Note: the following announcement was posted at the top of the TCRR website for three years–gm.
Our heroes Maryam and Faten Ibrahim have been ordered deported to Palestine.
Read our interview with family attorney John Wheat Gibson
Archived Feb. 20, 2010
By Greg Moses
Posted at CounterPunch and
at The Rag Blog with a comment from Brother Jonah
To really understand the day that the Democrats won the national health care bill for America you really needed to be at the Austin Rodeo. Sure, there are days when Rodeo-style patriotism could set your jaw muscles to steel, and there are weeks when what it means to be Texan is a (cough, cough) world-historical embarrassment.
But Sunday afternoon when Charley Pride sang his soaring eagle song from that spinning round stage at the rodeo arena, there wasn’t a heart in the house that wasn’t melted into some life-breathing hope that all of us around that dirt-floored arena had something really deep in common.
No doubt I’ve seen some world-class rodeo shows by George Jones and Willie Nelson in that dusty place. But without subtracting anything from the great native sons, allow me to muse something about the magical and reverent bond that Charley Pride forged with the rodeo audience on Sunday afternoon.
Some of what happened had to do with organic Texas connections. Charley’s band is mostly from Texas; he wore a fat ring gifted to him by Waylon. He remembered out loud how he caught an early career break by singing opening acts for Ernest Tubb and the Texas Troubadours. Charley and Texas are welded together.
And some of Charley Pride’s art has to do with the way he references his skin color at these 99-percent-white gigs. There’s the story he tells about the being named an honorary Norwegian by his fans at the Norsk Hostfest of Minot, North Dakota, an honor he cherishes, “although I haven’t quite made the transition completely” he winks as he holds up the back of one hand and rubs it with an instructive circular motion.
But none of these things would make a diff if it weren’t for the way Charley Pride sings. Much like my first experience with George Jones, there is something you get from the man in person that cannot be recorded. I don’t know why or how that happens, but it’s one reason why you still need a Live Music Capital of the World. Something you know about an artist only after you watch the eyes of the audience twinkle back.
It was the white-haired man in the cowboy hat up in section BB that really broke through for me, the way he carried his six or seven decades with dignity. And the way his lips moved to every word of his favorite Charley Pride song. Good Lord, he musta sung that song a thousand times in honky-tonks and pickup trucks under the Texas big sky, through who knows what heartaches.
The whole experience, as you can see, put me out onto the thin branch of a long limb. But there I was feeling more at home than I usually feel anyway, transfixed in a waking dream of possibility.
With that kind of spiritual preparation I just didn’t have any cynical energy to spend on Sunday night as I watched President Barack Obama take the last few steps to the East Room podium with that little springy step, that slight back-and-forth thing he did with his head, I don’t know, like he was about to treat everyone to an unobstructed slam dunk?
While I’m out on this limb where Charley Pride left me, I don’t for a minute think there will be any alternative to lots of hard work for lots of people for lots of years. I agree with the President when he says nothing was finished Sunday night. But something was started. And now that it has been started, I believe it’s something that we could have not done another hour without.
Like 1932 or 1964, the year 2010 has become a new year for the common life of the American people. And for reasons having nothing to do with Charley Pride, or Barack Obama or even Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, like 1861, this will be a year to decide whether a common life is worth fighting for.
Already, the Texas Governor has issued a midnight statement about how he’s going to lead his state out from under the power of federal “excess” and “overreach.” After everything that happened on Sunday, I don’t think so much about how awfully hard it’s going to be to dissent from the Governor’s leadership in the coming year.
With Pride, Obama, and Clyburn, I’m beginning to see through the eyes of a new eagle. What could be more fun than the really hard work of America, far as the eye can fly?
By Nick Braune
For well over a year, the South Texas Civil Rights Project (STCRP) has been urging the Border Patrol to recognize that its job should include an elemental human concern: the safety of the population during hurricanes or other disasters. There is a simple problem. The Border Patrol, in its eagerness to enforce immigration rules, apparently wants it known that it will be checking IDs to see who is and who is not a citizen, etc., even during emergency evacuations. But if the word is out that the Border Patrol will be checking IDs, many undocumented people and others may simply risk their lives by not evacuating.
The STCRP held another press conference in the Rio Grande Valley this month: On August 7th, an article in the McAllen daily newspaper, The Monitor, covered the story:
“The U.S. Border Patrol has stated it will continue operating its checkpoints in the event of a storm, including the Sarita and Falfurrias checkpoints located on U.S. 77 and U.S. 281, respectively. (U.S. 281 is a designated hurricane evacuation route.) ‘An evacuation doesn’t preclude us from doing our job,’ said John Lopez, local spokesman for the agency. But activists fear such inspections would encourage the Rio Grande Valley’s estimated 150,000 illegal immigrants to ride out a hurricane in their homes to avoid deportation. Many live in unincorporated colonias — areas that are particularly vulnerable to heavy storms due to the lack of adequate infrastructure.”
It was only last summer when terrible damage in Galveston occurred from a hurricane, one which those of us in the Rio Grande Valley thought for a day or so was going to hit here. But if last summer’s big hurricane had hit here instead of a few hundred miles north of us, numbers of undocumented immigrants would not have evacuated. They would have stayed home, afraid of the hassle with the Patrol.
Corinna Spencer-Scheurich, an attorney with STCRP, says it is important for the Border Patrol to keep some distance from exits and shelters during an emergency. “This is about human life, not law enforcement,” she says.
The situation has become even more complicated this year since a new law goes into effect in September making it a crime not to evacuate when a general order has gone out. Spencer-Scheurich is quoted in The Monitor as saying that this is going to make an even tougher situation for the undocumented. “If they evacuate, they could be deported. And if they stay, they could be arrested and then deported.”
Spencer-Scheurich explained in a phone call with this reporter that as far as this issue is concerned there has been no major difference between the Obama administration and the Bush administration. “We got about the same form letter from the Border Patrol this year as we did during the Bush administration. Although we are working case by case, we need a national level policy and we can’t leave important decisions to be made at the last minute.” Spencer-Scheurich emphasized that in an emergency, when people are scrambling to get their bottled water and their batteries and other supplies ready, they can’t wait too long for the Border Patrol to make a decision to be humane. Not only hurricanes present this problem: there have been cases in California of immigrants driving toward dangerous wildfires instead of away from them because the Border Patrol has failed to make the proper public announcement about their enforcement stance during evacuations.
Evacuation emergencies are not the right time to force lines of people to stop and have their IDs checked. Spencer-Scheurich emphasized that everyone has to know ahead of time that an evacuation can be smooth for everyone, hassle free and fast.
By Greg Moses
The office of Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Lufkin) has confirmed that the Congressman drove four hours Friday evening to visit with Albanian asylum seeker Rrustem Neza who is being held by immigration authorities at a federal detention facility in Jena, Louisiana.
Meanwhile, Rrustem Neza has told his brother Xhemal via telephone that he has been released from “the hole” or solitary confinement and returned to the general population at the LaSalle Detention Facility in LaSalle Parish.
Rrustem had previously reported that he was kept in “the hole” from Aug. 5 until Thursday evening, Aug. 20. Xhemal’s third attempt to visit his brother at LaSalle was successful on Thursday evening after Rep. Gohmert personally intervened.
Rep. Gohmert called Xhemal at 2:15 Thursday afternoon to tell him that a visit would be possible that same evening. Xhemal and another brother drove four and a half hours from their Lufkin home to Jena to meet with their brother for an hour and ten minutes.
Xhemal returned from the visit deeply upset over Rrustem’s apparent condition and drove from Lufkin to Dallas Friday morning to swear an affidavit of his impressions. He also called Rep. Gohmert’s office Friday morning to express concern over Rrustem’s condition.
On Friday afternoon, Rep. Gohmert and an aide drove from Lufkin to Jena to visit with Rrustem, arriving at about 7p.m. according to the Congressman’s staff.
The tone of Xhemal’s voice changed considerably in telephone conversations with the Texas Civil Rights Review after hearing about Rep. Gohmert’s personal visit to his brother.
“Mr. Gohmert has saved my brother’s life,” said a relieved Xhemal Neza speaking by cell phone from the family’s restaurant, Joe’s Italian Grill in Lufkin.
Rrustem and Xhemal Neza applied for asylum after they fled from Albania in the wake of a series of political assassinations. Xhemal’s application was approved, but Rrustem’s was denied.
The Neza family has drawn support from their East Texas neighbors who call “a thousand times a day” says Xhemal.
In addition to the support of neighbors and Rep. Gohmert, the Neza family has also drawn editorial support from the Lufkin Daily News which editorialized once again in favor of asylum.
“Keep screaming, Louie,” said the Wednesday editorial. “We believe Neza deserves to continue living and working in East Texas, and we hope ICE will hold off until the Department of Justice and/or 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will take the time to hear his appeal.”
“All we ask is to look at the facts,” said Xhemal before returning to work on Saturday. “My brother is a good man with a lovely wife and two lovely boys.”
MoPress 