Author: mopress

Email from Jose Orta:

A small group of us gathered in front of the T. Don Hutto facility in Taylor this bitterly cold Saturday morning of February 3rd to witness the release of the Palestinian family from the Dallas area.

Their plight was highlighted in the Austin American Statesman yesterday and today and word came early this morning that they were to be released at 10:00am. A family desperate to escape a land filled with civil strife, seeking the American Dream, found themselves living an American nightmare: false imprisonment, detention, separation and the loss of freedom. It was a total injustice.

A long black limousine drove into the prison parking lot and the family was unceremoniously and quickly rushed to the car. We clapped and cheered as they drove by on their way back home. Hopefully they saw that people out in the community were supporting them and were bearing witness to the injustice done to them.

It was a small victory. We need to continue to publicize what is transpiring in this prison in the name of Homeland Security.

A source close to the Ibrahim family says they expect Salaheddin Ibrahim, the father of five-going-on-six children, to be released from the Haskell, Texas immigration prison tomorrow, putting an end to the family’s three month ordeal as prisoners of USA immigration authorities.–gm

A Sunday Manifesto

Not only has immigration policy been torn away from the common sense of communities who live along the border between the USA and Mexico, but the moral responsibility for leadership in this realm has also been outsourced. This morning’s New York Times reports:

On some of the biggest government projects, Bush administration officials have sought to shift some decision making to contractors. When Michael P. Jackson, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, addressed potential bidders on the huge Secure Border Initiative last year, he explained the new approach.

“This is an unusual invitation,” said Mr. Jackson, a contracting executive before joining the agency. “We’re asking you to come back and tell us how to do our business.”

Boeing, which won the $80 million first phase of the estimated $2 billion project, is assigned not only to develop technology but also to propose how to use it, which includes assigning roles to different government agencies and contractors. Homeland Security officials insist that they will make all final decisions, but the department’s inspector general, Richard L. Skinner, reported bluntly in November that “the department does not have the capacity needed to effectively plan, oversee and execute the SBInet program.”

On the first day of a two-week border caravan that will traverse the USA border with Mexico, Jay Johnson-Castro reported on a “pathetic immigration system” that is grinding people’s lives past the point of no return into unmarked, mass graves along the USA border with Mexico.

As we see from the evidence above, and with our own eyes at the T. Don Hutto prison for immigrant families, such brutal chaos brought down upon the common life is happening in a context of actual chaos in responsibility from leadership.

Wherever we find such a situation we find the duality of crisis revealed as both horror and opportunity. It is time this week to seize the opportunity. We will not be ruled by profiteers. We will not accept a dominion of free trade without free people. Furthermore, there is no reason to expect that the chaos of profiteering can rule over the long run–if the people stay aware and active.

And, finally, the shocking brutality of power as revealed in the three-month imprisonment of the Ibrahim children, will ensure that the people do not fall to sleep unawares.–gm

By Irma Muniz "Citlalmina" and Ramiro R. Muniz "Tezcatlipoca"

Mexicanas/Latinas of the Sixth Sun salute with
our hearts and love, Coretta Scott King, who will be
remembered as one of our founding mothers of liberation
and justice of the coming new American of the world.
Women of all races have witnessed the epitome of strength,
courage, and perseverance during the most difficult
times of struggle note only for civil rights, but for
women’s rights in America. We will continue with the same
guidance, inspiration, and spirituality of struggle for
the restoration of peace, love, and harmony in this world.
We must recognize and contemplate on our brave
companion, Coretta, knowing how she must have felt upon
receipt of a letter from the Reverend Martin Luther King,
confined from his cell, asking that she be remain firm in
belief and determination. He stated, ‘"I know this whole
experience is very difficult for you to adjust to, but as
I said to you yesterday, this is the cross that we must
bear for the freedom of our people…"

This is the cross that women of the 21st century must
embrace and continue to carry, knowing in our hearts that
Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King have become
archangels of freedom, justice, and spirituality.

The Reverend Martin Luther King constantly spoke of
the role of women, sharing that the women in the present
era must not be afraid to become tomorrow’s leaders and
address the continuous issues of discrimination, poverty,
and oppression. He had a dream, and Coretta Scott King in
her strong, faithful spiritual manner, continued the noble
pursuit of that dream.

Now it is us who will fulfill that dream in the
21st Century. The Reverend Martin Luther King shouted,
"I had a dream" with all his heart. He would stare into
the heavens, then fix his eyes upon Coretta Scott King.
He knew that his wife was (as women are) the essence
of that dream.