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We’re getting some viistors from LiveJournal, which is cool, because they put stuff up like this –>.

“We hope to have a delegation of volunteers to visit Hutto in the very near future,” says Megan H. Mack, Associate Director of the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Immigration (see flyer pasted below).

Mack expressed the hope in a Jan. 17 email forwarded by Jay J. Johnson-Castro.

Although the results of the ABA visit to the T. Don Hutto prison camp for immigrants will be confidentially reported to Immigration and Customs Enfocement (ICE), Johnson-Castro said it will serve notice “that Chertoff & the ICE Company will not forever conduct such immoral and criminal acts in secret.”

In other immigration activism news, Farmers Branch– the Texas city that has passed ordinances naming English the official language and tightening citizenship restrictions on housing–will be getting attention from activists soon. In an updated schedule for a border caravan planned for early February, Johnson-Castro and fellow organizers added a Valentine’s Day stop in Farmers Branch.

Also the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is one group calling for a major march at Farmers Branch on April Fools Day.

Voters in Farmers Branch will be asked to vote on the citizenship-for-housing ordinance on May 12. The law was to go into effect Jan. 12, but has been restrained by court order. The English language resolution was passed during Nov. 2006. *****
flyer from ABA

THE DETENTION STANDARDS IMPLEMENTATION INITIATIVE

WE NEED YOU TO HELP MAKE THIS INITIATIVE A SUCCESS!

The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Commission on Immigration has undertaken the Detention
Standards Implementation Initiative (Initiative). The Initiative is an innovative national effort by the
organized bar to contribute to the consistent implementation of the Standards which govern legal access issues at all Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE – formerly the Immigration and
Naturalization Service or INS) detention facilities and other facilities detaining immigrants and asylum
seekers. Under the auspices of the Commission on Immigration, Initiative participants will visit and
tour facilities and produce an official report for the ABA to share with ICE, specifically looking at the
implementation of the four legal access standards.

As a result of 1996 immigration law amendments that mandated the detention of certain immigrants
and asylum seekers, ICE now detains more than 200,000 people annually at over 300 sites, the majority of which are county and local jails. Immigration detainees are the fastest growing group of people incarcerated in the United States. In 2006 ICE will receive $3.7 billion for immigration law
enforcement, including detention and removal. The Detention Standards are the result of negotiations
between the ABA, the Department of Justice, the former INS, and other organizations involved in pro
bono representation and advocacy for immigration detainees. The Standards, which took effect in
January 2001, are comprehensive and encompass a range of issues including access to legal services and
materials. The four legal access standards concern visitation, access to legal materials, telephone access,
and group presentations on legal rights.

As a key stakeholder in developing the Standards, the ABA is committed to their full and effective
implementation. In a spirit of cooperation and collaboration with ICE, the ABA’s Commission on
Immigration has launched this special Initiative to visit, tour, and report on observations of the facilities
across the country with a special focus on the four legal access standards. The organized bar is in a
unique position to contribute to ICE’s implementation of the Standards at facilities nationwide.

The ABA’s Commission on Immigration is recruiting lawyers, law firms, and bar associations to
participate on a pro bono basis in special delegations to tour and report on various detention facilities’
implementation of the Standards, with an emphasis on the four legal access standards. Delegation
leaders will be responsible for organizing a team of up to six volunteers for a facility visit and tour;
researching the local detention situation; visiting the detention center; and producing a report on the
delegation’s observations for the ABA for advocacy purposes. The ABA will report back to the
delegation on ICE’s response for appropriate follow-up.

Through participation in the Detention Standards Implementation Initiative, the organized bar and
attorneys can help facilitate access to counsel and fair treatment for detained immigrants and asylum
seekers.

If you, your firm, or your bar association is interested in participating in this Initiative

Please contact Megan Mack at
202-662-1006 or mackm@staff.abanet.org
American Bar Association
Commission on Immigration
740 15th Street NW, 9th Floor, Washington, DC 20005

Statement delivered by Jane Van Praag to County Commissioners Court, Jan. 23, 2007. Also, see Daniel K. Lai’s report on the meeting for the Taylor Daily Press.

We understand that the contract between Williamson County and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is up for renewal on January 31.

I am here to express my opposition to the renewal of this contract.
It is a moral wrong to imprison children. It is morally wrong to imprison whole families with children without exhausting all the alternatives, which would allow families to stay together while ensuring immigrants attend their immigration hearing.

Even Congress, when appropriating the money for this facility, stated: “The Committee expects DHS to release families or use alternatives to detention such as the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program whenever possible.” (House Report 109-079 – DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS BILL, 2006).

I urge the Commissioners’ Court to hold ICE accountable and request that ICE prove it is complying with what Congress intended. We need to know if ICE has exhausted all of the alternatives to detaining these children and families before you renew this contract.

There is only so much that can be done to the T. Don Hutto facility to make it more humane. At some point it becomes clear that it’s still a prison, with bars on the doors, where people are not free to go where they choose, and where children can only go outside at an assigned time.

That is why I am asking you to invite ICE to explain in a public and transparent way why the alternatives to imprisoning families in this way are not being used, before you renew this contract for another year.

If ICE needs more time than is available before the contract with CCA expires, I encourage you to extend the CCA contract for an additional 120 days only and give notice that you intend to terminate the contract with ICE unless ICE publicly explains what alternatives to prison they have tried and why they are not able to implement any of the alternatives to imprisonment.

The voters of Williamson County deserve to know that the federal facilities in their county are operated consistent with what Congress intended.

Note: Jay Johnson-Castro has highlighted certain passages from the following article. He asks us to bring this to the attention of our readers.–gm

By Steve Taylor
Riio Grande Guardian

AUSTIN – A lawmaker from north Texas has filed legislation that would allow the Texas Board of Criminal Justice to contract with private vendors to build and run prisons in Mexico.

SB 185, authored by Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls , would allow the TBCJ to waive any legal requirements that would be inapplicable in Mexico.

Estes told the Guardian that the prisons would only house non-violent Mexican nationals serving time in Texas ’s correctional facilities.

“The prisons would be built to Texas standards but we could save money on both the construction costs and the staffing costs,” Estes said.

“I think the country of Mexico could look at it as economic development. It is very humane for the prisoners because they are going to be closer to their families and they would be in a Spanish-speaking environment.”
Estes said he came up with idea after hearing that the state of Arizona was studying a similar idea. He filed similar legislation late in the 79th Legislature but did not get a hearing.

Estes’s proposal was supposed to be studied in the interim by the Senate Criminal Justice committee but the panel, chaired by Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, had to cancel one of its hearings and no testimony was ever taken.

According to the TBCJ, around 10,000 of the 153,000 inmates in Texas prisons are foreign nationals. Of these 10,000 around 75 percent are Mexican nationals. Estes said his office was still researching how many of the Mexican nationals currently locked up are classified as non-violent.

“I think this is an idea worth studying,” Estes added. “We are always looking for ways, if we do build more prisons, to make sure the costs are kept low for the taxpayers.”