Author: mopress

By Greg Moses

CounterPunch

An infant girl who was nearly born into a Texas immigration prison has been ordered deported to the same occupied Palestinian territories where her older sister suffered gas poisoning during an Israeli assault on the family home in 2000.

The deportation order will be appealed, says family attorney John Wheat Gibson.

The baby girl was born to Hanan Ibrahim since the pregnant woman was released from the T. Don Hutto immigration prison in early February. Hanan, her husband Salah, and four of their children – ages 5 to 15 – received global attention when they were impounded for three months in Texas immigration prisons for the crime of not vacating to countries that would not take them. During the family’s imprisonment, a fifth child was placed into foster care with her uncle Ahmad.

“Faith of Ibrahim Redeemed” said the headline celebrating the family’s miraculous release in early February after they were granted a motion to re-open their deportation trial. But that re-opened trial in early August has now tossed the family back into the position of having no land to welcome them — not even the USA where two of the girls have been born.

The timing of the family’s treatment by USA authorities appears to coincide with an agenda of propaganda. They were arrested to headlines and a press release in early November, the weekend before the national elections. Hanan and the four children were hastily released from the Hutto prison, just one week before a scheduled media tour of the facility. And the new trial for the family was steadily pushed back into the August news hole.

According to legal briefs filed in the family’s behalf, the young Ibrahim girls, while in the USA prison, were known to “sob uncontrollably on a near-daily basis, complain of nightmares, and exhibit symptoms of psychological traumatization.”

“Maryam Ibrahim was about two years old in 2000 when a gas canister crashed into her Palestinian home, rendering her unconscious for lack of breath,” reported the Texas Civil Rights Review in January. “Pleading to USA authorities for asylum in 2002, Maryam’s father Salah testified that his little girl was fearful of people in uniform.”

Here is an interview conducted via email this week with Ibrahim family attorney John Wheat Gibson:

Texas Civil Rights Review: At last week’s trial before the immigration judge in Dallas, what arguments did you make in behalf of the Ibrahim family’s right to remain in the USA?

John Wheat Gibson: We argued that Israel continues to steal land and murder Palestinians simply because they are not Jewish. We pointed out the 59 Palestinian mothers who have been forced to give birth at check points because the Zionist thugs would not allow them to proceed to the hospital. We also argued that it was unfair for the immigration judge to allow the government to put into evidence all of its documents on the day of trial, when the rules require that they be submitted and served on the opposing side at least 10 business days before the trial.

TCRR: What reasons did the judge give for ordering the Ibrahim family deported?

Gibson: The immigration judge said Israel does not abuse human rights and that Fatah will protect the rights of the Palestinians in the West Bank. He said punishment by Hamas for refusing to give money to Hamas because of political disagreement with Hamas would not be persecution on account of political opinion. The immigration judge was just following orders. He is no Himmler; he is a measley Eichmann.

TCRR: Last time the family was ordered deported to “Palestine” there was difficulty securing travel permission from Israel. Is there any reason to think that Israel will change its policy toward returning Palestinians?

Gibson: Israel is more brutal and racist than ever. After going to so much trouble since 1947 to exterminate and expel the Palestinians so the Master Race can settle on their land, why would the Israelis allow them to return?

TCRR: Where does this ruling leave the family? What can they expect from immigration authorities in the coming months?

Gibson: Appeal has been filed to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

TCRR: Is there anything our readers can do to help the family?

Gibson: Send letters to editors and to Chief Immigration Judge complaining about racist policy of denying asylum to Palestinians simply to avoid embarrassing the Jewish supremacist governments of Israel, the UK, and the US. Law and facts, not AIPAC, JINSA, WINEP, et al, should have some influence on trial results. In the United States today Muslims get the same treatment in the courts that Jews got in the courts of Nazi Germany. This case is a perfect example. Your readers should rally to the resistance instead of goose-stepping to Armageddon behind the Furher and his Chosen Race.

TCRR: When Hanan Ibrahim was impounded by immigration authorities during a pre-election raid last November, she was pregnant. Can you tell us, how is the new baby?

Gibson: Healthy girl, which God’s Chosen People will kill when the Gestapo sends her back to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as they have killed so many other little girls, whom they view as racially inferior.

Note: The Chief Immigration Judge can be reached at:

David L. Neal
Office of the Chief Immigration Judge
5107 Leesburg Pike, Suite 2500
Falls Church, VA 22041
(703) 305-1247

The Dallas Morning News pretends to editorialize in behalf of Texans when it says that Cindy Sheehan will not be welcomed here, but the editorial board is already a year too late. When Sheehan first took to the bar ditches outside Crawford she was accompanied by Texans, and Texans have been supporting her ever since. Not only does the editorial board lose its memory, but when speaking of Sheehan, it loses other basic requirements of literacy, too. For example, when accusing someone of “invective” it should be standard practice on the part of editorialists to cite some supporting evidence. After all, “invective” is a smear word. Yet, in the hands of the DMN editorial board, the slime word stands unsupported by either definition or example. Is this not the practice of invective itself, to smear without evidence?

The editorial board does establish one fact. Since the time of Sheehan’s first Crawford challenge to the war in Iraq, many others have come around. Maybe it’s time for the editorial board to realize who they are really talking about when they pretend to look to Crawford for a constructive transformation.

Come on now, you towering pundits, you can do it. Why not join a growing chorus of Texas voices for peace and reject the ultimate invective of war itself.–gm

PRESS RELEASE
August 8, 2005

The Texas Civil Rights Project is representing Cindy Sheehan and her
First Amendment right to try to see the President. TCRP also intends to
file federal suit so that protestors can get within ½ mile of the Bush
ranch, rather than the 5 miles they are now kept at. The press is
allowed to come within ½ mile of the ranch. So, too, should protestors. For more on Sheehan see the editor’s Peacefile Blog

Most political pundits say this is an impossible task. However, I’ve
done the analysis, and I assure you we CAN shock the political world on
November 8th. To accomplish this task, we need the support of
fair-minded Texans like you – and so we are glad that you have signed
on, pledged your support and committed to work with us against this
amendment.

That’s Texas political prodigy Glen Maxey speaking in the
"No Nonsense Newsletter No. 1" about the upcoming campaign to defeat
the Republican-led effort to Constitutionalize homophobia in Texas via
a November ballot initiative. So far, the newsletter goes to 2,000 of
the state’s wisest citizens, but the condition can be contagious, so
be sure to visit Mr. Maxey’s org:

http://www.nononsenseinnovember.com/

The BIG news is that we’ll soon have our statewide database ready. This
robust tool will give us critical information we can use for block
walking and phone banking. The database project has been really fun –
and challenging – to work on. It is really important to our
“get-out-the-vote” efforts and will make us extremely effective.

Our hero has come a long way since his barefoot-with-the-index-cards
days. But the logic is still the same. Know every fair-minded voter and
lead them to the polls. He claims that Democracy for Texas (the
Deaniac wing) has 25,000 activists. Like we say, could be
contagious.