Category: Uncategorized

Receipts Reported by Williamson County Sun Raise Question of Over-Crowding

“I think Williamson County should be ashamed of itself,” said Jane Van Praag of Bartlett, Texas speaking Tuesday before a meeting of the County Commissioners Court.

“You are sanctioning this injustice,” said Efrain Davila of Round Rock.

What they are talking about, of course, is the T. Don Hutto “Residential Center” in nearby Taylor.
“There’s nothing residential about it,” warned Van Praag.

Davila and Van Praag are quoted in the Sunday Sun of Georgetown, Texas, a publication that is not available online.

“Critics say that if it looks like a prison and talks like a prison, then it must be a prison,” writes reporter Ben Trollinger in his front-page story. “It is unjust, they argue, for children to be in such an environment.”

In response to public unrest, several members of the court have pledged to tour the jail.

“The county’s involvement is integral,” writes Trollinger, “because ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] cannot directly contract with a private corporation such as CCA [Corrections Corporation of America]. Without the county’s consent, ICE would be forced to look elsewhere.”

Trollinger says that the county’s contract with ICE would allow commissioners to give the agency 120 days notice to cease operations.

As Efrain Davila suggested, commissioners are complicit in the operation, not only for approving the contract in April, but also for collecting a fee of “about” one dollar per head per day based on the Hutto jail population.

Trollinger reports that the county has been collecting $15,000 to $20,000 per month from ICE–amounts that at “exactly” one dollar per head per day would suggest populations of up to 645 people in a jail that, according to the CCA website, has 512 beds.

Funding for CCA also flows through the county, reports Trollinger. CCA presents its expenses for running the jail to the county, whch then passes the charges to ICE. Writes Trollinger, ICE pays CCA about $95 per day to jail the people at Hutto, or about $2.8 million per month.

Note: Thanks to Jay Johnson-Castro who encouraged us to pick up a copy of the newspaper, which we did right outside the newspaper offices.–gm

Email from Dallas Attorney John Wheat Gibson

The T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor houses about 400 immigrants who entered the country illegally.
–Juan Castillo, Austin American-Statesman

Dear Mr. Castillo:

Whoever told you the people imprisoned in Taylor , Texas entered the country illegally lied to you. I have seven clients now imprisoned since November 3 at the T. Don Hutto prison, and every one of them entered the U.S. legally with a visa issued by the United States government.
Furthermore, there is no reason for the imprisonment of these children except as victims of a Michael Chertoff publicity stunt. In midnight raids on November 3 the Department of Homeland Stupidity took these children, who were enrolled in school, from their homes, with their parents and imprisoned them.

The sole purpose of the raids, political propaganda, was apparent from a DHS press release which characterized the victims as “fugitives” and “criminals.” In fact, none of the families I know of were either fugitives or criminals. The two families I represent had conscientiously kept the DHS informed of their current residential addresses.

The purpose of the publicity stunt was to make the ignorant Fox-News brainwashed masses believe that 1) the Muslims among us are our enemies but 2) the DHS is protecting us, and therefore 3) we should not mind shredding the Constitution.

In fact, there was no legitimate reason for the raids at all. The two families I represent had been ordered deported, but had never received the customary notice to report for deportation. If they had, they would have worked out through their attorneys arrangements with the government for the children to finish the school year and then to depart at their own expense.

Compare the treatment of the Colombian wife of Georgia State Senator Curt B. Thompson last week. She also was under a final order of deportation, but the DHS did not detain her, even though, unlike my clients, she had been hiding from them since November 28, according to the Brenda Goodman, writing in the New York Times, December 6.

One of the families I am representing has four children and their mother in the prison, while the 2-year-old daughter is in foster care because she was born in the U.S. Two months is a long time for a 2-year-old baby to be torn away from her mother–especially for no reason other than a cynical political publicity stunt.

The other family has a 17-year-old son who is a senior at James Bowie High School in Arlington , Texas and his mother imprisoned in Taylor . As part of its scheme to whip up xenophobic hysteria and fear in the U.S. , the DHS has now ruined his high school graduation.

Is this the United States ? Do we allow our government to rip children from their homes and schools and imprison them indefinitely for no legitimate reason whatsoever? Please encourage somebody at the Austin American Statesman to look into this horror.

Respectfully submitted,

John Wheat Gibson, P.C.
Dallas

The United Nations Child Rights Information Netwok (CRIN) has posted the BBC Mundo preview of last week’s protest and walk to Hutto jail.

“We’re making a change in history’s timeline!” says Jay Johnson-Castro, as he coordinates a Christmas Eve vigil at the Hutto jail, where at least one pregnant woman from Palestine and four of her children are being detained for their failure to win asylum in the USA. Since their midnight arrest on Nov. 3 by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the children have been separated from their father who was sent to an Oklahoma county jail, and from their 2-year-old sister, who was ordered by authorities into foster care.

“Your articles are showing up and copied all over the cyber world, from Australia to Europe, the Americas to the Middle-East,” says Johnson-Castro. As it turns out, what affects Civil Rights in Texas affects Human Rights everywhere. –gm

Photos by Jay Johnson-Castro of the T. Don Hutto jail, taken at the Dec. 16 vigil.