Amerikan Corporate Fascism at its finest (human rights violation with detention centers)
author: Enemy of the State
|
Did not the Nazis hold the Polish Jews that fled the pogroms of Poland and Russia to Germany in detainment centers before attempting the "Final Solution"?
|
I will try to post all the DemocracyNow report from Friday in this post. It is totally UNEXCEPTABLE. The US has taken "illegal" immigrate into prisons (many privately owned and operated) and many of these people in custody are children living in jails. Ok even if you are cold, heartless and do not care about innocent people living in detainment camps and private prisons .. then at least look at what the Corporate Fascists have in story for those who they declare "enemy of the state". Remember those detainment camp contracts Halliburton (Dick Cheney's company) recieved from the Korporatist Republik of Amerika.
Every report can be streamed or listened to (via mp3 or rm at the link provided from DemocracyNow.org):
Human Rights Groups Call for Closure of Texas Jail Holding Undocumented Immigrants
Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript
Help Printer-friendly version Email to a friend Purchase Video/CD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Human rights groups are calling for the U.S. government to shut down a jail in Texas where about 200 immigrant children, some only infants, are being detained. The Hutto facility in Taylor, Texas is owned by the private prison company, Corrections Corporations of America. We speak to an immigrant rights advocate who visited the center and an attorney for families being held in Texas immigration detention centers. [includes rush transcript]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Human rights groups are calling for the U.S. government to shut down a jail in Texas where about 200 immigrant children, some only infants, are being detained. Ten months ago the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began holding families in The Hutto facility in Taylor, Texas, owned by the private prison company, Corrections Corporations of America. Many of the families held at the facility are seeking asylum in the United States. For months immigration officials refused to allow outside groups or the media into the center. But late last year researchers from the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service were allowed inside.
The two groups have just released a report titled "Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families." Michelle Brane is co-author of the report. She is the director of the detention and asylum program at the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and she joins us from Washington, D.C. And with us here in New York is Immigration Attorney Joshua Bardavid. Earlier this week he filed a habeas petition on behalf of five members of a Palestinian family being held in another immigration prison in Texas.
We repeatedly called both the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Corrections Corporations of America to invite them on the program. They did not respond to our requests.
Michelle Brane. Director of the detention and asylum program at the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children. She is co-author of the report "Locking Up Family Values."
Joshua Bardavid. Immigration attorney in New York. He is representing families held in immigration prisons in Texas.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...
JUAN GONZALEZ: Human rights groups are calling for the US government to shut down a jail in Texas, where about 200 immigrant children, some only infants, are being detained. Ten months ago, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement began holding families in the Hutto facility in Taylor, Texas, owned by the private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America. Many of the families held at the facility are seeking asylum in the United States. For months, immigration officials refused to allow outside groups or the media into the center, but late last year, researchers from the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children and the Lutheran Immigration Refugee Service were allowed inside.
AMY GOODMAN: The two groups have just released a report called "Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families." Michelle Brane is co-author of the report. She's the director of the Detention Asylum Program at the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children. She joins us from Washington, D.C. And with us here in our firehouse studio is immigration attorney Joshua Bardavid. Earlier this week, he filed a habeas petition on behalf of five members of a Palestinian family being held in another immigration prison in Texas. We repeatedly called both the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, and the Corrections Corporation of America to invite them on the program. They didn't respond to our requests.
Let's begin with Michelle Brane in Washington, D.C. Can you talk about the major findings in your report, "Locking Up Family Values"?
MICHELLE BRANE: Sure. We were investigating the use of family detention by ICE overall, and they're using two facilities to hold families. So we visited both the facility in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and the facility that you mentioned in Hutto in Texas. When we went to Texas, we went in on December 4th of 2006. And really, what we found is that it's a former prison that is now being used to house families, and it still looks and feels very much like a prison. And even though they've made some modifications to accommodate children, such as putting railings on the bunk beds and painting some murals, it doesn't really change the fact that it's a prison, and people in there are treated still very much like prisoners.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And the people who being detained here, are these folks who have entered the country illegally? Are they largely asylum applicants?
MICHELLE BRANE: We weren't able to get exact statistics on what percentage of the people being held there are asylum seekers, but it does appear that the majority of them are seeking asylum. Everybody who's there is in some sort of immigration proceeding. Either they've been apprehended at the border crossing illegally, or they've -- some of them have been apprehended inside the country, and I think your other guest can speak to his clients in that case. So there's people in all sorts of proceedings, but what is interesting is that none of the people held at these facilities have any criminal charges pending against them, nor do they have any criminal backgrounds.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you give us, Michelle Brane, a historical context for locking up whole families?
MICHELLE BRANE: Sure. It's a fairly new thing to lock up families together as family units. The Department of Homeland Security used to separate families, and before, INS. They sometimes held families in hotel rooms, but for the most part, families were either released, pending a hearing, or what they started to do post-9/11 more, as they kind of were ending the practice of releasing people to the community, was separating families. So they would take the adults in the family and put them in adult facilities -- you know, the mother in a facility for women, the father in a male facility -- and the children would be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office for Refugee Resettlement, who takes custody of unaccompanied children in these proceedings. And they would be responsible for them until the case was resolved.
When Congress heard about this, they expressed concern about separating families and instructed ICE to stop separating families. And, actually, what they recommended was that ICE use alternatives, such as a program that currently exists that is run by ICE called the Intensive [Supervision] Appearance Program. And what they recommended also was that if these programs couldn't be used and detention was necessary, that home-like non-penal environments be used.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And could you tell us about the conditions that you found in these centers and, specifically, the impact on the children of being locked up?
MICHELLE BRANE: Sure. I mean, the facility in Hutto, in particular, is -- I don't think it can be described anywhere near a home-like non-penal environment. As I mentioned, it is a former prison that still looks and feels very much like a prison. Children, families sleep in cells at night, where children are very often separated from their parents. So at night, some children do remain in the cell with their parents, and others are separated into separate cells. It depends on family size, space and the age of the child. But children as young as six can be separated at night. And, in fact, at the Berks County facility, all children over five sleep separately from their parents. And at night, these parents cannot get to their children. So, many parents talked of their children crying at night or being sick at night and not being able to go to them. While the doors of the cells at the Hutto facility are not locked -- they've disengaged the locks on the cell doors -- there is a laser beam that shoots across the line of cells so that if a door is opened, an alarm would go off.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking with Michelle Brane, who is one of the people who just published this report, "Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families." Joshua Bardavid is also with us, an immigration lawyer here in New York. Can you talk about your clients, the Hazahza family?
JOSHUA BARDAVID: The Hazahza family is actually being held at a different facility than the Hutto facility. They're being held in Haskell, Texas, the Rolling Plains Regional Detention Center. Two members of the Hazahza family were held at Hutto, but have since been released: the mother and an eleven-year-old child. The remaining members of the family are being held in what is a county prison that holds violent criminal offenders, who are there -- some of whom are there for life. They are being held in absolute prison-like facility.
AMY GOODMAN: I'm going to break in for one minute, because we have just gotten a call from the Hutto detention facility. We're joined on the phone by an Iranian immigrant named Majid, from inside the Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas. He, his wife, his nine-year-old son Kevin have been held at the center for the past nineteen days. Majid, your story is quite a remarkable one. Can you tell us how you ended up at this Texas jail?
MAJID: Hello. Thanks for taking my call. I was on my way to go to Toronto, Canada, and my plane was -- after three hours in the flight, somebody died on the plane and had an emergency landing to Costa Rica. After that, they said everybody should come out. After that, we went out. Immigration, they said you need to have American visa. We had no American visa. And they hold us over there --
AMY GOODMAN: Now, just to be clear, you were never planning to end up in the United States, is that right? You were flying to Canada, but another passenger on the plane had a heart attack, and so you guys had a forced landing in Puerto Rico, and when you had to come out of the plane, while he was taken off the plane, that's when they took you?
MAJID: Yes. This happened, yes -- was a Canadian Zoom Airline, and our ticket was direct from Guyana to Toronto. And this happened. They hold us -- my son is Canadian -- hold child is nine-and-a-half years old, and they put us in detention in Puerto Rico. And from Monday to Friday, I was in the jail in Puerto Rico between criminal people, and my wife and son was other place. We had no news from each other from Monday morning until Friday at noon, until we see each other in a Puerto Rico airport. After that, they brought us here to Hutto Detention Center, and here we are in same part, but different room. My wife and my son is room, but it's totally inside the room, uncovered toilet. My son has asthma, and he's very bad and still comes here. It's very horrible here. And we are in very bad situation. We need help. We need the people help me --
JUAN GONZALEZ: Majid, in other words, basically, what reason did they give you for holding you if you never intended to enter the United States at all? What reason did they give for locking you up?
MAJID: Because they said, "You have an American visa?" That's why you have to stay here. Just plane was waiting one hour for us, but they didn't let us pass. A few officers came. They said Immigration officers -- six, seven -- they said, "We're going to send you, but let us make decision." After that, they called the police chief. He came there. He said, "Let me think five minutes." After five minutes, he came, he said, "I'm going to send you to Canada, but I'm afraid to lose my job. But usually we have to send with your plane, but we keep you here. America is much better than Canada. Here you have safer place. We send you to hotel, and after a few days, you're going to be free." But they broke their promise. That's why they keep us here, and we have very bad situation here.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Do you know whether any other passengers on your plane were also detained in the same way, or was your family the only one, as far as you can tell?
MAJID: Only my family. No other passenger.
AMY GOODMAN: I just want to say to our listeners and viewers, we are not giving your full name, we're not showing your face at your request. You did apply for political asylum in Canada in the past when you lived there for ten years. You were ultimately denied, sent back to Iran. And what happened when you were sent back to Iran, you and your wife?
MAJID: Yes. In December 2005, we sent to Iran, whole family, when my Canadian son born. And all documents -- the immigration officer gave all our documents to the captain of plane. After that, in Italy, we went with the Alitalia Airline. In Italy, police came to plane. They took us to [inaudible] room in the transit of Italy, and after that, again, they put us in the plane and give all documents to the captain of Alitalia again. We went to Iran, and in Iran, the plane's captain said, "You have to sit until the police come to take you." All passengers went out, and four Iranian secret police came in the plane, and he got all documents from the captain, and they took us in the airport in the secret police office. We were there for a few hours, four or five hours, in the same room.
After that, they separate us. They took me to other place, unknown place. I was in Iran a small cell for six months, and lots of torture and hitting. Now I have physical problem and knee problem and lots of things. And they took my wife to other prison, where we have no news from each other. And for six months, my wife was one year and one month in the prison, and she [inaudible] -- after she was free she [inaudible] the child, and because they [inaudible] him, and she was [inaudible] two, three time in the jail. And it's a very bad situation. But we had no news from each other. They told my wife, because your husband, you have to cooperate with us.
AMY GOODMAN: They said they killed you?
MAJID: Yeah, they a few times told. One time they told her, "He's in coma." The other time, they said, "Already he was killed." And, you know, many times they play with her. After one month, they free her in the street at nighttime. They did with me, too, after six months, a lot of torture. And this one, they free me in the street out of the town with closed eyes. And I didn't see anybody, but they took me in daytime some day in winter -- you know, they take my pants off to put in very cold water. They already broke the ice, they put in the water, and they hit me every day, hitting me.
And when I came out, I was less than thirty kilograms, my weight. And my wife was different, six months was under psychologist's medication over that. And after free, I should register two times a week, every Sunday and Thursday. And when I took -- they took us over there, they took me over there again. One week, they put me in detention, and the other time, again three days. And after that, one guard told me, "I'm going to help you." After that, he called me, said, "OK, your future is very dangerous. You have to leave. Otherwise, you are in big trouble. I don't know what will happen to you and your family." That's why we decided and we escaped from there.
AMY GOODMAN: And you tried to go to Canada. Can you put your son Kevin on? He's standing next to you, nine years old?
MAJID: Yes. Just hold on, please?
AMY GOODMAN: Thank you. We're talking to Majid and Kevin in the Hutto Detention Center that's run by the Corrections Corporation of America in Taylor, Texas.
KEVIN: Hello.
AMY GOODMAN: Hi, Kevin. How are you?
KEVIN: Not good.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us the situation you're in right now and what you want to happen right now?
KEVIN: Excuse me, I didn't hear you.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe where you are right now?
KEVIN: I'm in US jail right now.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And Kevin, where are you staying at night? Are you with your parents, or are they locking you up separately?
KEVIN: I'm with my parents, but we're in separate rooms.
JUAN GONZALEZ: In separate rooms?
KEVIN: Yeah.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And are they letting you -- are you getting any kind of education, or are you just sitting in your cell all day?
KEVIN: We're sitting in the cell all day.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you want to do now, Kevin?
KEVIN: I want to be free. I want to go outside, and I want to go to school. I want to be in my homeland: Canada.
AMY GOODMAN: You want to go home to Canada?
KEVIN: What?
AMY GOODMAN: You want to go home to Canada?
KEVIN: Yeah. My home is in Canada.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you with your parents in Iran?
KEVIN: My parents -- what?
AMY GOODMAN: Were you with your mother and father in Iran?
KEVIN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And you were coming on the plane?
KEVIN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: What are the people telling you? Can you go to Canada?
KEVIN: Hmm?
AMY GOODMAN: What are the guards telling you? Will they release you?
KEVIN: I forgot what they were saying, but they told us some stuff. I forgot what they were saying to us.
JUAN GONZALEZ: How are the other children there? Are you spending time with any of the other children?
KEVIN: No.
AMY GOODMAN: They don't let you spend time with the other children?
KEVIN: No. I'm sleeping beside the washroom, and I can't -- and I'm upstairs. I can't go to the washroom all the time. And there's a lot of smell coming out from the washroom. And the food is garbage. And the school is very bad. I can't learn anything good. And I have asthma, and I got sick in here. I can't stay here anymore.
AMY GOODMAN: Kevin, you said you're sleeping next to the bathroom?
KEVIN: Yeah. And it's not a separate room. It's right beside the bed. And I'm sleeping beside the wall, and my back gets sick and it hurts.
AMY GOODMAN: How is your mother?
KEVIN: My mother is sick.
AMY GOODMAN: Kevin, can you put your father back on the phone?
KEVIN: OK.
AMY GOODMAN: Kevin is nine years old. He's a Canadian citizen, came from Iran with his parents. They were flying over the United States, when the plane had to land in Puerto Rico because a passenger had a heart attack, and when they landed, the Majid family -- we're not using their real name -- was taken off the flight. Majid, have you talked to the Canadian consulate, and what is your hope when you get to Canada, if you get to Canada?
MAJID: Yeah, on Monday, they came here. They said -- they come here, and we spoke to each other. They mostly asked my wife and Kevin, "What's your food, and what kind of food they give you? Are you in same room with family?" My son said no, because he said, I was told -- "All your family in one room?" -- he said, "No, we are in separate room, and the toilet is inside, the uncovered toilet, in the room." And only they said [inaudible] said, "You're going to help us?" They said, "We don't know. You have to speak with your lawyer." After that, just regarding information, my son's birth certificate information, and they left. And two days ago, I tried to call them in consul, and no response, because he was to be phone. I tried again, but I couldn't reach him. No more information I have.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Majid, now, do you have a lawyer who is helping you? And do you have a scheduled hearing anytime in the future on your case?
MAJID: Yeah. I have lawyers that's from immigration clinic here. They're students. They're working. They are very good people. And no hearing. Two or three time, I requested for hearing, but no response so far in the past seventeen, eighteen days here. No response. We don't know what's going to happen for us.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you want to stay in the United States?
MAJID: You know, we escaped from Iran, OK? We escaped to be safe and free with my family. But our plan was in Canada. And I don't know, they keep us here. Anyway, we want safe and free, Canada or US. If Canada give us a visa, we go there; we go to US, if here, we'll stay here.
AMY GOODMAN: Why are you afraid to use your full name or to show your face?
MAJID: Because everybody knows the Iran. The Iran's -- like this, we are in very bad situation, because I don't trust here immigration, because the first time they said lots of things to us, but they broke their promise. They said you're going to happen this, this, but now they said we're going to deported. OK, maybe we deported. And we are like this. We are in 100% in danger. If our whole full name goes, it's 200% in danger, because especially United States -- if you go from other country, you have less risk with government. If you go from United States, because they said "US is our enemy," they said, Iranian authorities says, OK? But that's why we are in more and more trouble if we go back, because they will say, "Why you go to US and this happen?"
AMY GOODMAN: Joshua Bardavid is an attorney that we are sitting with in the New York studio. When you listen to this story, what are your thoughts?
JOSHUA BARDAVID: Unfortunately, this is -- what he is experiencing is a very common experience. It is the reflexive use of detention for asylum seekers. The Majid family, they're survivors -- from what he's describing, he's a survivor of torture. He was detained in Iran. He is seeking freedom, in this case, in Canada, arrives in the United States and is placed back in detention. The re-traumatizing effects of being placed back in detention cannot be underestimated. You have a child who is sleeping in what was a jail cell for a maximum-security prison that has been converted, but they still leave the exposed toilet, you know, sitting in the middle of their room. There's no privacy. With other children, he's in a room separate from his parents. Now, but the door may be not locked at night, but that door is certainly shut, and it's a steel heavy door. They are placed in a prison. There's no doubt that this is a prison. And what is particularly troubling about this is that this was designed for the purpose of holding families, yet they made a conscious decision to maintain the facility as a prison, to leave the barbed wire, to leave the doors, to leave the environment as a prison.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And what about the issue -- I don't know if you've found with other of your clients -- given the fact that you do have young children like this, you'd think there would be some kind of process for expedited hearing to find out -- have an immigration judge review the case, but they've been there now, what, more than two weeks now.
JOSHUA BARDAVID: Yeah, that's definitely another troubling aspect. In order to sentence somebody in the United States to two weeks in jail, you would need to have guilt proved beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of your peers. In order for the Majit family to spend an additional two weeks in jail, it simply could take an administrative delay. This is one of the problems.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about the role of these private prison companies. The Hutto facility is run by CCA, the Corrections Corporation of America. In fact, the jail is named after CCA's cofounder, T. Don Hutto. I want to play a comment made by William Andrews, the chair of the CCA board, during a conference call with investors two weeks ago.
WILLIAM ANDREWS: I don't want to leave anybody with the impression that these facilities that are being reported in the paper of ICE are in any way substandard. In fact, they are above standard, and the reports come from special interest groups that are attempting to do away with privatization and the whole immigration situation. And, you know, we welcome anybody to visit our facilities. And the family facility, particularly, at T. Don Hutto is almost like a home.
AMY GOODMAN: That was William Andrews, the chair of the board of the Corrections Corporation of America, describing the conditions at the Hutto jail as "almost like a home." Michelle Brane in Washington, D.C., your response?
MICHELLE BRANE: Well, as I mentioned already, and has been made very clear by your other guests, it is very clearly a prison that is being used to house inmates, and it has no resemblance to a home. I mean, there's sofas. There are plastic sofas and TVs, but that's about it. And one of the things that's very disturbing about this model that they're using is that there are alternatives. As I mentioned before, there are pre-hearing release programs that could be used.
There's a whole range of ways to ensure that people appear for hearings, that they don't abscond and that enforcement of our immigration laws can be accomplished without resorting to these drastic measures. And that's one of the things that we've really been stressing in the report, is that, you know, as you've heard from the responses, in the White House response and the ICE response to our report, and to other complaints about the Hutto facility, they are presenting it as an alternative of either a facility like this or complete separation, into different buildings and different centers, of entire families. And there is a wide range of other alternatives in between those two.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. I also want to thank Majid and Kevin. And we will certainly continue to cover their story and update you on the situation. For one brief moment, because they called in in the middle of you describing your own clients, if you could briefly finish, Joshua, and then we're going to go to Raymondville, to something that is, well, a tent city, a prison camp for immigrants in the tip of Texas. But very briefly.
JOSHUA BARDAVID: Well, my clients now, the Hazahza family, who are being held in Haskell, which is a county facility and is a maximum-security facility, this is an entire family that again is being separated in this center in extremely harsh conditions, that includes isolation of a seventeen-year-old, who has now turned eighteen, but at the time he was seventeen when he was placed in solitary confinement. You have the -- there is physical threats. There is strip searches as a common tool of discipline. And it is a prison. And this is an ongoing problem with intermingling immigration detainees with criminal violent offenders in the United States.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And, again, the reason for their detention is they're -- are they asylum seekers?
JOSHUA BARDAVID: They were asylum seekers. They lost their asylum hearing, but the US government has been unable to remove them, so they do not know what to do with them, so they placed them in this facility.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you, Joshua Bardavid, for joining us.
 http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/23/1530247
___
"I Want To Be Free": 9-Year-Old Canadian Citizen Pleads From Texas Immigration Jail
Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript
Help Printer-friendly version Email to a friend Purchase Video/CD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Majid and his nine-year old son Kevin are Iranian immigrants currently being held at the Hutto detention center. They've been forcibly detained since their plane was forced made an emergency landing in Puerto Rico as they made their way to Canada. Kevin says: "I want to be free. I want go to outside. I want to go home to Canada." [includes rush transcript]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are also joined on the phone by an Iranian immigrant named Majid from inside the Hutto detention center in Taylor, Texas. He, his wife and nine-year-old son Kevin have been held at the center for the past 19 days.
Majid, Iranian immigrant detained at Hutto detention center.
Kevin, Majid's nine-year old son.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...
AMY GOODMAN: I'm going to break in for one minute, because we have just gotten a call from the Hutto detention facility. We're joined on the phone by an Iranian immigrant named Majid, from inside the Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas. He, his wife, his nine-year-old son Kevin have been held at the center for the past nineteen days. Majid, your story is quite a remarkable one. Can you tell us how you ended up at this Texas jail?
MAJID: Hello. Thanks for taking my call. I was on my way to go to Toronto, Canada, and my plane was -- after three hours in the flight, somebody died on the plane and had an emergency landing to Costa Rica. After that, they said everybody should come out. After that, we went out. Immigration, they said you need to have American visa. We had no American visa. And they hold us over there --
AMY GOODMAN: Now, just to be clear, you were never planning to end up in the United States, is that right? You were flying to Canada, but another passenger on the plane had a heart attack, and so you guys had a forced landing in Puerto Rico, and when you had to come out of the plane, while he was taken off the plane, that's when they took you?
MAJID: Yes. This happened, yes -- was a Canadian Zoom Airline, and our ticket was direct from Guyana to Toronto. And this happened. They hold us -- my son is Canadian -- hold child is nine-and-a-half years old, and they put us in detention in Puerto Rico. And from Monday to Friday, I was in the jail in Puerto Rico between criminal people, and my wife and son was other place. We had no news from each other from Monday morning until Friday at noon, until we see each other in a Puerto Rico airport. After that, they brought us here to Hutto Detention Center, and here we are in same part, but different room. My wife and my son is room, but it's totally inside the room, uncovered toilet. My son has asthma, and he's very bad and still comes here. It's very horrible here. And we are in very bad situation. We need help. We need the people help me --
JUAN GONZALEZ: Majid, in other words, basically, what reason did they give you for holding you if you never intended to enter the United States at all? What reason did they give for locking you up?
MAJID: Because they said, "You have an American visa?" That's why you have to stay here. Just plane was waiting one hour for us, but they didn't let us pass. A few officers came. They said Immigration officers -- six, seven -- they said, "We're going to send you, but let us make decision." After that, they called the police chief. He came there. He said, "Let me think five minutes." After five minutes, he came, he said, "I'm going to send you to Canada, but I'm afraid to lose my job. But usually we have to send with your plane, but we keep you here. America is much better than Canada. Here you have safer place. We send you to hotel, and after a few days, you're going to be free." But they broke their promise. That's why they keep us here, and we have very bad situation here.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Do you know whether any other passengers on your plane were also detained in the same way, or was your family the only one, as far as you can tell?
MAJID: Only my family. No other passenger.
AMY GOODMAN: I just want to say to our listeners and viewers, we are not giving your full name, we're not showing your face at your request. You did apply for political asylum in Canada in the past when you lived there for ten years. You were ultimately denied, sent back to Iran. And what happened when you were sent back to Iran, you and your wife?
MAJID: Yes. In December 2005, we sent to Iran, whole family, when my Canadian son born. And all documents -- the immigration officer gave all our documents to the captain of plane. After that, in Italy, we went with the Alitalia Airline. In Italy, police came to plane. They took us to [inaudible] room in the transit of Italy, and after that, again, they put us in the plane and give all documents to the captain of Alitalia again. We went to Iran, and in Iran, the plane's captain said, "You have to sit until the police come to take you." All passengers went out, and four Iranian secret police came in the plane, and he got all documents from the captain, and they took us in the airport in the secret police office. We were there for a few hours, four or five hours, in the same room.
After that, they separate us. They took me to other place, unknown place. I was in Iran a small cell for six months, and lots of torture and hitting. Now I have physical problem and knee problem and lots of things. And they took my wife to other prison, where we have no news from each other. And for six months, my wife was one year and one month in the prison, and she [inaudible] -- after she was free she [inaudible] the child, and because they [inaudible] him, and she was [inaudible] two, three time in the jail. And it's a very bad situation. But we had no news from each other. They told my wife, because your husband, you have to cooperate with us.
AMY GOODMAN: They said they killed you?
MAJID: Yeah, they a few times told. One time they told her, "He's in coma." The other time, they said, "Already he was killed." And, you know, many times they play with her. After one month, they free her in the street at nighttime. They did with me, too, after six months, a lot of torture. And this one, they free me in the street out of the town with closed eyes. And I didn't see anybody, but they took me in daytime some day in winter -- you know, they take my pants off to put in very cold water. They already broke the ice, they put in the water, and they hit me every day, hitting me.
And when I came out, I was less than thirty kilograms, my weight. And my wife was different, six months was under psychologist's medication over that. And after free, I should register two times a week, every Sunday and Thursday. And when I took -- they took us over there, they took me over there again. One week, they put me in detention, and the other time, again three days. And after that, one guard told me, "I'm going to help you." After that, he called me, said, "OK, your future is very dangerous. You have to leave. Otherwise, you are in big trouble. I don't know what will happen to you and your family." That's why we decided and we escaped from there.
AMY GOODMAN: And you tried to go to Canada. Can you put your son Kevin on? He's standing next to you, nine years old?
MAJID: Yes. Just hold on, please?
AMY GOODMAN: Thank you. We're talking to Majid and Kevin in the Hutto Detention Center that's run by the Corrections Corporation of America in Taylor, Texas.
KEVIN: Hello.
AMY GOODMAN: Hi, Kevin. How are you?
KEVIN: Not good.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us the situation you're in right now and what you want to happen right now?
KEVIN: Excuse me, I didn't hear you.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe where you are right now?
KEVIN: I'm in US jail right now.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And Kevin, where are you staying at night? Are you with your parents, or are they locking you up separately?
KEVIN: I'm with my parents, but we're in separate rooms.
JUAN GONZALEZ: In separate rooms?
KEVIN: Yeah.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And are they letting you -- are you getting any kind of education, or are you just sitting in your cell all day?
KEVIN: We're sitting in the cell all day.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you want to do now, Kevin?
KEVIN: I want to be free. I want to go outside, and I want to go to school. I want to be in my homeland: Canada.
AMY GOODMAN: You want to go home to Canada?
KEVIN: What?
AMY GOODMAN: You want to go home to Canada?
KEVIN: Yeah. My home is in Canada.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you with your parents in Iran?
KEVIN: My parents -- what?
AMY GOODMAN: Were you with your mother and father in Iran?
KEVIN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And you were coming on the plane?
KEVIN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: What are the people telling you? Can you go to Canada?
KEVIN: Hmm?
AMY GOODMAN: What are the guards telling you? Will they release you?
KEVIN: I forgot what they were saying, but they told us some stuff. I forgot what they were saying to us.
JUAN GONZALEZ: How are the other children there? Are you spending time with any of the other children?
KEVIN: No.
AMY GOODMAN: They don't let you spend time with the other children?
KEVIN: No. I'm sleeping beside the washroom, and I can't -- and I'm upstairs. I can't go to the washroom all the time. And there's a lot of smell coming out from the washroom. And the food is garbage. And the school is very bad. I can't learn anything good. And I have asthma, and I got sick in here. I can't stay here anymore.
AMY GOODMAN: Kevin, you said you're sleeping next to the bathroom?
KEVIN: Yeah. And it's not a separate room. It's right beside the bed. And I'm sleeping beside the wall, and my back gets sick and it hurts.
AMY GOODMAN: How is your mother?
KEVIN: My mother is sick.
AMY GOODMAN: Kevin, can you put your father back on the phone?
KEVIN: OK.
AMY GOODMAN: Kevin is nine years old. He's a Canadian citizen, came from Iran with his parents. They were flying over the United States, when the plane had to land in Puerto Rico because a passenger had a heart attack, and when they landed, the Majid family -- we're not using their real name -- was taken off the flight. Majid, have you talked to the Canadian consulate, and what is your hope when you get to Canada, if you get to Canada?
MAJID: Yeah, on Monday, they came here. They said -- they come here, and we spoke to each other. They mostly asked my wife and Kevin, "What's your food, and what kind of food they give you? Are you in same room with family?" My son said no, because he said, I was told -- "All your family in one room?" -- he said, "No, we are in separate room, and the toilet is inside, the uncovered toilet, in the room." And only they said [inaudible] said, "You're going to help us?" They said, "We don't know. You have to speak with your lawyer." After that, just regarding information, my son's birth certificate information, and they left. And two days ago, I tried to call them in consul, and no response, because he was to be phone. I tried again, but I couldn't reach him. No more information I have.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Majid, now, do you have a lawyer who is helping you? And do you have a scheduled hearing anytime in the future on your case?
MAJID: Yeah. I have lawyers that's from immigration clinic here. They're students. They're working. They are very good people. And no hearing. Two or three time, I requested for hearing, but no response so far in the past seventeen, eighteen days here. No response. We don't know what's going to happen for us.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you want to stay in the United States?
MAJID: You know, we escaped from Iran, OK? We escaped to be safe and free with my family. But our plan was in Canada. And I don't know, they keep us here. Anyway, we want safe and free, Canada or US. If Canada give us a visa, we go there; we go to US, if here, we'll stay here.
AMY GOODMAN: Why are you afraid to use your full name or to show your face?
MAJID: Because everybody knows the Iran. The Iran's -- like this, we are in very bad situation, because I don't trust here immigration, because the first time they said lots of things to us, but they broke their promise. They said you're going to happen this, this, but now they said we're going to deported. OK, maybe we deported. And we are like this. We are in 100% in danger. If our whole full name goes, it's 200% in danger, because especially United States -- if you go from other country, you have less risk with government. If you go from United States, because they said "US is our enemy," they said, Iranian authorities says, OK? But that's why we are in more and more trouble if we go back, because they will say, "Why you go to US and this happen?"
AMY GOODMAN: Joshua Bardavid is an attorney that we are sitting with in the New York studio. When you listen to this story, what are your thoughts?
JOSHUA BARDAVID: Unfortunately, this is -- what he is experiencing is a very common experience. It is the reflexive use of detention for asylum seekers. The Majid family, they're survivors -- from what he's describing, he's a survivor of torture. He was detained in Iran. He is seeking freedom, in this case, in Canada, arrives in the United States and is placed back in detention. The re-traumatizing effects of being placed back in detention cannot be underestimated. You have a child who is sleeping in what was a jail cell for a maximum-security prison that has been converted, but they still leave the exposed toilet, you know, sitting in the middle of their room. There's no privacy. With other children, he's in a room separate from his parents. Now, but the door may be not locked at night, but that door is certainly shut, and it's a steel heavy door. They are placed in a prison. There's no doubt that this is a prison. And what is particularly troubling about this is that this was designed for the purpose of holding families, yet they made a conscious decision to maintain the facility as a prison, to leave the barbed wire, to leave the doors, to leave the environment as a prison.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And what about the issue -- I don't know if you've found with other of your clients -- given the fact that you do have young children like this, you'd think there would be some kind of process for expedited hearing to find out -- have an immigration judge review the case, but they've been there now, what, more than two weeks now.
JOSHUA BARDAVID: Yeah, that's definitely another troubling aspect. In order to sentence somebody in the United States to two weeks in jail, you would need to have guilt proved beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of your peers. In order for the Majit family to spend an additional two weeks in jail, it simply could take an administrative delay. This is one of the problems.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about the role of these private prison companies. The Hutto facility is run by CCA, the Corrections Corporation of America. In fact, the jail is named after CCA's cofounder, T. Don Hutto. I want to play a comment made by William Andrews, the chair of the CCA board, during a conference call with investors two weeks ago.
WILLIAM ANDREWS: I don't want to leave anybody with the impression that these facilities that are being reported in the paper of ICE are in any way substandard. In fact, they are above standard, and the reports come from special interest groups that are attempting to do away with privatization and the whole immigration situation. And, you know, we welcome anybody to visit our facilities. And the family facility, particularly, at T. Don Hutto is almost like a home.
AMY GOODMAN: That was William Andrews, the chair of the board of the Corrections Corporation of America, describing the conditions at the Hutto jail as "almost like a home." Michelle Brane in Washington, D.C., your response?
MICHELLE BRANE: Well, as I mentioned already, and has been made very clear by your other guests, it is very clearly a prison that is being used to house inmates, and it has no resemblance to a home. I mean, there's sofas. There are plastic sofas and TVs, but that's about it. And one of the things that's very disturbing about this model that they're using is that there are alternatives. As I mentioned before, there are pre-hearing release programs that could be used.
There's a whole range of ways to ensure that people appear for hearings, that they don't abscond and that enforcement of our immigration laws can be accomplished without resorting to these drastic measures. And that's one of the things that we've really been stressing in the report, is that, you know, as you've heard from the responses, in the White House response and the ICE response to our report, and to other complaints about the Hutto facility, they are presenting it as an alternative of either a facility like this or complete separation, into different buildings and different centers, of entire families. And there is a wide range of other alternatives in between those two.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. I also want to thank Majid and Kevin. And we will certainly continue to cover their story and update you on the situation. For one brief moment, because they called in in the middle of you describing your own clients, if you could briefly finish, Joshua, and then we're going to go to Raymondville, to something that is, well, a tent city, a prison camp for immigrants in the tip of Texas. But very briefly.
JOSHUA BARDAVID: Well, my clients now, the Hazahza family, who are being held in Haskell, which is a county facility and is a maximum-security facility, this is an entire family that again is being separated in this center in extremely harsh conditions, that includes isolation of a seventeen-year-old, who has now turned eighteen, but at the time he was seventeen when he was placed in solitary confinement. You have the -- there is physical threats. There is strip searches as a common tool of discipline. And it is a prison. And this is an ongoing problem with intermingling immigration detainees with criminal violent offenders in the United States.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And, again, the reason for their detention is they're -- are they asylum seekers?
JOSHUA BARDAVID: They were asylum seekers. They lost their asylum hearing, but the US government has been unable to remove them, so they do not know what to do with them, so they placed them in this facility.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you, Joshua Bardavid, for joining us.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/23/1532252
____
Hundreds Protest NYU Republicans' "Find the Illegal Immigrant" Game
Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript
Help Printer-friendly version Email to a friend Purchase Video/CD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hundreds of people gathered at New York University on Thursday to protest a game called "Find the Illegal Immigrant" organized by the school's Republican club. Democracy Now! was there to speak with students on both sides. [includes rush transcript]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hundreds of people gathered at New York University on Thursday to protest a game called "Find the Illegal Immigrant" organized by the school's Republican club. Democracy Now! producer Elizabeth Press was at the protest and spoke to Caitlin Kannall, secretary of the NYU College Republicans, and Sasha Hammed of the Students Creating Radical Change.
Voices from February 23, 2007 protest at NYU.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...
AMY GOODMAN: Hundreds of people gathered at New York University Thursday to protest a game called "Find the Illegal Immigrant," organized by the school's Republican Club. Democracy Now! producer Elizabeth Press was at the protest and spoke to Caitlin Kannall, secretary of the NYU College Republicans. She also talked to Sasha Hammed of the Students Creating Radical Change.
CAITLIN KANNALL: We decided about a month ago that we were going to hold an event. It's the "Find the Illegal Immigrant." And essentially what goes behind the game is people can sign up between the hours of 11:00 and 2:00 to be INS agents, and then at 2:00 one of our members is going to be walking around with an illegal immigrant sign, and the person who finds them gets a gift card. We -- again, we decided this about a month ago that wanted to do this event. It was one of many events passed or that we decided, you know, we thought about. We put it up to a vote, and the majority voted that we wanted to do this event, so this is not -- I really hope that people don't focus it on a few people of this group and really ostracize them for this, because that's not the case at all. This was a group effort. And our motivation behind this is essentially that we wanted to raise awareness and incite a little dialogue on campus here, because, unfortunately, in such a polar university the conservative voice is often lost.
SASHA HAMMED: OK, my name's Sasha Hammad. I'm an NYU student. I'm from a progressive club called Students Creating Radical Change on campus, and I'm one of the organizers of the counter-protest of the NYU College Republicans' game, which is titled "Find the Illegal Immigrant." And we came out against this, because the language and the images that the NYU Republicans were using to publicize this event target Mexicans through cartoons, through photographs, playing on popular discourse that, you know, illegal immigrants are all people of color, you know, furthering the government's criminalization and racial profiling of anyone of color. So we came out here today, you know, in solidarity with immigrants, regardless of legal status, which is why we're wearing our tags. So we're here to question, you know, why is NYU tolerating this sort of racism on campus, to show solidarity with immigrants and, you know, to engage about a larger dialogue and educate our communities that immigrants are what make this country run.
AMY GOODMAN: Voices from New York University yesterday. Juan Gonzalez, you wrote your column in the New York Daily News today on this. You were there.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes. It got enormous, enormous press coverage. I was astounded by the number of cameras down there, but it clearly shows the trivialization after -- the statements we've just seen are the problems that real-life immigrants are having in this country in these detention centers, trivializing the entire issue of illegal immigration and the problems there. And I particularly focused on a Chinese American student who was part of the College Republicans and who clearly did not know anything about the history of racially motivated exclusion of Chinese in this country for so many years by American policy on immigration. And I think it was a real clear sense, though, that the vast majority of the students that were there were protesting this trivialization of the immigration issue.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/23/1536241
____
Raymondville: Inside the Largest Immigration Prison Camp in the US
Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript
Help Printer-friendly version Email to a friend Purchase Video/CD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The largest immigrant prison camp is in Raymondville, Texas. Some two thousand undocumented immigrants are currently being held in the prison awaiting deportation. We speak with Jodi Goodwin, an immigration lawyer representing a number of immigrants being held there. [includes rush transcript]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The number of undocumented immigrants currently imprisoned in the United States has reached a record of more than twenty six thousand people. To keep pace with the increasing number of detainees, the government is rapidly expanding its federal immigration detention system. The largest immigrant prison camp is in Raymondville, Texas - in the remote southern tip of the state. Some two thousand undocumented immigrants are currently being held in the prison awaiting deportation. The $65 million jail was built last summer by the Management Training Corporation.
The Washington Post describes the Raymondville facility as a "futuristic tent city...made of Kevlar-like material" without windows and ringed by barbed wire. Many of those being held there say they have insufficient food, clothing, medical care and access to the outside world.
Jodi Goodwin is an immigration lawyer from Harlingen, Texas. About 20 miles from the Raymondville prison. She represents a number of immigrants being held there. She joins us on the line from Houston.
Jodi Goodwin. Immigration lawyer from Harlingen, Texas. She represents immigrants held at Raymondville.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...
AMY GOODMAN: Staying with the immigration issue for another minute, we're going to go now to Jodi Goodwin, who is an immigration lawyer from Harlingen, Texas, about twenty miles from the Raymondville prison, that huge tent city. She represents a number of immigrants being held there. She's joining us on the phone today from Houston. Jodi Goodwin, you're one of the few lawyers who have gotten into the facility. Can you describe what it is?
JODI GOODWIN: Well, it looks like a large series of circus tents put up in the middle of a field. There's a cement foundation and a steel frame, like ribs, and then there's canvas that's stretched over the steel frame. And there's ten tents just like that, all in a row.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Jodi Goodwin, I'm very familiar with Raymondville and Willacy County. It's one of the poorest counties in the United States, largely Mexican American. Any sense of the reaction of the surrounding community to the erection of this enormous detention center?
JODI GOODWIN: Well, it's interesting, the reaction of the community, because it's mixed. It is one of the poorest counties in the United States, and the Rio Grande Valley in general in the five-county area is the poorest area in the United States. So the thought of vast employment, which the prison did provide, I think, was welcomed by the community, because it provided a wealth of jobs for an area that has high unemployment. Now, there's questions about the training that was available prior to the prison opening and, even still, you know, whether or not the people that were hired have appropriate training as of yet.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the people you represent in Raymondville -- you call, what is it that you call it? Ritmo?
JODI GOODWIN: Now made famous by the Washington Post, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Taking after Gitmo, Guantanamo. What kind of access to food, to healthcare? What is their treatment by the guards?
JODI GOODWIN: Well, I think generally the access to healthcare is good. But there have been rampant reports and repeated reports -- and I can't say whether these are isolated incidences or not, but there are repeated reports of my clients and other people that I've talked to at the detention center that aren't my clients, that indicate they would put in requests for sick calls to be seen by a doctor or one of the nurses at the public health service, and days would go by before those requests would be answered. Now, I know that ICE has responded to those types of complaints by saying that that's just not true, but I have heard repeatedly from my clients and those who are not my clients that that's the case.
I've also heard repeatedly and over time that food service is not consistent, in terms of the timing that food is served, that the quantity of the food that is being served is not fulfilling. I mean, I went to the detention center once about probably the last part of November last year, and I walked into one of the pods, and I just opened the door and said, "Buenos dias. Como estan todos?" And they responded to me, "Muriendo de hambre" -- "We're dying of hunger." And, you know, this is just their immediate reaction to someone coming in and asking, "How are you?" Now, ICE has responded that they are providing food within the caloric limit that's approved by dietary services, etc., etc.
But even recently, as most recently as two weeks ago, I had a client write to me a pleading letter asking for medical attention and decent food, because he had been served rancid milk days in a row, and he and other detainees in his pod were throwing up and had stomach problems, because they had been served spoiled food. So, you know, for whatever that's worth, I know ICE's comments are completely opposite to that, but that's what the reports that I get from my clients and from detainees there are.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Jodi Goodwin, any sense of how long the average detainee is being held there? Clearly, after the Mariel boatlift years ago, or decades ago now, some of the Cuban migrants were held for years in detention by United States Immigration. What's the situation there?
JODI GOODWIN: Well, you know, it's interesting, because the facility went up so quickly. It was contracted in mid-June, and it was housing 500 detainees by mid-August. It was at least designed to be a temporary facility, and I'm not really sure what's the number limitation that ICE would use to refer to "temporary," but I've seen many, many people detained at the facility two, three, four, five months, and then there are people that are detained at the facility that have been transferred around the country and eventually end up in Willacy County, probably because it's cheaper to house detainees down in Willacy County than it is in places like New York or Boston. But I've seen those people that come into Willacy County after already having been in immigration detention in various facilities around the country five, six months.
I saw a woman from Ghana that had been transferred around from five different facilities in an eight-month period of time, and she was supposedly only waiting to be deported. So why does it take eight months in five facilities to deport somebody to Ghana? I'm not really sure.
AMY GOODMAN: Can we talk for a minute about who built this facility, Management Corporation of America, a private company, and how it compares to the public prisons or the ones run by the Department of Homeland Security?
JODI GOODWIN: Well, actually, Management Training Corporation is a contractor who runs [inaudible] the operations at the facility. It was a different contractor who actually constructed the facility, and I can't remember the name of that contractor. It was a contractor out of Houston, actually.
And as far as how does it compare to ICE-run facilities? Oh, night and day. We have an ICE-run facility that's a fairly large detention center that's only about forty-five minutes away from the Raymondville facility. That's the Port Isabel Detention Center, and that's an ICE-run facility, as opposed to a contractor-run facility. And ytou compare the two, and Port Isabel is Club Med compared to Raymondville. In fact, when there's discipline problems or when someone starts complaining about their conditions at Port Isabel, almost as a joke, but really and truly it's not taken in jest, they say, "Do you want me to send you to Willacy?" You know, that people would rather stay at Port Isabel than be sent to Willacy.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think, Jodi Goodwin, has to happen right now?
JODI GOODWIN: We need immigration reform. I think that there needs to be a comprehensive approach to reform. And, you know, reform has to encompass a lot of different aspects. We can't just settle on a guest-worker program. We can't just focus on enforcement. The reform aspect needs to encompass the people who are here, needs to encompass the need of American companies for workers. It needs to encompass enforcement and just enforcement of the law. It needs to have all of those aspects to be able to be effective. And I have my hopes that Congress can set aside some of their partisanship and do something that will actually work good and be acceptable to both sides of the issue.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And what is your sense in a state like Texas and the other border states in your part of the country that clearly most feel the impact of the immigration issue, in terms of the willingness of both Democrats and Republicans this year to come up with some comprehensive immigration reform?
JODI GOODWIN: Well, it's interesting. I've met with staffers in Washington, D.C. and talked to different representatives and senators with respect to the proposals. I think that there's a clear recognition by all of the border representatives in Congress that there's a problem and it needs to be dealt with. And the mere fact that they're willing to start a dialogue on the issue, I think, is hopeful. It's gotten to a point that it's a crisis situation, so those individuals are, I think, finally realizing that they need to take action, now that they've recognized the issue.
AMY GOODMAN: Jodi Goodwin, I want to thank you for being with us, immigration lawyer from Harlingen, Texas, representing immigrants held in the Raymondville prison, about twenty miles from Harlingen. She was speaking to us from Houston.
Juan, as we wrap up today, there's an interesting editorial in the New York Times called "They Are America," that began, "Almost a year ago, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers and their families slipped out from the shadows of American life and walked boldly in daylight through Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, New York and other cities. 'We Are America,' their banners cried. The crowds, determined but peaceful, swelled into an immense sea. The nation was momentarily stunned."
And it goes on to talk about a lot that has happened since then. The country "summoned great energy to confront the immigration problem, but most of it has been misplaced, crudely and unevenly applied."
"Border enforcement. What little the last Congress did about immigration was focused on appeasing hard-line conservatives by appearing to seal the border. President Bush's new budget continues that approach, seeking 3,000 more Border Patrol officers and another $1 billion for a 700-mile fence, adding to the billions spent to militarize the border since the 1990s. That still isn't enough to build the fence and it hasn't controlled the illegal flow;" they say, "you need more visas and better workplace enforcement to do that. It has directed much traffic into the remote Southwest desert, making more immigrants vulnerable to smugglers and leaving many people dead."
And then there's the federal raids, like at the Swift packing plant, the local crackdowns, the gutted due process, the web of suspicion, the rise of hate.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, I think the reality is that, yes, there was a lot of attention last year, but nothing really emerged in terms of comprehensive immigration reform, and I do not see at this stage that there is any momentum, already in this new year, by this new congress, to address the immigration issue, and I think it's going to clearly necessitate another upsurge of mass protest to be able to even put it on the agenda, and I suspect that this spring we're going to see more of that.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, it's interesting that the main goal of people who are organizing the protest was just to stop any immigration legislation from passing, because they felt in a Republican congress there could only be trouble. And yet, now the Democrats are in power. What have they done, and is it on their agenda?
JUAN GONZALEZ: No. As I said, I don't think it is right now, and I think it's going to necessitate both the corporations who are increasingly realizing the necessity to have comprehensive immigration reform, as well as a mass movement and the labor movement to put it on the agenda, because, otherwise, with the war and the other major issues confronting the country right now, it's going to continue to be pushed back in terms of addressing what is clearly needed as some kind of comprehensive immigration reform.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we're going to link to your story on the NYU protest: "Find an Illegal Immigrant." The Republican club held it, and hundreds of students then wore little notes on them that said "illegal immigrant." Is that right?
JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes. "I am an illegal immigrant."
AMY GOODMAN: "I am an illegal immigrant."
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/23/1536249
|
contribute to this article
contribute to this article
add comment to discussion
|
