Author: mopress

The Texas Civil Rights Project just announced
that this year’s banquet speaker will be the real life hero of Hotel
Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina, who transformed his hotel into life-saving
shelter during an infamous season of genocide.

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE UFW

Today, July 26, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a
hearing on proposals for comprehensive immigration reform. The voices
of hardworking immigrants living in the shadows of our society need to
be heard.

Our broken immigration system needs fixing. But as the immigration
debate continues, we must let lawmakers and President Bush know we will
not accept harsh and unrealistic proposals.

One such plan is the "Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration
Reform Act" introduced last week by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tx.) and Jon
Kyl (R-Az.). This bill would create a new unlimited guestworker program
with no chance for workers to earn the right to stay in the country. It
would also require that undocumented immigrants already working and
living here leave after five years of the law’s enactment. This bill
would further separate families and divide our country.

We need real, bipartisan and comprehensive solutions that include the
following principles: A path to hard-earned legalization for
undocumented immigrants already contributing to this country;
reunification of families; and protections for workers in this nation.

The AgJobs bill (S. 359, H.R. 884) sponsored by the United Farm
Workers has all of these components. It would allow undocumented farm
workers to earn the right to permanently stay in this country by
continuing to work in agriculture. With broad bipartisan support, it is
a comprehensive bill negotiated by the UFW and the nation’s
agricultural industry. It is the only viable bipartisan immigration
reform solution for the agricultural industry.

Contact President Bush and your congressmembers today. Let them
know measures such as the Cornyn-Kyl bill are harmful to this country.
Tell them they should enact AgJobs and other bi-partisan comprehensive
immigration reform bills that include our principles.

See Action Page at UFW

North Texas IndyMedia features a compelling blog by the sister of a jailed Dallas man who, she argues, has been falsely charged in the beating death of an elderly man. Be sure to view the video.

Texas has scheduled an execution Thursday (28 July) at 6pm for David Martinez. The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) argues that life circumstances should be more carefully considered:

Like many on death row, Martinez comes from a troubled background. His
attorneys said that he moved from Texas to Iowa and back to Texas,
living with one parent or the other. While Martinez lived in Austin
during his early to mid-teens, his father was “heavily involved” in
making sadomasochistic paraphernalia. For some time before his arrest,
Martinez lived on the street. In his case file, a March 1997 form from
the Salvation Army lists him as homeless.

The Austin American-Statesman on July 27 features a story by Chuck Lindell about a last-minute appeal by Martinez:

The last-gasp appeal accuses prosecutors of failing to
adequately investigate allegations that Martinez, now 29, was sexually
abused as a teenager by his father and his father’s boyfriend,
practitioners of a sadomasochistic lifestyle who — until recently —
eluded defense investigators while "living a kind of underground life,"
the appeal states.

Only recently was the father located.  At issue is the need to
take abuse into consideration when deciding for life or death. 
Prosecutors (and the Fifth Circuit) have argued that the question of
sex abuse was raised too late in the process.  Defense attorney
Gary Taylor is quoted in the last paragraph of the story saying: "At
some point, whether they choose this case or not, (appellate courts)
are going to have to address this issue where the district attorney is
the caretaker of justice — where if the DA takes one action, he may be
prosecuting a wrong but may be hurting his case in another area."

Below the break is a roundup of civil rights in the Texas Blogosphere.
Dos Centavos links up resources for a proposed DREAM act, to enable long-time immigrant students their just opportunity to complete citizenship.

Brains and Eggs says ‘bullshit‘ to the Roberts nomination.

La Bloguerra links to reports that low income housing has been redlined from ‘Northside’ San Antonio neighborhoods.

Latinos for Texas link to a Houston janitors
strike, "to protest illegal threats by the nation’s largest cleaning
company, ABM, against workers trying to secure better jobs and
affordable health care." Average wage: $5.25 per hour, no
benefits.

Off the Kuff keeps tabs on jail conditions in Harris County.

Politico says what nobody else dares to say about the frazzled Democratic coaltition. (I read a couple of Demo lists where and Politico is evaded, invisible.)

Texas Ed Equity picks up a San Antonio Express-News report that a parents‘ revolution is brewing over the education scandal. Hint: keep your eye on Carolyn Boyle.

The Red State again, from SAE-N, links the story about Texas ranking first (or last, depending which end is up) in uninsured children.

The Censorship in Texas Petition,
written by prison Blogger William Bryan Sorens,
recently freed and deported to Oklahoma

To: TEXAS LEGISLATURE

WHEREAS, the First Amendment gives to all Americans the guarantee of
free speech and to all publishers the guarantee of a free press, and,

WHEREAS, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has decided
to implement new prisoner mail censorship rules, under Board Policy
(BP) 03.91; and,

WHEREAS, the new rules violate the Supreme Court’s four-prong test
for prison censorship as set forth in TURNER v. SAFLEY, and, WHEREAS, new rules include opening and reading prisoner mail to media
and government officials; and,

WHEREAS, this mail has been protected from government oversight in
this manner for 25 years; and,

WHEREAS, TDCJ is virtually unregulated and has been the subject of
constant federal litigation, corruption, abuse and exists as a
political spoils system for Texas politicians and bureaucrats; and,

WHEREAS, prisoner correspondence to media and government officials is
often the only way the public becomes aware of corruption and abuse,
and,

WHEREAS, TDCJ has already limited prisoner stamp purchase and
possession, has ended Saturday mail service including mail to and
from attorneys, courts, media and government, has banned
prisoner-to-prisoner mail, has punished prisoner-writer William Bryan
Sorens by effectually sentencing him to another year in prison for
the stated offense of “writing articles for publication,” and has
outlawed prisoner art or messages drawn on outgoing envelopes; and,

WHEREAS, the new mail rules ban publications containing nudity; and,

WHEREAS, the Texas media and most mass media refuse to cover such
subjects as corruption and abuses inside Texas prisons; and,

WHEREAS, only such “edgy” publications as PLAYBOY and PENTHOUSE
have dared publish investigative reports about Texas prisons; and,

WHEREAS, publications containing nudity have been permitted in Texas
prisons for a quarter-century, with no security-related problems; and,

WHEREAS, sufficient rules already exist in TDCJ for punishing sex
offenders who harass staff and which protect staff from coming into
unwanted contact with “offensive” material; and,

WHEREAS, it appears TDCJ’s ban on nudity is a moral ruse and pretense
for egregious censorship; and,

WHEREAS, TDCJ’S censorship of both outgoing and incoming media mail
appears to be retaliatory and punitive in nature and design, aimed at
silencing voices from inside and harming the subscriber bases of
media most critical of TDCJ; and,

WHEREAS, the only deterrent to government censorship is a free press,
including publications we may not like nor agree with, and including
prisoner writers we may not like nor agree with; and,

WHEREAS, conservatives and liberals and everyone-in-between should
agree that under the Constitution criminals are sent to prison AS
punishment and not FOR punishment; and,

WHEREAS, government censorship begins in obscure public institutions,
as a matter of public policy, and tends to grow to include other
disfavored persons or publishers; and,

WHEREAS, this wave of public censorship is already evident in current
affairs, including U.S. marshal confiscation of reporters’ tapes
after a public speech by Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, and
including theft and destruction of campus newspapers, and including a
“decency war” on popular radio personalities, and so much more;

THEREFORE, WE THE PEOPLE insist that the Texas Legislature compel the
Texas Board of Criminal Justice and TDCJ to reinstitute TDCJ
Correspondence Rules 3.0 as they existed in policy and practice for
25 years, and to rescind Board Policy (BP) 03.91 establishing the
above censorship of prisoner mail.
William Bryan Sorens