Category: Detention

The UN Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Migrants, Jorge Bustamante, conducted an official tour of the USA in April and May of 2007. A report on that visit was released to the Human Rights Council on March 7, 2008. Below are sample findings from the report and a directory to sections of the report as archived here at the Texas Civil Rights Review.–gm

118. Children should be removed from jail-like detention centres and placed in home-like facilities. Due care should be given to rights delineated for children in custody in the American Bar Association “Standards for the Custody, Placement, and Care; Legal Representation; and Adjudication of Unaccompanied Alien Children in the United States.”

121. Whenever possible, migrant women who are suffering the effects of persecution or abuse, or who are pregnant or nursing infants, should not be detained. If these vulnerable women cannot be released from ICE custody, the Department of Homeland Security should develop alternative programmes such as intense supervision or electronic monitoring, typically via ankle bracelets. These alternatives have proven effective during pilot programmes. They are not only more humane for migrants who are particularly vulnerable in the detention setting or who have family members who require their presence, but they also cost, on average, less than half the price of detention.

Sections of the Bustamante Report archived at the Texas Civil Rights Review

Summary: Banned from Hutto without Satisfactory Explanation.

I.A.: Rights to Fair Deportation Hearings Violated

I.B.: USA ‘Long Way Out of Step’ with Rights to Liberty

II.A. & II.B.: The Spriri of 1996 and Mandatory Deportations

II.C.: Forty Local and State Agencies Recruited for Immigration Enforcement

II.D. & II.E.: A System of Morning Raids and Mandatory Detentions

III.A. & III.B.: Rebuilding New Orleans upon Migrant Labor Abuses

IV. & V.: Punitive, Inconsiderate, and Expensive Policies Should be Reversed

We have also converted the report of UN Special Rapporteur Jorge Bustamante to pdf format. (Get it here: 250kb).

From today’s Austin American Statesman:

Charles Laws, a water company executive whom local officials are calling on to resign, on Friday defended his decision to characterize a proposed detention facility for illegal immigrants as a “holding pen for w*tbacks.”

Laws said “w*tback” is widely acknowledged to mean immigrants who swim the Rio Grande and enter the United States illegally, not American citizens. Laws said the term is not racial, an assertion that others dispute. He said he wishes he had not used the word in an agenda item for the Creedmoor-Maha Water Supply Corp.’s board of directors but will not resign over it.

From yesterday’s KLBJ News:

According to Laws and other Mustang Ridge city officials, the proposal is to build a 1,000 bed facility that would employ approximately 200 people. Laws says the firm is interested in being within 30 miles of the Austin Bergstrom Airport, so that the detainees could be flown back to their countries of origin.

City officials tell us the proposal is to build a family detention center, much like the T Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, which is run by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). That facility is run by the private jail firm to house immigrants and their children who have been detained by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers.

According to attorneys who represent people held in T Don Hutto, some of the detainees say they are in the U.S. seeking asylum from persecution. The large majority of the immigrants are not from Mexico or South America. Many are from South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Canada. The roughly 400 adults and children are held in the facility until their on-going immigration hearings are complete. Williamson County is named as the administrator of that contract, and receives a fee per inmate per day.

In December of 2007, Emerald made a proposal to the Caldwell County Commissioners Court to build a facility in north-east Caldwell County, between Lytton Springs and Dale.

The Sunday Sun
Georgetown, Texas
October 21, 2007
[Pages 1A, 5A]

By KELLY GOOCH

Critics of the T. Don Hutto detainee center in Taylor plan to take steps to get it closed down, and to them that means walking from Taylor to Williamson County, straight to the Commissioner’s Court chambers during a regular Tuesday meeting, October 30.

Jay J. Johnson-Castro with Del Rio-based Freedom Ambassadors, a human rights network, and coordinator of the walk against what they call a prison for children, said this week that he will be walking in protest of the facility beginning October 28.

After a noon news conference that day at T. Don Hutto, 1001 Welch St., Mr. Johnson said those who choose to walk with him will walk from the front entrance of the detainee center and go together about 19 miles to Commissioners Court, 301 S.E. Inner Loop in Georgetown, arriving in time for court at 9:30 a.m. on October 30.

Other people joining him for at least part of the walk will include representatives from the Dallas Peace Center; Cesar Chavez March for Justice in San Antonio; and chapters of the League of United Latin American Citizens – in Taylor, Austin and San Antonio, Mr. Johnson said. People may not be able to walk the, entire time because of work and school obligations during the week, and participants could be taken back to their car at any time during the walk, Mr. Johnson said.

“We’re going after the Williamson County Commissioners Court. And we believe we have a case,” said Mr. Johnson. Those who do walk will have help if they need it: Walkers will continually have water and a first-aid kit available via a support-vehicle, he said.

Even if weather gets bad, Mr. Johnson said a car could provide shelter. He said that on Sunday and Monday nights, participants could end up staying in someone’s house or in a hotel. “We’re not going to camp out along the highway or something,” Mr. Johnson said. “Everyone will want to get showered or rested.”

County Judge Dan Gattis said there is no permit from the county that is required for participants, to walk in protest. As far as any public assembly that might happen outside of the county building, he said they can be there as long as property isn’t destroyed or people kept from entering or leaving the building.

“As long as they respect other peoples’ rights and privileges, we certainly won’t be hassling them,” Judge Gattis said. “They certainly have the right to gather together and protest.” He said if any officer(s) from the Sheriff’s Department were to be at such a scene, it would be for the safety of those that were there.

People who have spoken to the court regarding T. Don Hutto have been “good honorable people with good intentions,” Judge Gattis said.

Dr. Asma Salam, member of the Dallas Peace Center board of directors and a D/FW area resident, said she plans on being in Taylor at noon October 28 and walking part of the time.

“I am looking forward to walking as much as I can,” she said, adding that she will be bringing five or six picket signs with her.

Ms. Salam said one such sign will say “stop the inhumane treatment of children and women in ICE/immigration detention centers inside our country.” She has been in contact with different faith and ethnic community groups in Dallas, telling them about the walk, she said.

“I still don’t know how many will join me,” Ms. Salam said. “But I’m hoping for good support.”
She said she has her own reasons for wanting to participate. “I believe that we have to raise this awareness,” Ms. Salam said. “We have to save the rights of women and children.”

Mr. Johnson said the walk has different facets to it.

“It brings we the people together to a point of activity,” he said regarding people opposed to keeping families in the T. Don Hutto Center in Taylor, where illegal immigrant families are kept while waiting to be deported.

He said the walk is also to make people aware of their opinions on T. Don Hutto.

“We consider media one of the powers of ‘our country,” Mr. Johnson added. They definitely want to voice their opinions in Commissioners Court, he said. “We’re going after the Williamson County Commissioners Court,” he said. And we believe we have a case.” Mr. Johnson said he believes the county’s involvement with the facility had to do with money rather than human rights.
“We hope they think beyond liability,” he said.

Once whoever is walking arrives at Commissioners Court on October 30, Mr. Johnson said he is not sure how many people could join the protest or what exactly will happen.

One thing he knew for sure: “We anticipate going to court and making public comment,” he said. “We want the facility shut down.”

This will be the third time there has been a walk in protest of T. Don Hutto, Mr. Johnson said. He said two previous walks involved walking from Austin to T. Don Hutto where they have never needed a permit.

Law enforcement officials in Taylor and Georgetown and the Williamson County Sheriff’s office would be notified, Mr. Johnson said.

“What we are not doing is orchestrating a march that is going to block highways and streets,” he said.

Captain David Clawson with the Taylor Police Department said the participants would not need a permit from the city of Taylor to walk in protest unless they were blocking streets. An officer could drive by just to make sure nothing got out of hand, he said.

“It’s always been extremely civil,” he said of past protests of T. Don Hutto. “We don’t want to do anything to step on their rights to that.”

According to a document on the city of Georgetown Web site, www georgetown.org, the walkers who arrive in Georgetown would consider the following regarding whether they need a permit: An “event” is a temporary event or gathering using private and/or public property. When determining whether a permit is required, consideration will be given to whether the following criteria exist: Closing a public street, Blocking or restricting public property, Blocking or restricting access to the private property of others, Use of pyrotechnics or special effects, Use of open flame, explosions or other potentially dangerous displays or actions, Sale of merchandise, food or beverages on public property, or on private property where otherwise prohibited by ordinance.

“There is a non-refundable fee of $100 for an Event Application and the Application must be returned completed, as per the ordinance, no later than 30 days prior to the proposed event or a $100 late fee will be charged in addition to the application fee,” according to the Web site.

On October 2, the Commissioners Court asked the county attorney’s office to draft notification to ICE and Corrections Corporation of America, who operates the detention facility, ending both contracts as of October 2, 2008.

However, on October 9, the court tabled the idea of ending both contracts.

Houston Chronicle
AP Texas News

Nov. 15, 2007, 5:17PM
Immigrant child separated from mom at family detention center

By ANABELLE GARAY Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

DALLAS — An 8-year-old girl was separated from her pregnant mother and left behind for four days at a detention center established to hold immigrant families together while they await outcomes to their cases.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they had to transfer the Honduran woman because she twice resisted attempts to deport her and was potentially disruptive. ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said guards and ICE staff watched over the child after her mother was removed from the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, a former Central Texas prison where non-criminal immigrant families are held while their cases are processed.

But others are critical of the agency’s handling of the case, saying it put the girl at risk and is yet another example of why the controversial facility should be closed.

“Here, it’s the government itself that has the custody of this child and then leaves her without proper supervision,” said Denise Gilman, who oversees the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, which provides legal services to Hutto detainees. “We certainly don’t want to see it happen again.”

The 28-year-old mother and child lost a bid for asylum and are back in Honduras. But Immigration Clinic attorneys plan to file a complaint with the federal government.

“There is something to complain about, because we’re talking about a child’s welfare,” said Michelle Brane, director of the detention and asylum program at the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. “This is a perfect example of why family detention just doesn’t work.”

Since opening last year near Taylor, the Hutto facility has been exempt from state child-care licensing requirements. ICE officials told the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services that parents would be at the facility with their children and would be responsible for their care, so state regulation wasn’t needed.

But if the state’s child care licensing division receives a complaint indicating child care is being provided, it could investigate, said Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective Services.

ICE officials have previously said detaining families at the facility is meant to help “children remain with parents, their best caregivers” while they are processed for deportation.

But Irma Banegas of Fort Worth said that’s not what happened in the case of her sister and niece. She asked that they not be identified by name due to concerns for their safety in Central America.

Banegas said the mother and daughter told her they cried inconsolably after they were awakened and separated.

“They’ve never been apart,” Banegas said of her sister and her niece.

Banegas said the pair fled Honduras earlier this year to escape an abusive relationship and growing gang violence in that country, including attacks that scarred her sister.

The girl and her mother had traveled from El Balsamo, Honduras to Mexico and then crossed by boat into South Texas, where they were apprehended in August.

The two were sent to Hutto, where they were held for about two months. They were waiting for a decision on their bid for asylum, which they eventually lost.

The agency attempted to deport the woman twice in October, but she wouldn’t comply. ICE officials didn’t reveal specifics about her efforts to resist deportation.

But as a result, Rusnok said, she was considered a high risk for disruptive behavior and moved to a South Texas detention center in Pearsall on Oct. 18.

“Such family separations at Hutto are extremely rare. ICE personnel took extraordinary care to minimize family disruption and separation time, while at the same time ensuring the good order of the family residential center,” Rusnok said in a statement.

Advocates agree that detainees who endanger themselves or others should be removed, but decry the lack of guidelines for transferring or punishing troublemakers.

“What that standard is, I think, is a gray area,” Brane said. “This is part of our concern with there not being any standards.”

During the separation, the girl continued her regular routine at Hutto and “felt comfortable and safe” at the facility, according to ICE.

Lawsuits filed earlier this year accused Hutto’s uniformed, handcuff-toting correctional officers called “counselors” of threatening to separate misbehaving children from their families. A settlement reached in August bans the practice and called for improving conditions at Hutto.

Those concerns have been rekindled as word of the most recent case spread through the facility, advocates say.

“That kind of fear it strikes to the heart of all other children,” Gilman said.

SEE ALSO

Breastfeeding mom separated from baby in illegal immigration case

Friday, November 09, 2007
Robert L. Smith
Plain Dealer Reporter

When federal agents encountered Sayda Umanzor in a house in Conneaut two weeks ago, the 27-year-old woman admitted to being in America illegally, “without papers.”

She also pointed to her 9-month-old daughter, Brittany, whom she had been breastfeeding when agents rapped on the door.

The baby wailed as mom and dad were led away. And she cried incessantly over the next several days as she went without breast milk while mom was in jail, sick with worry.

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Nursing Mothers and Asylum Seekers — Both Groups Need Alternatives To Detention!

Cite as “AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 07111462
(posted Nov. 14, 2007)”

WASHINGTON, DC – In a welcome guidance memorandum this week, ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers highlighted the importance of ICE agents exercising discretion when making arrest and custody decisions for undocumented immigrants who are nursing mothers. The guidance arose after a case was brought to ICE’s attention in which a nursing mother was separated from her 6-month-old nursing baby and two young children, and imprisoned for more than 2 weeks before finally being released with an electronic monitoring device affixed to her ankle. The nursing mother was not even the object of ICE agents’ action, but was accidentally discovered by them in a home they came to search in pursuit of another undocumented person.

The Myers memo also reinforces and references a previous agency guidance memo regarding prosecutorial discretion that states that “officers are not only authorized by law but expected to exercise discretion in a judicious manner at all stages of the enforcement process-to promote the efficient and effective enforcement of the immigration laws and the interests of justice.” (DOJ/INS Memorandum, November 17, 2000.)

We applaud ICE and Ms. Myers for attempting to restore a modicum of reason and discretion to a system that seems bent on “enforcement at all costs” without the accompanying changes in the law that are necessary to make enforcement effective.

At the same time, we must question and object to another new policy memo, released Monday, that turns away from the sort of professional and reasonable approach contained in Ms. Myers November 7th memo.

The Monday memorandum turns away from the existing policy that favors release from detention for arriving asylum seekers who are determined to have a “credible fear” of persecution, who have established their identity and community ties, and who are deemed not to be a flight risk. The current policy makes eminent sense, applied as it is to individuals who are among the most traumatized of arriving immigrants-those fleeing persecution which often includes arrest, imprisonment and even torture-who are seeking safety and the preservation of their very lives by appealing to our government for protection.

The new policy will
r
equire these traumatized individuals to jump through yet a new set of hoops, and to fit into one of five very narrowly defined groups, in order to be released from detention. The new policy will severely limit the exercise of discretion and will prevent most credible asylum applicants from being released from detention while their claims are being considered. This turns the standard that should be applied upside down, is punitive, and serves no rational interest.

We urge ICE to reexamine its two recent memos, and to apply the thoughtfulness embodied in the policy guidance regarding nursing mothers to another deserving group-those seeking asylum in the United States.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members.

Email from Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr.

Hola ya’ll…

If we cannot free innocent children imprisoned “for profit” on American soil…right here in the “heart of Texas”…our State and our country are doomed.

We must free them!

Many of you have been there since day # one…and already know this. Many are just coming to discover the details. Many of you from all parts of the country have shared in solidarity with us in our quest to free the innocent children from the Hutto prison.

A year ago, May of 2006, Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff proclaimed the T. Don Hutto prison for immigrant families the prototype of many more to be opened across our great land. Hutto just so happened to be a privately owned prison…run “for profit”. Immigrant children would condemned to becoming a commodity for huge financial gain of the corrupt political-corporate world. A few informed Texans tried to find a way to expose and bring public awareness to this immoral, callous and criminal scheme.

At that time, children were confined to 8′ x 12′ cold cells for 23 hours a day in a medium security prison surrounded by razor wire walls. Often not with either parent, the children, ranging from 2-y-o and up, were forced to wear prison uniforms, stand for head counts starting at 5:30am and only allowed 20 minutes to finish a meal, often prepared with out of date food and spoiled milk products. They were getting sick on a regular basis and loosing weight.

Those were the conditions…up to early December, 2006 when an alliance of Central Texas organizations solidified to form Texans United For Families (TUFF) collaborated to hold a protest walk and vigil. Starting with a press conference, hosted by Texas State Senator, Carlos Uresti, at the Capitol building, the first Hutto walk was launched on December 14th. Arriving at 11:00am on December 15th, in Taylor, TX at the Hutto childrens prison, the walk joined the first Hutto Vigil…with some 150 grassroots citizens coming together for the first time to publicly condemn the Chertoff-ICE-CCA-Williamson County collusion to imprison children and their mothers for profit.

Since that time numerous vigils and walks have been conducted. The most recent walk, Hutto Walk III, went from the Hutto childrens prison in Taylor to the Williamson County Commissioners Court in Georgetown, in order to confront the commissioners about moral breakdown and their complicity of profiting from the imprisonment of innocent children.

Since the first Hutto Walk and Vigil, many things had come to light.

1. ICE funnels a minimum of $2, 800,000 per month to the private prison company CCA…Corrections Corporation of America.
2. Parents were often separated from their children.
3. Fathers are generally imprisoned in a different prison far away.
4. Hutto did not comply with Texas or US educational laws.
5. Hutto did not comply with Texas family and day care laws.
6. Women were not being given proper medical care.
7. Women were chained to beds while undergoing checkups.
8. Women were being sexually assaulted.
9. Media was not allowed to tour the facilities.
10. Hutto did not comply with the UN Rights of the Child.
11. CCA was grossing $7,000 per month per child.
12. WCC would make $1 per child per day.
13. No toys were allowed.
14. Mothers and children were threatened with separation as a form of punishment.

Under those conditions, at the end of January, 2007, the Williamson County Commissioners Court ignored the expressed concerns of a public with a conscience and extended their one year contract for two more years. But thanks to grassroots citizens, human rights organizations and media pressure, some of those things started to change as early as mid February. Razor wire started to come down, cells doors got painted lavender and the media was allowed to enter the facility…although they were not allowed the freedom of the press to interview the children or their mothers.

In March, the ACLU, TCRP and UT Law Clinic filed lawsuits against Chertoff and ICE, adding another level of legal and media attention.

On May 8, the UN Special Rapporteur, Jorge Bustamonte, of the Human Rights Commission, came to Texas to inspect the human rights violations of the children in Hutto. He was denied access by Chertoff.

On June 23, an Amnesty International coordinated Hutto Vigil X was held at which half a thousand folks peacefully protested this international crime against innocent children.

The ACLU effectively won their lawsuit against Chertoff…in the form of a settlement. Conditions for the children would be significantly better…but…any settlement would fall well short the rightful freedom for the innocent children that we the public demand.

Since there was a clear case of sexual assault by a guard on an immigrant woman in front of the woman’s child, the Williamson County Commissioners Court finally saw their could get caught with their pants down. Concern about exposure and “liability” became public. For a short time, the WCCC entertained termination of their contract with ICE and CCA as the money laundering mechanism for ICE and CCA. Yet ICE and CCA courted the WCCC to keep it in the loop…with CCA offering the WCCC a $250,000 line of credit and legally holding them harmless in the event of law suit. Not at all concerned with the moral or criminal aspects, or the international mockery they had become for imprisoning innocent children, WCCC unanimously accepted the offer of protection from “liability”.

YET…not one national television network has covered this international crime against children. While more concerned this past year with celebrity crimes, paternity DNA, panties, drunk driving, dog fights and heists and jail sentences…CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, Fox…national…have all refused to tell the story of innocent children being prisoners in a privatized “for profit” internment prison in the United States.

While we recognize that the national networks are complicit with an administration that would commit this dehumanizing crime against the most innocent and helpless of our human family, we applaud all of the local media here in Texas…along with those around the country and around the world. “Hutto” has gone from four Google search results one year ago…to tens of thousands today.

From Australia to Iran, Russia to Argentina, the media…radio, television, newspapers, magazines and blogsphere… have carried the message all across the planet of how children are being imprisoned in America…in the heart of Texas…for profit. Radio, newspapers, television and online news and blog sources…have faithfully published the story. We also applaud the vast national and international media that has tried to inform their audiences about this American tragedy. We look with cynicism upon the national networks that rebuff this international crime being committed by the administration on American soil.

We have also had Texas legislators try to condemn Hutto during the legislative session. Unfortunately, and that’s how corrupt politics is, legislators who are on the payroll of private prisons refused to allow the condemnation to be aired publicly.

This December 16th will be the anniversary of our first Hutto Vigil. We will indeed hold an anniversary vigil…regardless of the weather. Regardless of the weather, the children from upwards of 50 different countries have been imprisoned in Hutto. After months of being treated as criminals and slaves…we don’t even know what has happened to them, or where they are or how they are. Worse yet…the vast majority of our fellow Americans do not YET know that Hutto even exists.

What’s interesting about this vigil…we have come to learn that it coincides with December 18…the International Migrants Day. How fitting that we would be prote

sting the imprisonment of immigrant children in the land of the free.

So, we now notify you…and invite you…to join us on December 16th…in front of the T. Don Hutto prison for innocent children…for our Hutto Anniversary Vigil….and in honor of the International Migrant. We will hold the Anniversary Vigil from 2pm until dark. After sunset, the anniversary vigil will become a candlelight vigil.

T. Don Hutto is located at 1001 Welch St. in Taylor, TX, 35 miles N.E. of Austin. The following link can be used to get directions from your particular point of origin.

Before we sign off here, may we all, in total solidarity, make a personal appeal to the President of the United States. Would you join me in requesting his intervention in behalf of the innocent children imprisoned by his Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff? Would you join me in demanding that he order the immediate release…the freedom of the innocent children…from Hutto and from any other facility that detains them against their will?

Do you, as President of the United States, approve of the imprisonment of innocent children…in America…in Texas…”for profit”? If not, please immediately free them and their mothers.

If you actually do approve of the imprisonment of innocent children…in America…in Texas…and “for profit”…then we expect you to give them at least as good a deal as you gave Scooter Libby. After all, if you can pardon Scooter Libby…a convicted criminal…before he had to serve even one day in prison, surely you can free innocent children that are already imprisoned under your watch.

One December 16th…and our Hutto Anniversary Vigil…may we have a 1001 candles lit up and down 1001 Welch St.

In solidarity
Jay
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BorderAmbassadors
FreedomAmbassadors
“Connecting the Dots…Making a Difference”
Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.
jay@villadelrio.com
Please read my column: Inside the Checkpoints