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Commentary

On Dec. 15, 2006 Dallas attorney John Wheat Gibson wrote an email to a Texas reporter explaining that some of the families imprisoned at the T. Don Hutto jail for immigrants had in fact entered the USA legally with visas.

We are grateful that Gibson’s email was circulated on Dec. 18 by Del Rio businessman Jay Johnson-Castro, because otherwise there is a good chance nobody would know about three Palestinian families who are serving terms of indefinite jail time in Texas (and Oklahoma) jails.
On the other hand, try a news search at Google for the key words Perry and Confederate. We tried the search this morning and got 101 hits. If you want to get real attention from Texas media, just put on a Confederate flag t-shirt and play your guitar at the governor’s inauguration.

And so we offer profound apologies to the three Palestinian families–Ibrahim, Suleiman, and Hazahza–for the awful neglect and abuse that they continue to suffer at the hands of officials and reporters in Texas.

Word comes now that two USA citizens–the 4-year-old twin daughters of the Suleiman family–will shortly be deported with their parents, because the USA has not a heart big enough to share with this refugee family. We hope out loud that in the next few days, someone with authority and compassion will lift a finger to change these things.

Meanwhile, we are grievously dismayed by the Governor. When the Governor was informed that people were offended by the display of a confederate flag at his inaugural ball, what did he do? He called the person who displayed the flag in order to commiserate and communicate his solidarity.

We would much prefer a government in Texas that did not imprison children, a media that did not ignore international refugees, and a Governor who would pick up the phone and apologize to Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe. But we have none of these things.

In this seventh year of the 21st Century, we have only the same old news, made increasingly worse by our expectations that things should have gotten better by now.–gm

The governor also called over the weekend, ending the conversation by telling Nugent to “give ’em hell,” Nugent was quoted as saying.–AP

PlanetFlamenco

Teye is a Flamenco artist who along with Jay Johnson-Castro is returning to the Hutto prison camp Christmas Eve for a vigil–a Flamenco vigil. The Texas Civil Rights Review sent a few questions via email:

TCRR: I hear you are from Europe, and that your family has had experience with fascism.

Teye: I am actually from the Netherlands: My father was a soldier in Rotterdam when it was bombed by the Germans in May 1940 (my father was 40 years my senior, and I’m 49 now).
My father nor mother ever allowed even one ugly word in our house on Germans: he always said that the Germans were by and large brainwashed and misinformed by the nazi fanatics. He spent months in German captivity; then was allowed to return home, then when the nazis started to deport capable men to do forced labor, he like many others disappeared underground and hid out. He never was discovered nor betrayed and survived the war intact as did my mother.

We will need to separate the term FASCISM from the idea “everything bad”. Fascism is basically defined thus: the government works closely together with
the big corporations and they mutually enlarge each others power. It is the pyramid of power: a broad and obedient and mis/disinformed base, narrowing towards
the top where the power sits and the information is made. The nazis definitely fit the description!

TCRR: What is your motivation for going back to the Hutto jail Christmas Eve?

Teye: My motivation to do the Christmas Eve event, which will be really more of a Gypsy Campfire Flamenco gathering, only without the campfire of course,
but with candles, is that I want to bring hope to especially the children inside.

I’ve tried to contact the prison to offer a free of charge flamenco performance inside, for the children and their parents and for the staff, but I never heard
back from them. So we will do it outside. I am positive that the rumor will travel to the inside of the facility that there are some people right by the entrance who choose to celebrate their Christmas Eve in support, so
that the children and their families may know that they are neither forgotten nor ignored.

And let us not forget: they must feel forgotten inside: The lawyer who is representing them tells us that SEVEN INMATES HOLD VALID IMMIGRATION VISAS ISSUED BY THE US GOVERNMENT, but since there is no effective appeal in the system of for-profit private prisons, they are still being held in detention!

TCRR: How are people responding to your call for a Christmas Eve vigil?

Teye: Reactions from people have been enormously positive: I am getting emails in from all over the world, pledging support and dedicating a virtual candle. And that is the second idea behind this Gypsy Candlelight performance: to raise awareness via the grassroots alternative circuit: and it is working.

TCRR: Why go back to Hutto jail only a week after the first vigil?

Teye: We have GOT TO KEEP THE BALL ROLLING until this situation changes for the better.

On Christmas Eve we celebrate the joyful birth of Jesus: the big ray of Hope Peace and Sunshine that was given to ALL humankind! The Gypsies have always said that God created this world for ALL of us!
And I do not believe that [means] incarcerating children. So we need to keep at it.

Email from Jay Johnson-Castro

A great Christmas Eve to y’all…

One last e-mail before I hit the road for [1400 Welch St.] Taylor, Texas …for the Christmas Eve Vigil…for the mom’s and especially the children that are imprisoned in the Hutto prison camp.
We’re grateful that folks like y’all are picking up on the travesty being committed on American soil just 35 miles from the Capitol of Texas.

We did the walk and held the first vigil just one week ago…and look at the momentum that grass roots America has made. With this vigil this Christmas Evening…we will fan the flames of American outrage against the fascism that has crept into this country of immigrants. We are exposing Chertoff & Company. We are exposing the immigration-corporation complex…in which children and their desperate mothers are imprisoned like hardened criminals.

I know it’s short notice…but if anyone can spare an hour…from 5p-to 6p…you would be able to share in the demise of the perverted mentality that would rejoicingly exploit children for obscene profits. One hour…plus travel time…and you can be back with your friends and families for a warm and cozy Christmas Eve. At least the children and their moms…the media…and especially Chertoff & Company will know that there are Americans who not only genuinely care…but will fight with the power of democracy and all of our freedoms of speech and press and assembly…until these immoral and criminal acts are fully exposed, the children and their moms are freed…and real justice stares the real criminals in the face.

If you can make it…please bring a candle…

Jay

In addition to the Ibrahim and Suleiman families, we present below information about seven members of the Hazahza family, who were also abducted in a dawn raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The account is taken from a slightly edited letter of appeal to ICE officials, written on Nov. 27 by Reza Barkhordari of Plano. We have only deleted for the time being the circumstances of the September killing of the family’s 16-year-old son, pending documentation and verification. The family is now represented by Dallas attorney Michelle L. Saenz-Rodriguez.–gm

The following members of a family from Irving, Texas were detained by US Immigration, Dallas Field
Office at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday morning, November 2nd.

1. Nazmieh Juma (Mother)
2. Radi Hazahza (Father)
3. Suzan Hazahza (Daughter, 19)
4. Mirvat Hazahza (Daughter, 23)
5. Mohammad Hazahza (Son, 11)
6. Hisham Hazahza (Son, 23)
7. Ahmad Hazahza (Son, 17)
The father of the family, Radi Hazahza, is originally from Palestine and worked in Jordan and Palestine as a
respected bank manager for many years. The family lived in Jordan for a long time before they moved to
Palestine.

They were initially granted entry into the United States on a visitor’s visa. At the completion of the
visa term they applied for asylum from the US government as their life had been threatened by the existing
violence and various life threats in those territories on multiple occasions.

The case was initially turned down largely for their counsel’s incompetence, and they appealed the case. The appeal was again handled in an unprofessional manner by their next Immigration attorney, who filed their petitions 90 days after the due date–papers which had been already provided to her previously along with the appropriate filling fees. In a formal letter to the INS Court of Appeals, she has officially addressed this issue and admitted to her shortcoming in their case, but the petition for asylum was rejected nevertheless.

Five of the seven family members have been transferred to the Haskell Jail, Immigration Detention Facility at 507 S 2nd St., Haskell, TX 79521.

The mother, Nazmieh Juma, and her 11-year-old son are being detained at the T. Don Hutto jail in Taylor, TX.

It breaks our hearts to see that such a hard-working family which is only trying to seek peace here in our
country is facing more difficulties than they have ever before when they fled here to escape this kind of
intimidation and violence in their own homeland.

Just like everyone else, they were also trying to integrate into the society with respect and dignity and to take advantage of the opportunities that our country has to offer for a better living standard. I wish we could do more to display our hospitality to those who are running away from the evils of their worlds and are seeking refuge in us.

Please do note the following facts and conditions with regards to the family concerning their case:

1. The family is currently undergoing extreme emotional difficulties due to the loss of their loved one.
The parents are still grieving the loss of their 16-year-old son (who was killed in September) and visit the cemetery at least once a week as a form of emotional release. I assume anyone with family could relate to the unbearable pain associated with this kind of tragedy.

2. The younger daughter, Suzan Hazahza, also engaged to a US citizen (the author of this account, Reza Barkhordari) for over a year now was also detained with the rest of the family. She was forced to temporarily withdraw from attending Northlake College to care for her mother after the family tragedy due to her mother’s emotional instability. Suzan is a daughter that most of us Americans would dream of having with a fully clean and clear criminal record. She does not even have a traffic violation.

3. The older daughter, Mirvat Hazahza, is officially and legally married to a US citizen as of two
months ago. She is a perfect model citizen with a clean criminal history, getting through college as
an honor student while making great financial contributions to her family and taking care of them.
The worst thing on her record maybe a traffic ticket, if any.

4. The mother, Nazmieh Juma, is on anti-depressant medication due to the high levels of stress and
extreme depression she is experiencing for the loss of her son. She is not mentally prepared to
undergo this type of additional mental stress. We are very concerned about her health, as it is very
important that she stays on schedule with respect to her prescriptions. She is not properly eating due to her depression and her dietary needs. Since she does not respond well to processed and prepared foods, she is basically living on lettuce, which is a cause of real worry for us.

5. Radi Hazahza, the father, is 60 and in a very bad mental condition fearing the life of his family
members if deported back to Palestine.

6. Ahmad Hazahza is a high-school student at McArthur High School in Irving, which he has been
unable to attend. As a juvenile in the adult jail at Haskell, he is being held in solitary confinement, which is causing him to be depressed. As a result of his extreme distress, he urinated blood for ten days prior to being attended by a physician.

[Note: the following information is found posted in a press release from ICE about the November roundup of “21 criminal aliens” in “Operation Return to Sender”: Ahmed Hazahza, 18 (editor’s note: Ahmad was 17 years old at the time of his arrest and incarceration by ICE), Palestinian, born in Jordan, was arrested in Irving, Texas on Nov. 02 on an outstanding order for deportation. Hazahza was convicted as an adult for three burglaries for which he received a 10-year probated sentence.]

7. Mohammad Hazahza was attending Sam Houston Middle School in Irving until detained by
Immigration.

The Immigration Deportation Officer in charge of their case is Mr. Calvin Meredith in the Dallas Field Office, Tel: (214) 905-5880.

This family has been through so much hardship that would not be bearable by most. In my heart of hearts I
know that they deserve much better than being detained under such conditions and being treated as
criminals.

Your kind and urgent attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.
Kind regards,

Reza Barkhordari
Plano, TX