The brother of a jailed Palestinian man whose children and pregnant wife are being held in a Texas jail says he will stage a small protest with his 3-year-old niece Friday morning outside the San Antonio offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at 8940 Fourwinds Dr.
[Editor’s Note: date and time changes have been made to the story below–gm]
Note: there are several resources archived at this site regarding the plight of three Texas families of Palestinian heritage who were abducted and imprisoned in early November. This morning we received the latest information from an attorney for two of the families, the Suleimans and Ibrahims.–gm
email from John Wheat Gibson (Jan. 13, 2007)
Mr. Suleiman told me he cannot stand any more and wants right away to be deported to Jordan. He has been in solitary confinement since December 20,
(yesterday, when I finally found him and telephoned him, he said was the first time in 24 days he was allowed out of his 8×5 foot cell) apparently to
punish him for telling me on the telephone about conditions in the Garvin County, Oklahoma Jail. [Mr. Suleiman was moved to the Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Jail, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and that is where attorney Gibson found him.]
Ayman, the son, having grown up in Texas, being
a high school senior, does not want to go. Apparently the BICE [Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement] now has the travel documents from Jordan it needed to deport the Suleimans, and is making airline arrangements. Because Mr. Suleiman asked me not to, I have not pressed the BIA [Board of Immigration Appeals] to grant the motion to stay deportation that I filed for him last year. The BIA will dismiss it as moot after the deportation.
The Ibrahims almost surely will not be deported. They cannot be deported to Jordan because Jordan refuses to cooperate with the BICE. They cannot legally be deported through Israel, although in the past Israel has assisted the BICE illegally to deport people to the Occupied Territories.
Considering how hard Israel has been trying in the past couple of years to finish the ethnic cleansing of the Palesinians in the Occupied Territories, I do not see why Tel Aviv would help BICE send the Ibrahims back to Palestine, unless they just want to make sure they can kill them.
In any event, there remains not even a pretense of legality in the continuing incarceration of the Ibrahims. The BICE officers will review their detention after 90 days (I calculate February 1) but, because they work
for the sadistic racist Chertoff, will almost surely refuse to release them.
After 180 days, they must be released pursuant to the US Supreme Court decision in the Zadvydas case, but since the monarchists have packed the courts, there is a chance the BICE (executive branch) will fight to
keep them in jail anyway. Still, I intend to file the Zadvydas habeas corpus petition after 180 days, since it is a straightforward legal argument based on established law, and I can base the pleadings on pleadings that I have filed previously with good results….
A more serious challenge to the detention of children
generally, however, must be filed by somebody like the ACLU, who has the resources to do it right and see it through to the end. At this juncture, it is more than I can manage, since if I undertook it I would find myself
practicing law out of a shopping cart under a bridge.
I do appreciate your disseminating my letter to [Austin American-Statesman Reporter Juan] Castillo. I think it aroused the interest of many folks, and it appears the bureaucrats are receiving lots of e-mails, letters, and phone calls as a result. There is a lot of media interest, including San Antonio Express, Houston
Chronicle, and nationally In These Times and New American Media. Of course, the San Antonio Express and Houston Chronicle reporters assume these children
must be terrorists, since the king can do no wrong.
John Wheat Gibson, P.C.
By Greg Moses
CounterPunch / ElectronicIntifada / IndyMedia Austin, NorthTexas / InternationalMiddleEastMediaCenterNews
The brother of a jailed Palestinian man whose children and pregnant wife are being held in a Texas jail says he will stage a small protest with his 3-year-old niece Friday morning outside the San Antonio offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at 8940 Fourwinds Dr.
“I am an American citizen, and I know what America is made of,” said Ahmad Ibrahim, speaking by telephone Wednesday afternoon. “America is made of good people.”
Ibrahim will take the family’s case to the streets, asking for release of his niece’s three sisters, teenage brother, and pregnant mother–all of whom have been held in jail since their midnight arrests on Nov. 3.
Marc Jeffrey Moore, San Antonio field office director of the Detention and Removal Office for ICE, referred all questions from the Texas Civil Rights Review to the ICE public affairs office, which has not yet returned our call.
Ibrahim said he had just heard from Moore’s office Wednesday afternoon that applications to renew the family’s passports from Jordan had been denied, and they would have to wait another month in jail while ICE contacted the Israeli embassy.
Ibrahim was skeptical that Israel would be forthcoming with the needed travel approvals, and anyway, he said, it would be dangerous for his brother’s family to present Israeli travel papers as their documents for re-entry to Palestine.
“Either deport them, or fix their status,” said Ibrahim. Either way, he says, they should not be in jail.
“We are not poor. We have family, a home, and money.” Ibrahim said that he and his family in Palestine would do whatever is needed to take care of the jailed family as soon as they are released.
“We will meet them at the airport terminal with tickets, if that’s what it takes,” he said.
Ibrahim says he was with his brother some 18 months ago when an immigration lawyer called to apologize for missing a filing deadline regarding the family’s asylum. And he says a ruling on the case is still pending.
The brother, Salaheddin Ibrahim, was separated from his family, and is being held at another jail.
Ahmad Ibrahim says his 5-year-old niece shares her cell with her pregnant mother, Hanan Ahmad, while the 7- and 12-year-old girls share a cell with each other. The 15-year-old boy is in a third cell. All of them are incarcerated at the T. Don Hutto jail in Taylor, Texas.
Ibrahim says the 5-year-old gets into trouble with guards during population counts that are taken four times daily. She is supposed to sit still for the counts, but she doesn’t.
“She is a very active child,” explains Ibrahim. He says reprimands from the guards sometimes bring the little girl to tears.
One chilly morning, says Ibrahim, the girl wrapped a blanket around her as she walked out of her cell, but a guard told her that the blanket didn’t belong to her.
“It’s my blanket!” answered the little girl.
The 7-year-old has also been upset to the point of tears, because she cannot sleep in the same cell with her mother. At 10:00 p.m. the 7-year-old is ordered to the cell she shares with her 12-year-old sister.
Showers for the women are provided every morning at 5:30, but at least on one occasion, says Ibrahim, the pregnant mother was feeling sick and tired, so she asked not to go. A guard reportedly threatened the mother with disciplinary action that would include separating her from the 5-year-old, so the mother took the shower as ordered.
With four girls and one boy already in the family, Ibrahim said that his brother paid a fertility expert $7,000 to ensure that a boy would be born this time, so they are “99 percent” sure that the next child will be a boy.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim holds a letter of suspension for the 15-year-old boy, who has missed too many days of school. Except for the 3-year-old, all the other children were attending schools before they were jailed by ICE.
“He’s holding the whole thing together,” says Ibrahim of the 15-year-old. “He calls me every day.”
Ibrahim says he is composing a letter to First Lady Laura Bush.
“This is a small immigration violation, and an attorney could fix this easily,” he says. “They are not a threat to society.”
Plus, he says, it would be cheaper for the government if the family were allowed to live outside the jail. A report in the Sunday Sun of Williamson County said ICE is paying $95 per day per inmate for imprisonment services provided by Corrections Corporation of America at the Hutto jail–a cost of $14,000 per month for the five family members held there.
“I have never myself heard of anywhere in the world where this kind of thing happens,” said Ibrahim. “Jailing a mother with her children is very demeaning.”
Ibrahim’s protest will be the fourth in two weeks related to the Hutto jail. On December 14, South Texas businessman Jay Johnson-Castro began a 35-mile walk to the jail from the Texas Capitol. On December 16, Johnson-Castro joined a vigil at the jail sponsored by Texans United for Families. On Christmas Eve, Flamenco artists Teye and Belen performed for a dedicated group of protesters in inclement weather.
All three actions have received some coverage from corporate media, but the story of Palestinian families has yet to be mentioned in that coverage. Stories and editorials usually assume that the jail is filled with detainees who entered the country “illegally.” At least two Palestinian families being held at Hutto jail entered the USA legally with visas, says their attorney, but they have run into legal difficulties securing asylum. In both cases, the men have been separated into different jails from the women and children at Hutto.
“Don’t forget that being a Palestinian in this period of history is truly being the weakest of the weak,” adds Ibrahim. “Since you don’t even have a country, like 99.9 percent of the whole earth, to ask about you, or to defend you, or help you with your basic needs.
“And people such as Marc Jeffery Moore–instead of going after the terrorists and the criminals–he is going after some children and mothers, not caring about the image of our great America.”
email from Jay Johnson-Castro, Jan. 14, 2007
Afternoon amigos…
I’m pleased to share the following informative update about the Hutto prison camp with you [copied below.] Rebecca Berhhardt, attorney for the ACLU, sent the following update…so that I can share it with y’all. Rebecca is also a founding member of Texans United For Families (TUFF)…the coalition of organizations that held the first vigil in front of the Hutto prison camp on December 16, 2006 after my Capitol to Hutto walk.
As she describes…we’ve had “some success” already. Our walk and vigils…and the media attention that we generated has resulted in some changes of conditions.
As Rebecca also indicates…we still have much “further to go”. Our mission is to not only shut down such an anti-American facility…but also to shut down the morally bankrupt mentality that thinks that something like the imprisoning of helpless women and innocent children is acceptable on American soil…let alone in the great State of Texas. Let alone FOR PROFIT.
Please remember that in a month…mid February…we will be holding a third vigil in front of the Hutto prison camp. The Hutto prison camp is located in Taylor, TX …just 35 miles northeast of [Austin] Texas . Marcha Migrante II’s Border Caravan will travel from San Diego to Brownsville …and then up to Hutto to hold the vigil. By then…the whole world will know about this travesty that is being committed by ICE… in the name of “national security”…that our country works with private profiteers to incarcerate children from 2-y-o on up.
We’ll be updating you on the details of the Border Caravan’s arrival at Hutto. Come join us if you can.
Hasta entonces…
Jay
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Border Ambassador
Connecting the dots…Making a difference
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.
Del Rio, Texas , USA
Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila , Mexico
jay@villadelrio.com
********************
From: Rebecca Bernhardt
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 5:41 PM
To: Jay J. Johnson
Subject: Here’s my update
January 13, 2007 Hutto Update
Some Success, But Further To Go
Many of you have probably heard that since the protests held in December, the Williamson County Commissioners toured the T. Don Hutto Facility and certified as humane and decent. What you probably haven’t heard is that, probably as a result of the protests and related media attention, the conditions in the facility have changed. We know that the education, in particular, has received a major overhaul, and children are now receiving four hours of education a day, instead of just one hour. We also know that at least some of the detainees are reporting that the food has improved, at least a little bit.
The facility is planning a media tour in the not so distant future. If you have any media contacts who would be interested in this information, please make sure they inquire. We can anticipate the facility putting its best foot forward for the visit and it’s unlikely any of the reporters will be permitted to talk to detainees during their tour.
Texans United for Families (TUF) continue to work to coordinate with the Taylor community members we met as a result of the first protest, and are considering future activities that will also take advantage of the growing interest in closing the facility in communities in Dallas, Houston, and elsewhere.
The ACLU of Texas has also drafted a proposed resolution, for the Texas Legislature, that asks the Department of Homeland Security to exhaust all less punitive options before ever resorting to detaining families. We are very hopeful that this resolution will receive sponsorship and be filed as a proposed resolution with the legislature soon.
We anticipate being able to talk about new national and local updates soon.
MoPress 