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19 de Octubre, 2007
Yearning to Breathe Free
Categorized under Acción , Derechos Humanos , Frontera , Raza | Tags: borders, Hutto, ICE, Mexicans, migra, Police State, Power to the People, Raymondville
IF YOU'VE BEEN FOLLOWING this blog or many others in the "brown blogosphere," (and eventually the mainstream blogosphere, although we were originally told this was one of our "pet issues") you know the names HUTTO and you know the name RAYMONDVILLE and you understand that these are detention centers, or prisons, where ICE hides away and abuses children and working parents who are Mexican (as well as from about 50 other countries) and who have made themselves a part of the US economy. "Migrants" in other words. Some have called them "tempest tossed," though others argue what is the cause of the tempest. It has already been proven beyond a doubt that they are being treated inhumanely, abused, and are seen as a source of income for Halliburton as well as the townships that approve them. What they are counting on is that we don't care about these ALIENZ. They are counting on the fact that your love of humanity ends at a "border." That your humane nature is reliant upon racism and ethnocentrism and that you could care less what happens to these people. Of course this is not true.
Below I quote from a letter written on behalf of the inmates at the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey, which was posted at mi blogmigo XP's joint in the comments this past Wednesday.
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This letter is on behalf of all the inmates at the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. This “prison” or “detention center” is run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). We have written this letter because of the mistreatment treatment from CCA Officers and the problems that this center has.
First of all, the CCA officers here have chosen a career working with the public. They have an option to work here or not, and we are sure that there is no job requirement that states that they must treat people like animals as they do. Many of the officer are obnoxious and rude. They constantly curse at inmates and put them down. We already have very low self-esteem because of being in custody for immigration issues, why make us feel even worse? These officers are misusing their power. Since we are in custody and not working, our families are having difficulty putting money in our accounts for phone cards, writing material and most importantly snacks. The officers who are working and receiving a paycheck come to us and ask us for chocolate bars, coffee and other snacks. Some officers also bring their personal life to work and take their frustrations out on us. They constantly give us and our family who come to visit us attitudes. They sometimes abuse their power and don’t allow us to practice our religion. Numerous times, inmates had to stop praying because an officer ordered them too. In the middle of the night, the officers congregate in dorms, talk loud and constantly slam doors making it very uncomfortable to sleep. They have no decency. [...] As for the food here, the issues vary from day to day. The food is usually overcooked. The trays that we are served in are not clean. The portions are too small. If you are still hungry, they DO NOT ALLOW you to take an extra tray. They would rather throw out all the food than allow us to have a little more to fill us up. If we are in visitation or religious services during meal time, they do not save any hot lunch for us, they just throw it out. We are lucky if we are allowed to get a cold lunch when we come back from visitation.The food has no flavor and they do not give us salt and pepper. It seems that they want us to starve. According to immigration laws, they can hold people for 90 - 180 days, but for some reason some people have been here for years. Some people in this facility have been here over a year. This facility was not made to accommodate people for over a year. There are no exercise rooms or recreational activities administered here. An hour in a room with 3 holes in the ceiling should not count as outdoor rec. The room is dirty and dusty. Why are we not allowed to have fresh air? Why are we not allowed to see the sun?
We are the ones who are required to clean our dorms. They make us clean the bathroom, shower area, toilets, mop and dust. Whenever inspectors, investors, or government officials come to see the facility, they make us clean more so that the rooms can be spotless. They also treat us better in front of these people. Little do they know, it is all a show so that their facility can pass inspection or so that they gain another investor! There have also been times where they have shut down water in dorms for long hours. During this time, we have no water to drink, or to wash up. Some days there is no soap for us to wash our hands or shower with. The bathroom or dorm has no ventilation. The bathroom is also open into the dorm. Imagine how the room smells when people go to the bathroom! Disgusting! We don’t know how they clean our clothing either. There have been many times when they return our laundry with more stains on it, stains that weren’t there when we gave them our dirty laundry. The razors that they give us seem to be old and reused. They tell us that they are new but there are times where we have found hair in them before we even use them, this is hazardous to our health. The dorms are always cold. Now that the weather is cooler, they have not turned down the AC. The officers walk around with jackets but as for us, we are not given that. We are always cold, especially at night. They do not allow us to have extra blankets to keep warm. |
The air-conditioning system always leaks water on our beds. We have complained many times but they never do anything about it. Some dorms have mold growing which is not healthy for us to breath in. Again, complaints have been made but no one does anything about it. [...]That image was taken from a video on Hutto prison (For Kids!).
While it is frightening to think of all we do not know about the conditions we force these people to live in, it can be even more frightening to look at the facts we have uncovered so far.
On April 7, politicians and law enforcement officials gathered in Tacoma, Washington, to celebrate the opening of the Department of Homeland Security’s newest gem, a $115 million facility called the Northwest Detention Center.The building, designed to hold up to 700 undocumented immigrants awaiting deportation, was nearly two years in the works, and supporters hoped it would provide a much-needed economic boon to the region.
Later that week, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division sent a report to Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich, documenting the results of an investigation into two of the state’s juvenile halls. In stomach-churning detail, investigators described how employees brutally beat youths at the facilities, and how basic living conditions didn’t meet even the lowest constitutional standards. In a subsequent statement, Assistant Attorney General R. Alexander Acosta said, “No juvenile should be exposed to such conditions.”
But they are. Even today. This is what awaits those human beings detained by ICE and shunted into the Halliburton Prison Market and into the shadowy places where many Decent Americans would rather not venture. And there are thousands right now suffering these conditions. Some would tell us this is fine with them because these people are "Illegal." I know you are not one of them.
Want to do something about it? Want to add your presence and voice to those who are up on their feet and showing their outrage?
Read on.
The Facts:
Willacy County is spending and additional $40,000,000 to add 1000 beds to the already existing 2000 beds of the largest immigrant internment camp in the world.Williamson County has no intent whatsoever to free the children from the Hutto prison camp in Taylor, Texas. They are only concerned about making money off of the imprisonment of the children with impunity and with no legal liability.
Willacy County and Williamson County are becoming the scourge of America in the eyes of the international community. With these facilities comes human rights violation. These prisons are models and manifestations of the elitist supremacy…with callous greed as the driving force that permeates our country and exploits the worlds’ inhabitants. Georgetown in particular, the Williamson County seat, has produced the worst of indignities to the human family by being complicit in the imprisonment of innocent children for obscene profits.
The Hutto child prison in Taylor and the Raymondville tent internment camps are the most visible yet sinister violation of international human rights on American soil…and they both happen to be here in Texas. Hutto has children and their mothers imprisoned at the tune of about $10,000 per child/per mother/per month. Raymondville is the most flagrant of adult immigrant internment camps in the world, let alone on American soil.
—Jay J. Johnson Castro, from email
The Truth:
It will take "we the people" to cause a chain reaction of moral and humane change in our state and country. There is no moral leadership at the "top". And the moral bankruptcy is manifest all the way down the political heap to the local county commissions. Moral leadership must come from the grassroots and work its way up. It will take our individual and collective passion and reasoning to infuse courage into the elected officials to do the right thing.—Jay J. Johnson Castro
He is right. The system is rotten from top to bottom. Just like these prison centers and those who approve them, it is littered with people only beholden to gods of self-interest and superficiality. Even our "representatives" represent far more for the status quo then they do our interests. There's too much cash rolling in behind this chattel market for our "authorities" to do anything but insist upon a blossoming market of prisons and abuse.
Real change is up to us. As veterana de la causa and amiga Dorinda Morena says, "We are the ones we have been waiting for."
The Action:
Raymondville Walk II and Hutto Walk III will comprise a Texas Super Weekend of prison protest of the two most repugnant “for profit” immigration internment camps here in Texas. This will be the second event backed by a statewide coalition of Texan and American alliances of organizations and coalitions seeking liberty and justice for children, mothers, asylum seekers, refugees and desperate immigrants. (The first such statewide event Hutto Vigil X, sponsored by Amnesty International, on June 23 of this year.) [...]To those from Houston, the Valley, Austin and San Antonio, Williamson County and the Metro-plex…"Start your engines!!!" Plan your travel arrangements. Make your posters and banners. Plan your speeches. Develop your public and legal strategies. May we continue to expose and to shame those who would callously and corruptly violate the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and Liberty’s invitation to the “huddled masses yearning to breath free”!
—Jay J. Johnson Castro
Jay also advises on the heat: If you plan on walking any significant distance, please seriously consider wearing a good broad brimmed hat, comfortable walking or athletic shoes, and plenty of fluids. We will have a support vehicle that can carry the beverages and hopefully another vehicle that can shuttle folks when necessary.
And adds:
If any organizations would like to sign on in solidarity with our quest to free innocent and desperate people who have never been charged with a crime. Please reply or otherwise contact us.
In solidarity
Jay
Freedom Ambassadors
Connecting the Dots...Making a Difference
(830)768-0768
(830)734-8636 (cell)
Raymondville Walk II
In our quest to free the refugees of some 50 countries from the ICE-MTC run "for-profit" internment-concentration camp in Raymondville, Willacy County, Texas.
October 26 9:00am (Friday)
Press Conference at Harlingen Travel Center at 9:00am
9:30am Start Raymondville Walk II
Start address: 2021 W Harrison Ave Harlingen, TX 78552
1. Head west on W Harrison Ave toward US-77 N - 138 ft
2. Turn right at US-77 N - 0.1 mi
3. Take the ramp on the left onto US-77 N - 15.6 mi
Arrive at: Expressway 77 N/US-77 at FM-498
October 27 10:00am (Saturday)
1. Start at Expressway 77 N/US-77 from FM-498 - 4.8 mi
2. Turn left at FM-3168 - 0.5 mi
3. Arrive at: Raymondville Internment-Concentration Camp for Noon Vigil.
Hutto Walk III
In our quest to free the children of the world who are imprisoned in the ICE-CCA run T. Don Hutto "for-profit" prison for children in Taylor, Williamson County, Texas.
October 28 Noon (Sunday)
Press Conference at Hutto Prison Camp at Noon
1:00pm Start Hutto Walk III
Start address: 1001 Welch Taylor, TX 76574
1. Head east on Welch toward Howard St
2. Turn left at W Oak St
3. Head east on W Oak St toward TX-95
4. Turn left at TX-95
5. Arrive at: TX-29
October 29 9:00am (Monday)
1. Head west on TX-29 toward CR-337 - 12.9 mi
2. Arrive at: Georgetown Inner Loop and TX-29
October 30 8:00am (Tuesday)
1. Head south on Georgetown Inner Loop toward Stonehedge Blvd - 2.0 mi
2.Arrive at: 301SE Inner Loop Georgetown, TX 78626
Williamson County Annex and Williamson County Commissioners Court...9:30 meeting.
Participating organizations:
Coalition in Defense of the Community (Houston)
Pax Christi (Brownsville)
Grass Roots Leadership (Texas)
LULAC (National-Regional-Local)
Cesar Chavez March for Justice (National)
Dallas Peace Center (Dallas)
MADRES (Texas)
Freedom Ambassadors (National-state-local)
Veterans for Peace (Rio Grande Valley)
ARISE (Rio Grande Valley)
CASA (Rio Grande Valley)
CAIR (Dallas)
NAACP(Dallas)
CAFHTA (Dallas)
Williamson County T. Don Hutto Opposition Group
East Williamson County Democratic Party Club
Communications of America, National Rep. Currie Hallford
Ralph Isenberg
THE WORLD changes every day. Our nation changes every day. It is becoming something no decent human being can accept. Hell with that. It has become something no decent human should accept. But we can also change it. We must change it. We must, if we are to stay here, change this. In any way we can.
Among other issues, we simply must end this prison-for-profit system, this racially-sanctioned abuse. Even if someone claims to care nothing for the ALIENZ or the water they drink, the beds they sleep in, the smells they live with, the health violations we provide, the pains of their heart, the destruction to their lives this causes; even if someone claims they are happy to have them imprisoned and abused and doesn't care what effect, even, this will have on our own economy...how can a thinking, feeling human being know this is happening to children? And let it go on? And not care?
We are a better nation than that. I hope we are. I hope so. We can be, if we want to be. That, at least, I know to be true.
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Comentarios (6)
~KL~ dijo:
My whole familia lives in San Antonio & Corpus Christi and have already made plans to be there.
Palabras por ~KL~ spat forth on el 19 de Octubre, 2007 at 12:53 PM
RickB dijo:
There's also the cultural shift this allows, a detention for profit industry makes it a rewarding career to be authoritarian and cruel. This demographic grows, its desires fulfilled and marketed too, overall it shifts the culture to acceptance as it accommodates the labour that is supported by the industry. Their income gives them economic power, that affects the media and advertising culture as their custom is chased. That then shows other people it might be advantageous to also be domineering and sadistic. Its already happened because of the huge 'defence' /govt/military/industrial complex- war films, war toys, war tv, adulation of militarism (I don't see much about Courage to Resist -even on 'liberal' blogs). It's gradual and indsidious and has been happening for ages, the end result is this war addicted monster (it happened when Britain was an empire) now turning fascist and beginning with the least powerful members of society (a border is an excuse for othering, like skin colour, clothes, haircut, sex, religion etc etc) why those dems concerned with equality are failing to see that must reside in politcal calculations, 'patriotism' and god knows what else, but it's nothing to be proud of. I think the simple answer to the 'pet issue' thing is Pastor Niemoller's poem. Even if your own heart won't invoke empathy and human decency in you the logic is inescapable.
Palabras por RickB spat forth on el 19 de Octubre, 2007 at 02:17 PM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
that's great, KL.
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yes, what a great poem. it is true that sometimes being human means all we understand at bottom is self-interest. and Niemoller's poem reminds us what happens to us when that is all we use to guide our actions...
you make great sociological insights. thanks for the comment.
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 19 de Octubre, 2007 at 02:41 PM
charles dijo:
heart-breaking and horrifying. thanks for the info on the marches.
meanwhile, we have thug candidates like Mitt Romney promising to "double Guantanamo," without saying we've already built similar, and larger institutions inside the US.
Palabras por charles spat forth on el 19 de Octubre, 2007 at 03:44 PM
Deborah dijo:
Question: Can people visit these inmates? To bring them things like salt and pepper and books and foods and medicines and cell phones and help them find lawyers and intermediaries and advocates and teach the kids and all that kind of stuff? Are there people imprisoned like this in Minnesota, in Wisconsin? I am sorry to be so ignorant. Please fill me in.
Palabras por Deborah spat forth on el 22 de Octubre, 2007 at 11:19 AM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez
dijo:
deborah, i dont know. i'm sorry. try asking my friend XP as linked above. he is pretty in touch with Hutto stuff, as is Jay Castro.
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez
spat forth on el 3 de Enero, 2008 at 02:34 PM