Author: mopress

For us, Williamson County resident Angela Kopit has become the face of Vigil III. When word went out about the release of the Ibrahim family last week, she was one of the local folks who gathered at Hutto jail to signal solidarity with the family. In a Dallas Morning News report on the family’s release, Kopit was quoted: “The things that my parents were fighting for in the ’60s are being taken from us now,” said Taylor resident Angela Kopit, who came with her three sons. “This is the fear of immigrants in its ugliest form.”–gm

Hi Greg, I didn’t actually see my quote in the Dallas Morning News, I hope it was worthwhile.

The morning’s events were lovely [Feb. 3, during the release of the Ibrahim mother and children from T. Don Hutto prison]. The crowd was small, but it was
quite moving to see the family back together and away from that place.

We were cheering their release and had at least one sign showing that we were supporting their release. We didn’t get close enough to actually talk to the family, but I think it was clear we were supporters. I heard from a friend in LA that our little prison made the front page of the LA TIMES today.

The article was not flattering to CCA or the facility in general. She’s sending me the front page. Our seed of dissent is growing.

Angela “Immigration’s net binds children too: Hundreds of minors are being held with parents caught illegally in the U.S. The facilities and conditions are like jail.” By Nicole Gaouette and Miguel Bustillo, Times Staff Writers. February 10, 2007. Los Angeles Times.

The story features 9-year-old Khadijah and her father “Sebastien Bessuges, 30, a Frenchman who last year married an American …. Bessuges had visited a federal immigration center last month to see what forms he needed to extend his stay in the U.S. The next day, immigration agents raided his suburban Phoenix home and detained him and Khadijah.”

The story also says a hunger strike was waged last week at Hutto over the poor quality of food and “other conditions.”

Excerpt from “Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal” by US Commission on International Religious freedom (Feb. 8, 2007).

Consequently, the outcome of an asylum claim appears to depend not only on the strength of the claim, but also on which officials consider the claim, and whether or not the alien has an attorney. Similarly, while DHS has developed criteria relating to the release of detained asylum seekers, the implementation of these criteria also varies widely from place to place.

There are a few areas, however, where the Study identified problems other than inconsistent practices. For example, with regard to detention, the Study found that asylum seekers are consistently detained in jails or jail-like facilities, which the experts found inappropriate for non-criminal asylum seekers. There were, however, a small number of exceptions to this rule, the most prominent being a contract facility in Broward Country, Florida, which represents a secure, but appropriate and non-correctional, environment for non-criminal asylum seekers.

“People are really gearing up for the vigil Monday evening,” says Jay Johnson-Castro by telephone. He has just finished a 2,000 mile border caravan from San Diego to Brownsville. And he says Rio Grande Valley media will be following his travel north to the T. Don Hutto jail for Vigil IV at 5:30 pm, Feb. 12.

“Valley media have given wide coverage to the border caravan in English and Spanish, on the television, radio, and print,” says Johnson-Castro. “It is front page news at the Brownsville Herald.”
Media have also been busy with the story of Hutto prison since yesterday’s press tour of the facility hosted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“Now that we have the media in there, we still have hundreds of innocent children and moms in prison cells. Until they are free we are going to keep putting up pressure,” promises Castro as the sound of heavy rain comes through the phone with his voice.

“And we want to get everybody to say which side they are on. Are they in favor of imprisoning children for purposes of national security or does this shock you and offend you? What kind of America do you want our future to be?” he asks.

“I feel in my heart that the power of the American people will put an end to this demented policy.”

When he hears how the Suleiman family have lost their first home to a policy of deportation, he pledges to get their home back, and get them back in it where they belong with their 4-year-old American twin daughters.

“We have gone up against the most powerful force in human history and we have won,” says Johnson-Castro regarding the release of the Ibrahim family father Friday, the Suleiman mother and son Wednesday, and the Ibrahim mother and children last Saturday.

“We have to get what is right. And the Department of Homeland Security is going to have to back down. What they are doing with their power is criminal.”–gm

By Greg Moses

CounterPunch / UrukNet / DissidentVoice / SolduyuNet (Turkish translation by Sanem Ozturk) / IndyBay / ElectronicIntifada

During the day Friday, the words of 11-year-old Mohammad Hazahza have filled him up and weighed him down. On Friday night, he pours the words back out, as if wanting to be lifted up again.

“Mohammad is so protective of his mother,” says Ralph Isenberg in a weary and reverent voice, recalling the day’s visits to Dallas reporters. “I watched as he got her chair and made her comfortable. And that’s what he did in jail. He protected her from forced labor. When she was ordered to clean the common area, he did that work for her. He really understands family and duty.”

For mother Juma, jail was a very difficult time. Because of her food allergies, she has come to rely on some foods. Tomatoes for example. Family supporter Riad Hamad of the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund says Juma asked her jailers for tomatoes, but they never gave her any. Not one tomato in a hundred days. She lost 12 pounds.

“I was shocked at what the jail has done to her physically,” says Isenberg. “There were times when I thought she would pass out. They are both very traumatized. And all I can say is we’re cranking up real hard for the release of the rest of the Hazahza family.”

Like two other families of Palestinian heritage who were abducted by USA immigration authorities in early November, the Hazahza family had been split up. Juma and Mohammad were jailed at T. Don Hutto prison in Taylor, Texas, while father Radi was locked up at Haskell, Texas along with his four adult children.

The mother and son recall a hard knock at the door and then a crash as men with guns filled their apartment in a pre-dawn raid on November 2. Mohammad describes the guns as AK-47s. If that’s not the model number, he was definitely looking down barrels of semi-automatic assault rifles. The family of seven were ordered out of the house. No time to change out of bed clothes.

For Juma, memories of America are mixed with memories of life in Palestine, where she could never stop thinking about the missiles that flew over the house. She knows what it is like to live in fearful conditions. But even in Palestine, she had never been thrown into jail.

On their second day out of jail, memories are difficult enough that Juma and Mohammad might cry once or twice, but Juma is angry and determined. She will see the rest of her family free as soon as possible. Then they will get their things out of storage and start their lives all over again. On to the next reporter, if that’s what it must take. She wants her life back.

Inside the jail, Mohammad was ever the bright and curious kid. He was certainly not impressed with the school lessons they gave him. Math was like adding one plus one. Last week he noticed his jailers making all kinds of sudden improvements to the jail. There was simple math in that, too. A media tour was coming up. By the time the cameras got there, Mohammad and his mother would be gone.

In jail, Mohammad wondered about things like where does the electricity come from and are the windows bullet proof? He would ask these questions to guards who carried little black books, and they would write his questions down. A few days later the guards would return with questions of their own. Was anyone planning to bomb Hutto jail?

Hideous is the word Isenberg uses to describe the situation of the Hazahzas, the jail, and the prejudicial paranoia that surrounds a curious boy from Palestine and his family. Juma has not been allowed to talk to her husband for 100 days.

Owing to poor construction and design of toilets and bathrooms, the smell of raw sewage is a nightly trauma at Hutto prison. Who can sleep with such a smell in the air? The temperature is never right. Either it’s too warm or too cold, except for the water, which is always too cold. And the sanitation of the cold-water shower room was very suspect to Juma as herds of men were exchanged for herds of women in bathing conditions that made her feel very humiliated.

Confirming complaints made weeks ago by the Ibrahim family–who have since been released–Mohammad and Juma talked about prisoners being made to stand still for cell counts that always lasted too long because guards could not get the count right.

“They are so hurt, so hurt,” says Isenberg as Mohammad’s words spill out. “It’s clear that the Hutto facility has the ability to destroy people, to break their will to want to live. It’s also clear that it will be shut down shortly.”

Saturday will be “legal day” for the movement as Isenberg confers with attorneys about how to get the rest of the Hazahza family released from a prison in Haskell, Texas. Once again the New York attorneys Joshua Bardavid and Ted Cox are standing by if a federal habeas corpus motion is required.

“I’m not used to meeting people who have been in jail for 100 days and who are perfectly innocent. I’m ashamed to be an American right now. But the more I see people start to care, the more I have hope.”