers, they use the media to keep us taxpayers in a frenzy of hate and xenophobia, so that when we go to the grocery store or the gas pump or pay the electric bill we will not think straight about what they are doing with our money.

John Wheat Gibson
via email (May 19, 2008).

A New Deal for a New Century

WATERLOO, Iowa — In temporary courtrooms at a fairgrounds here, 270 illegal immigrants were sentenced this week to five months in prison for working at a meatpacking plant with false documents.

The prosecutions, which ended Friday, signal a sharp escalation in the Bush a
dministration’s crackdown on illegal workers, with prosecutors bringing tough federal criminal charges against most of the immigrants arrested in a May 12 raid. Until now, unauthorized workers have generally been detained by immigration officials for civil violations and rapidly deported.

“270 Illegal Immigrants Sent to Prison in Federal Push.” By JULIA PRESTON. New York Times. Published: May 24, 2008.

Immigration Prosecutions Up

The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during February 2008 the government reported 7251 new immigration prosecutions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 82.9% over the previous month.

Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 56.6 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 8 U.S.C Section 1325 that involves ” Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc. “. Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—156.4 percent—was registered for prosecutions under ” Fraud and related activity – id documents ” (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1028 ).

The Southern District of Texas (Houston)—with 338 prosecutions—was the most active during February 2008. The Southern District of Texas (Houston) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.

The Western District of Texas (San Antonio) ranked 2nd. The Western District of Texas (San Antonio) was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 4 five years ago.

“Immigration Prosecutions for February 2008,” TRAC, Syracuse Univ. (May, 2008).

Heart o Texas

In recent years, about three to five people a month were charged in U.S. District Court in Austin with returning to the United States after deportation. In March . . . 17 people were charged with the crime in federal court in Austin, according to an American-Statesman review of cases.

In April, federal prosecutors in Austin charged 21 people with illegally re-entering the United States after deportation, and this month they have charged 25, according to the review. A total of eight people were charged in January and February.

“More illegal immigrants are being charged criminally in Austin: Prison time comes before deportation for some,” By Steven Kreytak, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF (Wednesday, May 28, 2008)

Streamlining Criminalization for Profit

Although Operation Streamline has raised criticism in other places like Del Rio, the Valley Morning Star says that it is now hitting our Valley. “The Border Patrol rolled out the policy Monday (June 9) along a four-mile stretch of Cameron County’s border with Mexico from Brownsville to Fort Brown.”

“Formerly, first time offenders were offered the option of voluntary deportation and were processed, put on a bus and sent back to Mexico within hours of their arrest.” But under Operation Streamline they will be “detained, sent to court, jailed for up to 180 days if found guilty, and then deported.”

In Del Rio where this policy was recently tried, one federal Public Defender, William Fry, was quoted as worrying about due process. “We get a case on Wednesday and the court expects us to be ready to go by Friday. That’s not enough time to adequately represent a client.”

“Operation Streamline Criminalizes the Rio Grande Valley,” Nick Braune, Texas Civil Rights Review (June 16, 2008)

It’s Official: March Prosecutions Set Record

Federal immigration prosecutions continued their recent and highly unusual surge in March 2008, apparently reaching an all-time high, according to timely data obtained from the Justice Department by TRAC. The total of 9,350 such prosecutions was up by almost 50% from the previous month and 73% from the previous year.

The data further show that virtually every one of the individuals referred by the investigative agencies for prosecution — 99% of them — are then being charged by the U.S. Attorneys, and that the resulting median or typical sentence is one month.

Surge in Immigration Prosecutions Continues.” TRAC Immigration. Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (trac.syr.edu: June 17, 2008)

Austin media this evening are reporting allegations contained in a search warrant affidavit that was just released in the matter of Riad Hamad. Here is how the Austin American-Statesman is describing the document:

According to a search warrant affidavit, Hamad operated the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund, which bills itself as an organization to improve the lives of Palestinian children.

It said that Hamad received $633,965 in donations and that he sent some of the money — about $527,000 — to the Middle East. But the affidavit said authorities “can not determine the ultimate disposition of these funds at this time.”

The affidavit said authorities think Hamad was using the donated money for personal use and not paying federal income tax on it.

The document also said that Hamad failed to file several income tax returns from 2000 to 2006 and did not pay any taxes on earned income during those years.

Hamad also gave copies of unfiled federal income tax returns and false documents to various universities in Texas to obtain federal loans in the amount of $135,000, the affidavit said.

The lead paragraph of the story says federal authorities “could not trace the whereabouts of more than $500,000 he received for his charity”; yet the body of the article says that $527,000 was sent to the Middle East. Surely, the editors are aware that the impression they create in the lead paragraph is defamatory, especially by comparison to the facts that follow.

There is a curious use of the word “some.” It is used, for example, to describe most of the money raised, yet not used to describe the smaller sum in question that could have “allegedly” been used for personal purposes. We would have preferred the report to say “most” of the money went to the Middle East (83 percent says our calculator), while “some” of the remaining money is still under investigation.

If it is the case that Mr. Hamad secured loans on the basis of tax forms not actually filed, then perhaps the loans in question are student loans? Mr. Hamad was a lifelong student with several graduate degrees.

A local Fox News package (that is not yet posted online) mentioned the word “fraud.” As the narrator of the news report at 9pm talked about money allegedly going into family accounts, the screen zoomed to a high six-digit figure. But the news account from the Statesman suggests that 83 percent of the money raised went to the Middle East.

Nothing is yet clear about what federal officials allege regarding the $135,000 that did not go to the Middle East. For example, we believe (and reporters should know this much) that he spent some money on Palestinian refugees in Texas. He made it very clear at the time that he was making an exception to his usual rule that all money goes to the children of Palestine. But they were locking up Palestinian children at the T. Don Hutto prison, and Riad Hamad responded to their needs — without hesitation. He talked about driving to the prison and bringing care packages.

When federal officials claim in a document that they don’t know “at this time” exactly where the $527,000 went after it got to the Middle East, it is not clear how they are using their investigative power. They are apparently not saying that they know the money was mis-spent. If they had said such a thing clearly, wouldn’t the news reports have been more straightforward?

Fox News interviewed a neighbor who wanted to think the best things about Riad Hamad. And we venture to guess that anyone who ever met Riad Hamad shares his neighbor’s best hopes.

Riad Hamad is dead. He can’t make any further use of his good reputation with people who knew him. Nevertheless, we would very much appreciate more careful and respectful reporting on the life of a man who by all accounts was generous from inside out.–gm

Additional reporting from KVUE has been posted:

A federal search warrant reveals what Hamad was being accused of.

According to an investigator with the Internal Revenue Service, “… Riad Hamad, with the assistance of his son, Abdullah Hamad, his ex-wife, Diana Hamad, and his daughter, Rita Hamad, are using the ‘donated funds’ for personal use and not paying federal income taxes on these funds.”

Authorities believe Hamad was operating three organizations from his Southwest Austin home — The Palestinian Children’s Welfare Fund, Clean Air of Austin and kKnder Kreative Konsultants.

The search warrant shows donations totaling more than $633,000 were collected. Investigators also traced $892,000 in cash being deposited into Hamad family bank accounts. It’s believed these are proceeds from donations to the Children’s Welfare Fund.

SOURCE: “Teacher found in lake investigated for spending donated money” (03:50 PM CDT on Thursday, May 1, 2008)
By MELISSA MCGUIRE, KVUE News