Feb 21, 2007 10:47 pm US/Central
Family Seeking Freedom Held In Detention Center
Jay Gormley
Reporting
(CBS 11 News) IRVING CBS 11 News has an update on the release of a Palestinian woman and her son from a detention center near Austin. While mother and son are back in Irving, the rest of her family remains in another detention facility in west Texas.
“That’s the love of my life,” said Reza Barkhordari. “That’s my future.” Reza was supposed to marry Suzan Hazahza this past December….
Email from Jay Johnson-Castro:
Mornin’ amigos…
John Neck and I will be doing an new walk…starting next week.
It is a five day Bayview-Raymondville prison camps walk. Starting next week…Wednesday, March 21…the walk will leave from Brownsville . We will arrive at the Bayview prison camp on Thursday, March 22. From there, I will head west to Harlingen and then north to the Raymondville concentration camp…a tent camp for Latin American, mostly Mexican National refugees. We will arrive at the Raymondville camp on Sunday, March 25th. More details about this walk will be forth coming.
From my first Border Wall-K last October…I learned about these camps. This led me to protest against the Hutto prison camp, which imprisons innocent children from upwards of some 29 countries. Then last week we did a walk to the Haskell prison camp in Gov. Silent Perry’s home town. I have told everyone who knows me that I would go back to the southern tip of Texas and walk against those facilities…including a facility that also has children that are detained without their parents.
Right now, the current Bush schematic is to terrorize our own country…and rip families and communities apart in the process. This is to destabilize all of America. He uses his henchman Chertoff the ICE forces to accomplish the objective. And why do they do this? It is a front to siphon tax dollars…our tax dollars…down to for-profit prison companies. It’s all done in secrecy…so we the American masses live in ignorance of their deeds.
For anyone who believes in the scriptures, there’s a principle that would be most applicable. “For there is nothing hidden that will not become manifest, neither anything carefully concealed that will never become known and never come into the open” (Lu. 8:17). By means of “We the people” along with the genuine free press which is above being complicit with this administration and Chertoff…things are not only becoming known and into the open. They are becoming manifest.
Look at the numbers that have come into the open. Upwards of $7,000 of our taxpayers’ money…per month…per immigrant…goes to private for-profit prison companies. That’s what is being funneled to these companies…on the pretext of “illegal” and “national security”. That’s only for the imprisonment of these victims. That doesn’t count the salaries of the militarized forces within our country…like ICE. That doesn’t count the billions of dollars that go to the industrial complex for orchestrated domestic terror…as Bush and Chertoff war against its own citizens on American soil.
As things become more in the open…it is obvious that everything about this American tragedy centers on two things. Money and what’s legal versus what is discriminately categorized as “illegal”. It is legal for ICE to ruin lives…and to work in behalf of for-profit prisons that dehumanize humble immigrants for money. It’s NOT at all about right versus wrong…humane versus inhumane…moral versus immoral. And…who makes someone illegal? The same people who are profiting.
So…if it’s about money…our money…where do we the taxpayers come in? Don’t we have a right to know the facts?
What does it cost us to fund ICE and their raids? What does it cost our country to rip desperate people’s lives apart? What does it cost us to have assault teams rip immigrants out of their homes and communities and rip them away from their children…or their children away from them? What happens to their homes and property…and personal possessions and documents?
Let’s not talk about “illegal” immigrants…when what ICE is doing to them is inhumane and criminal. Why is it in this country that the most demented criminals walk free and often hold high office…while the lowly victimized masses yearning to be free live in constant terror…and are nothing more than a commodity to funnel money to the greedy?
Ultimately…the demented architects of our country’s ICE (immigration and customs enforcement)…are a malignant evil. They now reign over our country using sinister tactics not dissimilar to what we observed in frightening eras of human history such as in Germany and Yugoslavia. A reign of terror and fear…backed by cruel and inhumane raids on humans is crippling everything that we Americans want our country to be.
We the people have had enough of this. Our history is glutted with evils that we have fought to overcome. From slavery and racist treatment of the Africans. To the genocide and reservation-concentration camps for the Native Americans. The slave labor of the Chinese. The internment of the Japanese.
And the malignancy lives on. The extraction of the Arab Americans and the oppression of the Latino on a continental scale. Militarizing our border…literally doubling the military forces…against a friendly nation. All the while…and by doing so…making money! The same supremacist racist forces are back in the saddle.
Their greatest con job has been to dupe the American public into thinking that this all has to do with upholding the law. Anyone can look and see that they themselves have stripped us of Constitutional rights. And why? To control us ALL. These racist supremacist elitists rule…not only the world…but our own country. How many Americans are now wondering if their phones and e-mails are tapped. If mine is….they’re getting an earful of how I’m going to use what’s left of my freedoms to oppose their tyranny. I’m going to use my freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of press to oppose what I see as clearly cruel and criminal rule. In America …there is no legal basis for a ruling class. We are a democracy…a democracy that is about to get a revival.
Their second greatest con job by this regime is to convince us, the American public…and the victims of their abuse…that the victims are responsible for their victimization. Their being victims is their own doing…and therefore should be punished. Therefore they can be imprisoned for-profit! That’s like parents blaming a baby for the bruises all over its body…and beating some more for crying as the pain is being inflicted. In our county…the ultimate abuser is manifest by the actions of the current administration, Chertoff & ICE.
This can only stop…if “We the people of the United States ” exercise our conscience…and return to the fundamentals of democracy. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Not a government of greedy corporations and power hungry despots. Perhaps some law makers in Washington are willing to take the lead. But we do not yet see the innocent children and their mothers in the Hutto prison camp freed. One more day of incarceration is un-American, immoral and criminal.
Let’s use every moral means to take our country back and free the innocent victims of a depraved administration that does not feel answerable to anyone but their corporate sponsors. With our hearts, minds and conscience…we can make a change. We don’t need harmful weapons. We only need our passion and conviction.
So…I appeal to all Americans…
Anglo Americans
Asian Americans
African Americans
Arab Americans
Latin Americans
Native Americans
Heinz 57 Americans
Veteran Americans
Immigrant Americans
First Generation Americans
Second and Third Generation Americans
All decedents of immigrant Americans
All All-Americans
We have the moral and constitutional right…to take our country back. We have the right to let Liberty ’s invitation shine.
Give me your tired, you poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Bush, Chertoff and the ICE military are ravaging American soil in betrayal of that international promise. While Liberty shines her lamp to show the way to freedom, these despots see dollar signs and not future fellow Americans. They allow these people to be baited by the American promise of Liberty…only to be used as a commodity and be imprisoned with no due process…and “for-profit”.
Bush is sworn to protect the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic. Since he has defaulted on his presidential vow, ”WE”…the true government must protect the Constitution from the domestic enemies!
Without any violence…we draw a new line in the Texas sand. We want America back. We want desperate immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers…to be free and realize what our forefathers realized. Hope. That’s what made America … America . The tired, poor, huddled masses, the homeless and the tempest-tossed. We want to keep them coming to America . And from those who have already come…we want to free them from the despotism that would destroy their human dignity.
Will you join in this five day walk against for-profit prison camps that have hundreds and thousands of huddled masses yearning to be free? A day? A mile? Will you join in to free and protect the future of America ?
Jay
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The Border Ambassador
Connecting.the.dots…making.a.difference…
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Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.
Del Rio, Texas, USA
Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila , Mexico
jay@villadelrio.com
http://www.villadelrio.com
When few would own up to the unjust treatment of Ramsey Muniz, the American G.I. Forum helped to get him transferred to a Texas prison. So we just want to make it clear that we are proud to support the American G.I. Forum, especially because it was founded in Corpus Christi and stands as a mentoring example to anyone now working for Texas Civil Rights.–gm
“The American G.I. Forum calls for an immediate boycott of PBS and its 354 affiliate stations across the nation until such time that the Latino experience is included in Ken Burns “The WAR” PBS WWII documentary that is scheduled for release on September 23, 2007;”
Email from Jay Johnson-Castro; original in red, white, and blue–gm
Hola y’all…
My friend, John Neck and I will be doing yet another protest walk. This time to Governor Perry’s hometown and home county of Haskell, Haskell Co., TX. John has been with me from the very first day that I set out on the Border Wall-K to stop Chertoff from building a fence on the Texas-Mexico border. I do the walking. Hundreds of others joined. John is the support crew.
On this walk to Haskell, we are going to be highlighting…exposing…the inhumane treatment of immigrants, asylum seekers…especially the young and innocent women that are being subjected to degrading abuse and sexual violations by the staff of the Emerald Correctional Management Corporation that runs the prison camp for Chertoff and the ICE Company. Our motive for the walk is to get the victims freed.
In order to do so…we are going to give Governor Perry a chance to show his leadership…or lack of it. So far, it does not seem like much of a coincidence that the Governor’s hometown and home county would have a debased prison camp that abuses human rights and human dignity while he sits quietly as the head of the great state of Texas . One hears rumors that he is actually trying to position himself to be Vice President of the United States . He either shows leadership NOW and champions the freedom of the victims in his hometown, in his home county, in his home state…or he can kiss his aspirations good bye.
[On Wednesday, Feb. 28] John and I will start this 60 mile walk north to Haskell from Abilene, TX . . We will hold a press conference at 9:00am at the park to the east of the Convention Center located at 1101 North 1st Street …between Cypress and Pine Streets. After the press conference, we will then head on over to Hwy. 83 and then start our trek to Haskell. Since Texas is such a vast state, John and I are starting in Abilene to help the state, national and international communities…as well as the media…gain a perspective of where the Haskell prison camp is.
View Google Map of “Huddled Masses” Walk
Here’s what’s behind our push to do this walk to the Haskell prison camp. It shocks, outrages and angers us what is being done to innocent people there. Rather than lose our cool and do nothing about it…we have learned that we can do something about it. Change things. Working together we all can. So…if you too would be shocked by a young woman being stripped naked and having her body invaded by the highest authority of this land…being paraded in front of criminal offenders who masturbate in front of them…please read the Texas Civil Rights Review story of Suzi Hazahza.
The violations of Suzi, her sister Mirvat…and countless other young women and immigrants imprisoned there…is occurring with impunity at the Rolling Plains Regional Jail…in what we will refer to as the Haskell prison camp. And this kind of demented conduct has been going on for a very long time. {Haskell prison camp contact info. Rolling Plains County Jail . 118 County Road 206. Haskell , TX 79521 . (940) 864-5694}
The grand lady…the Statue of Liberty …welcomes lowly immigrants saying:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
When did our state and federal governments forsake that global promise of the American dream? Right here in Texas …Governor Perry’s silence about the struggling people in the prison camps is deafening. How can he consider himself a potential national leader when he doesn’t know how to use his lofty position as governor to take care of the “Huddled masses yearning to breathe FREE”…like the ones who sit in a Haskell prison camp in his hometown…or the innocent children and their mothers who are imprisoned just 35 miles up the road from his exalted Capitol office and Texas White House…in the CCA Hutto prison camp in Taylor, TX? By the way. Is it surprising to anyone that In 2006…CCA gave $10,000 in campaign contributions to only one state elected official? Rick Perry? Might the Governor be an accomplice to this immoral and criminal for-profit prison system in Texas ? What does his silence say?
So our walk to the Haskell prison camp is a walk to liberate the “Huddled masses yearning to breathe FREE”. We start here in Texas . We will carry this liberation across the country. We are seeking freedom and independence for ALL the immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees…who come to this country based on the international promise by the Land of Liberty …only to fall victims to a perverted-for profit-money laundering-scheme that imprisons them and steal them of their dignity.
This especially includes the liberating of Suzi and her sister Mirvat Hazahza…and the bright young college student, Samantha Windschitt. Why? Because we do not believe that any human is illegal on planet Earth…let alone innocent youth. (See attached photo with some freedom fighters, including Rosa Rosales, President of LULAC, who witnessed the Hutto prison camp first hand and pledged her national organizations resources to close all such dehumanizing prison camps.)
Our walk to liberate the “Huddled masses yearning to breathe FREE” starts on Wednesday, February 28th. We will walk for four days to arrive at the Haskell prison camp…to hold a Texas Independence Day Vigil at 3pm on none other than Saturday, March 3rd…Texas Independence Day.
As always…you are welcome…invited…encouraged…to walk a mile with us. You have 60 different miles to choose from. Take your pick. Bring your friends, family or neighbors. Feel free to forward or blog this invitation. Let your organizations know. Be part of this rapidly growing grass roots dissention of the atrocities that are being committed right here on American soil…under the American and Texas flags.
Join with us in not just reading about it…but in making a difference…in making history. What happens in Texas sets a precedent for the rest of our county. So…come walk a mile with us…
Jay
P.S. John and I are most willing to accept a meal, lodging or trip expenses. John comes from Brownsville . I come from Del Rio . We are not funded by any organization. We are grass roots folks like you. We do this on our own…along with your help. If you would like to help, you can call Sarah Boone at (830)768-1100…or e-mail her at sboone@stx.rr.com. She’s our “command center”. (:}) JJJ
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The Border Ambassador
Connecting.the.dots…making.a.difference…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.
Del Rio, Texas, USA
Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila , Mexico
The following commentary was previously posted in the announcement section.–gm
For further accounts of the disparity between what ICE says and what the Hazahzas have lived through, see Brett Shipp’s review of the T. Don Hutto press tour. We congratulate Shipp for validating the voices of immigrants in relation to ICE propaganda, but we are dismayed that Shipp’s report does not mention that his key sources, Juma and Mohammad, are desperately seeking reunion with their imprisoned family at the Rolling Plains prison.
Given the power of Shipp’s reach, and the natural connection between what ICE says and what the Hazahzas experience, omission of the family’s continued separation suggests a whiff of exploitation. Doesn’t ICE claim that it keeps families together? What would Mohammad and Juma have to say about that? We can only hope the debt will be repaid in short order.
To quote the Hazahzas and not mention Haskell? We don’t get it. Please show us Mr. Shipp that there is a larger plan of reporting here, because there is no excuse for knowing about Mohammad’s sister Suzi and failing to act today.
Texas Civil Rights Review 