Author: mopress

Remarks of Geoffrey Valdes at the Austin, TX action in support of World Refugee Day, June 20, 2011.–gm

Good evening. My name is Geoffrey Valdes and I’m a member of Texans United for Families.

Mi nombre es Geoffrey Valdes y soy miembro de Texanos Unidos para las Familias.

Late last year we became aware of plans carried out almost in secret to build a new immigrant detention center in Karnes County, southeast of San Antonio.

El año pasado descubrimos planes llevado casi en secreto para construir un nuevo centro de detenciones de inmigrantes en el Condado de Karnes, al sureste de San Antonio.

This new detention center is scheduled to be opened in early 2012 and would hold 600 immigrant men, primarily those termed “low risk” by ICE. The Karnes Detention Center is being constructed by The Geo Group, a private prison company formerly known as Wackenhut. It is also being touted by ICE as a new “civil” detention center, with supposed better conditions that the other detention camps run by ICE and their private sector henchmen. Once the Karnes detention center is built, ICE has plans for five more similar centers to be built across the county.

Tiene planeado abrir este nuevo centro de detenciones al principio de 2012 tiene capacidad para 600 hombres inmigrantes, la mayoría llamado “bajo riesgo” por ICE. La corporación GEO, una compañía privada de prisiones, son quienes tienen el contrato. ICE propone este centro como un Nuevo centro civil de detenciones, con condiciones supuestamente mejor que los otros centro de detenciones. Una vez construida el centro de Karnes, ICE tiene planes para construir cinco más centros parecidos a través del país.

We oppose the Karnes detention center because in a nation of immigrants, immigrant detention is a human rights violation and a crime.

Oponemos al centro de detenciones de Karnes porque en un país de inmigrantes, la detención de inmigrantes es una violación de derechos humanos y un crimen.

We oppose the Karnes detention center because we want an end to all immigrant detention.

Oponemos al centro de detenciones de Karnes porque queremos el alto de todas las detenciones.

We oppose this “civil” immigrant detention center because there is nothing civil about immigrant detention. Let’s call it what it is, a prison.

Oponemos a este centro dizque “civil” porque no hay nada “civil” de la detención de inmigrantes. Tenemos que decir lo que es, una vil cárcel.

We oppose the Karnes detention center because The Geo Group has a proven track record of killing people in its custody. People like Jesus Manuel Galindo who died in the Reeves Detention Center, run by Geo, after Geo put him in isolation instead of providing him with medical care.

Oponemos al centro de detenciones de Karnes porque The Geo Group tiene una historia probada de matar a personas bajo su control. Personas como Jesus Manuel Galindo quien muri&oacute en el centro de detenciones de Reeves, operado por Geo, después de que Geo le metió en una celda de aislamiento en vez de darle cuidado médico que necesitaba.

We oppose the Karnes detention center because private companies like Geo and CCA and their Wall Street investors like Wells Fargo make millions off of the imprisonment and isolation of our immigrant sisters and brothers.

Oponemos al centro de detenciones de Karnes porque compañias privadas como GEO y CCA y sus inversionistas de Wall Street como Wells Fargo ganan millones del encarcelamiento y aislamiento de nuestras hermanas y hermanos inmigrantes.

We oppose the Karnes detention center because it is in a remote rural area, isolating people from family, friends, lawyers and social services. Detention centers are built in remote regions for a reason, to hide the shameful and criminal immigrant gulag system from the broader public.

Oponemos al centro de detenciones de Karnes porque está en un lugar rural y remoto, lejos de familia, amigos, abogados y servicios sociales. Se construyen centros de detenciones en regiones remotas por una sola razón, para esconder el sistema vergonzoso y criminal del encarcelamiento de inmigrantes.

We oppose the Karnes detention center because we demand an end to all detentions and deportation now.

Oponemos al centro de detenciones de Karnes porque queremos el alto de todas las detenciones y deportaciones ahora.

Are we going to stop the Karnes facility?

¿Vamos a para el centro de Karnes?

Are we going shut down Hutto?

¿Vamos a cerrar a Hutto?

Are we going to end all immigrant detention?

¿Vamos a poner un fin total a las detenciones de inmigrantes?

Remarks of Bob Libal at the Austin, TX action in support of World Refugee Day, June 20, 2011–gm

We are here in front of the Travis County Jail today to show the impact that a program called Secure Communities has had on our community.

Secure Communities is a program that fingerprints every person booked into the Travis County Jail and subjects non-citizens to detention and deportation if their fingerprints trigger a federal immigration match. Since this program was introduced in 2008, nearly 1,900 Travis County residents have been deported.

More than 27,000 people around the state have been deported since 2008 because of this program. And although ICE claims that Secure Communities is meant to target people with violent convictions, the vast majority of those snared in this program have no or minor charges.

Far from making our community more secure, this program has separated hundreds of families, created a climate of fear in our community, and led to the deportations of thousands of our neighbors. It is precisely these concerns that have led communities across the county to reject Secure Communities. In the last month, the states of New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts have all pulled out of this program.

We in Travis County and around Texas know that Secure Communities makes our community less safe. We know that Secure Communities breeds fear into the community, driving our immigrant brothers and sisters further into the shadows. Secure Communities also provides a steady business for the private prison company that ever more detainees to fill their detention beds.

And, so, we are here today to say No to Secure Communities! We are here to tell our elected officials all the way from Sheriff Greg Hamilton to President Barack Obama that Secure Communities has got to go!

Coalition Calls for Wells Fargo to Stop Profiting From the Private Immigration Detention Industry & End its Support of the Construction of a New Texas Detention Center

Austin, Texas – Austin-based coalition Texans United for Families will join community and labor groups in thirteen major cities nationwide on Friday, July 1st in protests against private detention company investments. Protestors are calling for major investors such as Wells Fargo to divest of their holdings in the private prison industry. Detention of immigrants will cost taxpayers billions of dollars this year only to produce profits for finance industry leaders, like Wells Fargo, that have invested in the growth of the private prison industry.

Wells Fargo currently holds over 3.5 million shares in GEO which is valued at $92 million. “The private prison industry relies on taxpayers for its income and then lobbies for policies that benefit its bottomline,” said Dave Kalloor of Texans United for Families. “Harsh immigrant incarceration policies and new detention centers, like one Karnes County, Texas, are some of the most lucrative policies for GEO and other private prison corporations.”

Participants in the protest will gather outside of the Wells Fargo located on 111 Congress Ave on Friday, July 1st from 12pm-1pm.

The July 1st date was chosen as a statement of solidarity with immigrants, their families and friends in Georgia. On this date the statewide anti-immigrant law, HB 87, will go into effect. Private prison companies such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group (of which Wells Fargo is a principal investor), as well as some of their major shareholders, made substantial contributions to politicians involved in passing this damaging legislation.

Wells Fargo’s support of the GEO Group is even more troubling in light of GEO’s history in Texas. GEO’s facilities include prisons, immigration detention centers, and juvenile detention centers where people have suffered from inadequate medical care and unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Deaths, riots, and hunger strikes at GEO’s facilities are indicative of GEO’s culture of cruelty and underscore the need to end construction of new GEO facilities.

GEO is currently constructing a new immigration detention center in Karnes County, Texas. “GEO and Wells Fargo profit from the detention and deportation system that separates families and tears our communities apart. Wells Fargo claims to support community-building and value ethics, yet they are investing in an industry with unethical practices that harm immigrants, people of color, and youth,” said Rocío Villalobos of Texans United for Families.

Texans United for Families, in partnership with community groups and unions across the USA, is calling on all public and private institutions to divest their holdings in the GEO Group and CCA, America’s largest private prison corporations that have profited from billions in taxpayer money. Wells Fargo and others should follow the lead of Pershing Square Capital Management which has already divested its holdings from CCA. Other major investors in the private prison industry include Wellington Management Company, Vanguard, General Electric, Fidelity and others.

Source: email from Bob Libal

Recent correspondence from Irma Muniz, including background on Ramsey, a note from federal prison, and announcement of a new blog to follow–gm

Dear Friends:

Tomorrow I will depart for Cincinnati to attend the LULAC National Convention. I am excited about the opportunity to share information about the case of Ramsey Muniz, and to increase my knowledge about others issues pertaining to our people.

Please go to our new blog at http://freeramsey.blogspot.com and click the Follow button on the left. The next screen will ask you to click on a service that you are registered in. There will be several buttons. If you have not registered in any of them, I recommend Google. You will need to LEAVE the blog site and go to Google to register for a login and then return to our blot to click Follow again. Click on a button and on the next screen, click Follow This Blog.

I will be at the convention through Sunday, and it is my hope to provide information on things that I encounter as well as things that I learn. If you are not successful in clicking the Follow button, just be sure to go to our blog on a regular basis for current information.

Sincerely,
Irma Muniz

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In the 1960s and 1970s, during America’s era of civil rights, Ramiro “Ramsey” Muñiz was a national Chicano leader who brought political awareness to the legislative power on behalf of the entire Southwest.

The contributions of Ramsey Muñiz are respected by many, as he contributed his time and talent to assist people. Through his activism and leadership in the political arena, he brought about positive changed for many, by giving them a voice and representation that previously were non-existent, and this improved the quality of life for many.

In the words of Geeta Mohan Gurnaney,

“In 1974 the Democratic Party co-opted Muñiz’s agenda to a large extent. In fact, since 1972 [Governor Dolph] Briscoe had appointed more Chicanos to state boards and commissions than every Texas governor in the 20th century combined. Also, the Democratic Party was fielding more Mexican-American candidates for public office than ever before. Even the Texas Rangers awarded scholarships for two Chicanos. Muñiz’s gubernatorial campaigns of 1972 and 1974 helped Chicanos gain greater visibility and representation in political circles, but ironically, these strides came at Muñiz’s expense in 1974.”

Today, Ramsey Muñiz, a leader during the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, is serving a sentence of life without parole on false charges. He states, “I am 68 years old and after 18 years of suffering and devastating cruel imprisonment, I do not want to die in the prisons of America for a crime I did not commit. This imprisonment for life is the most punitive and atrocious injustice committed against me, my family, and all humanity.”

Ramsey Muñiz has served his time and his family seeks his immediate release! For additional information, visit www.freeramsey.com. Forward this information to civil rights organizations and to your senator and congressman or congresswoman, asking them to get involved in this humanitarian issue!

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The excerpts below describe the impact made by the Ramsey Muñiz gubernatorial campaigns. They also describe the horror of imprisonment and suffering that followed, and continues today.

Please distribute and ask organizations, your senator, and congressman/congresswoman to become involved in this humanitarian issue seeking the immediate release of Ramsey Muniz!

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“Muñiz’s gubernatorial campaigns of 1972 and 1974 were not simply politics as usual with a Chicano face. They couldn’t be because Muñiz was more than a Chicano politician trying to succeed in the Anglo political world. His 1972 and 1974 campaigns were an attempt to harness a latent power base that had long been either co-opted or ignored. Also, Muñiz was a symbol and a standard-bearer for Chicanos trying to gain power in an Anglo-dominated system without denying his Mexican heritage. Ultimately, His candidacy was a reminder that the history of Texas must include its Mexican legacy.”

Geeta Mohan Gurnaney, One Candidate, Two Approaches: the Ramsey Muñiz Gubernatorial Campaigns of 1972 and 1974.

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We are now getting close to all of those that created history and its all coming back, and God knows why He has kept me alive knowing that for months and months I was chained and shackled and at times naked for days, weeks and not even counting the months. I would cry and scream yet I was so deep in those dungeons that no one would hear my cry for freedom, for justice, and the removal of the cold chains and shackles on my God-given body. Yes, God-given, because your father has shared with me that they were there, but it was time for me to journey into the spiritual world that is only for us that were destined from the time of their birth.

The message that I receive everyday from your father who is in heaven is that our lives have just begun!

Amor,
Tez
(Ramsey)