Category: Detention

The following email was circulated by Riad Hamad on Christmas Day, 2006. Originally posted as article #715 at the Texas Civil Rights Review.–gm

Dear Friends,

Further to my emails yesterday regarding the Palestinian children and their families in the Hutto detention center please find below some more details and action required to help these innocent people.

I went to the detention center yesterday and talked to one of the women and provided her with cash for phone calls and snacks for the children since the jail officials are providing them with mainly pork and ham that they do not eat.

Today, another one of the members of the family called me from the detention center and informed me that that all three families in the detention center were in the United States legally and ALWAYS filed their immigration related forms and paid the required fees and taxes. The woman also indicated that two of her children are United States citizens and are now with their aunt in Dallas but with not much financial support.

Apparently, after 2001 some of the procedures were changed but they were not informed of these changes and their attorney failed to file the appeal on their behalf and that is how their status changed. All three families had male breadwinners who were working legally with work permits and earned money to stay off welfare or any other related social services.

According to one of the women, her husband suffers from a severe case of diabetes and was deprived of his medication for several days and when he contacted his attorney to inquire about his medication, he was beaten along with the three other male Arab detainees and no one has been able to know his whereabouts or his medical condition. The family of the man contacted the detention facilities in Haskell, Texas and Oklahoma where he was jailed but both facilities deny that he is there now.

Next steps: I will be retaining local immigration lawyer tomorrow morning to attempt and get a release of the women and the children and to determine the location of the men. Also, we will be providing the women and children with more money to help them cover the cost of food purchased from the commissary of the detention center due to the absence of Islamic Halal food.

We need your help by forwarding this email to your friends and colleagues and asking them to donate for the legal costs of releasing these families as it has already reached more than 5000 dollars and could easily reach 50 000 dollars sine the members of the families in jail are more than 6 adults and 14 children.

I will be providing you with the contact information for the federal authorities in charge of the detention centers in Haskell and Oklahoma to determine the location of . . . , the missing man with a sever case of diabetes.

If any one is interested in helping these families please email me and will provide you with my phone number to assign you tasks and pursue financial and material support for these families.

All donations will, be listed on our website to ensure transparency and that the families and the children receive the full amount of the donations collected for them and for their legal defense. The expenses will also be listed as they become available and you will be notified of any changes.
Looking forward to hearing from you and THANKS for your generosity, work and support for the children in Palestine.

Riad Elsolh Hamad
Austin, Texas

In the email below, Riad Hamad describes his ongoing support for the Palestinian families at Hutto prison. The email was received at 9:16 p.m., Jan. 23, 2007.–gm

Dear friends,

As you know Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund has been assisting the Palestinian families in the Hutto detention center through the payment of some of their legal fees, meals in the center and phone cards. We just received a phone call from one of the families advising us that the immigration authorities just informed them that they will be deported to Jordan on Monday.

The family . . . will leave the United States on Monday via Dallas and their young twin girls ages 4 will accompany them. Both girls are United States citizens and were staying with their aunt in Irving pending the end of this nightmare that started November 3rd, 2006. PCWF contributed to the legal fees incurred by their competent and compassionate lawyer, Mr. John Wheat Gibson and will be paying for the airline tickets of the two children who will have to leave with their parents next week.

PCWF would like to encourage you to contribute to the purchase of the airlines tickets of these two children to avoid separating them from their famiy. You can send your contribution to the address listed on the bottom of this email or you can donate online and specify that you want the money to go towards the Palestinian families in Hutto.

Additionally, PCWF will continue to provide support for the remaining two families till their legal cases are resolved. We are aware that the Ibrahim family can not leave the United States yet since the Isreali and the Jordanian governments refused to accept them or allow them to go back. You will receive more information as it becomes available and will try to update you about their status promptly.

We will also be glad to provide you with the contact information for the families if you wish to help them directly if you have any doubts regarding the destination of your donation

Looking forward to hearing from you and THANKS again for your generosity, work and support for the children in Palestine.

Salamat
Riad Hamad

In this email, Riad Hamad explains how his support of the Hutto families has been necessary and exceptional. It was received at 9:05 pm, Feb. 6, 2007. Two days later, Riad Hamad drove one of the Palestinian families to the Austin airport. They had been set free shortly before a scheduled media tour of the Hutto prison.–gm

Dear Friends,

I hope that all of you are safe and well and enjoying a peaceful week with your families. As you probably heard the . . . family was deported to Jordan on Monday of last week and they are now in Amman, Jordan penny less with no home, no car, no clothes and no jobs which is not very encouraging..

Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund works ONLY inside Palestine and we made an exception for these families due to the severe hardship imposed on them and the fact that children were put in jail which wass unbelievable and moved us to provide help to them.

[The father of the deported family] called me three times from Jordan so far asking for help in shipping their furniture in order for them to have some sort of normalcy back into the lives of the children and to give them some sense of security. PCWF paid for the airlines tickets for the children to accompany their mother as they are U.S citizens and the government would not pay the tickets to deport them. On the other hand, we contributed to their personal expenses and legal fees which is mounting and taking away from funds that we usually send to the children in Palestine who are in dire need these days.

Please let me know if any one from the Arab, Muslim or Palestinian community is willing, able or desire to help in any way to send money for the family to eat and live with dignity till the man finds a job in Amman.

Also, we need some help in finding a shipping company to send their furniture as so far, we can only find companies that charge nothing less than 4000 dollars to pick up the furniture from Dallas to Houston and then to Agaba, Jordan and then to Amman.

Personally, my financial situation is in shambles due to my commitments in Palestine and beyond any means of helping this family anymore. I would greatly appreciate any ideas from you on how to get help for these families and I will be glad to provide you with their account number in order for anyone to put the money directly in their accounts.

It is very important that we live up to our promise to them when they were in jail that we will help them and for the sake of the children who were forced out of their homes, schools and deprived of their dignity for several months. We will be glad to forward the money to them on your behalf and provide you with a tax exemption if you wish and like always, ALL the donations will be posted on the website for transparency and accuracy.

Looking forward to hearing from you and SHUKRAN in advance for your generosity, work and support for the children in Palestine

Salamatz
Riad Hamad

To help call attention to Rrustem Neza’s first full year of imprisonment at the Rolling Plains Prison at Haskell, the Texas Civil Rights Review asked attorney John Wheat Gibson to clarify some details of the original arrest:

Texas Civil Rights Review: John, what was the exact date of Rrustem’s arrest?

John Wheat Gibson: Arrested 18 January 2007 by Sheriff; transferred to BICE (US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement) custody 13 February 2007, no charges filed.

TCRR: What was the method of arrest?

Gibson: Handcuffed at TACB (Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission) office, I think.

TCRR: What was the date of his transfer to Haskell?

Gibson: 13 February, 2007.

TCRR: Could you clarify the legal pretext for the arrest?

Gibson: TABC accused Rrustem and Xhemal, who own a restaurant in Nacogdoches, of making a false claim to US citizenship, because they both signed an application for liquor license that a Jessica Ismaili prepared for them. Her affidavit is attached [PDF format: 338kb].

The District Attorney declined to prosecute after learning that they signed without knowing the contents. Rrustem speaks little and reads no English. The US Attorney says Rrustem was not charged, because he was transferred to BICE for deportation; but Xhemal was not charged, either. US Attorneys in this case seem willing to say anything.

TCRR: How does a beverage application get effectively translated into prison time?

Gibson: A false statement on the application can be prosecuted as a felony. A conviction could result in prison time. In the case of the Neza brothers, there was no prosecution and therefore no conviction or prison time. The DA realized they did not knowingly make any false statement. Rrustem is not in jail because of any criminal charges. He is like the kids at T. Don Hutto in Taylor, in jail purely for the purpose of deportation, totally unrelated to any fault or improper behavior.

Note: In the affidavit, Jessica Ismali of Lufkin, Texas describes how she prepared the beverage license for Xhemal and Rrustem Neza. She was the one who checked the citizanship box. “I never asked Xhemal or Rrustem about citizenship. I just assumed. . . . Neither Xhemal nor Rrustem even knew there was a question on the form about citizenship, much less that I had checked the box indicating that they were citizens” [Ismaili Affidavit, PDF format: 338kb]