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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

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Border Ambassador

Connecting the dots…Making a difference

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.

Del Rio, Texas , USA
Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila , Mexico

jay@villadelrio.com

http://www.villadelrio.com

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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.

Ahmad Ibrahim faxed the following letter to the White House yesterday in hand-written form. This morning, over the telephone, he read the letter to the Texas Civil Rights Review:

Dear Mrs. Bush,

Hello. A Palestinian mother and four children are in jail in Taylor, Texas for two months at Hutto detention center (215) 218-2400.

The mother and 5-year-old child are held in the same cell. They count them four times a day. The mother tells me it’s the most demeaning thing to be lined up with your children and counted. The children are ages 5, 7, 12, and 15.
The immigration came and arrested the whole family on Nov. 2, 2006, and they have been in jail until now. Their lawyer said they are here legally. They came to America on a 5-years visiting visa, issued from the American embassy in Jerusalem, and they filed an asylum case which is still pending.

And the husband [my brother] has a work permit, and he is held now in another jail in Haskell, Texas. The man in charge of the jailing of the children is Marc Moore (210) 967-7175.

I hope this letter will reach you. (Names and ages of family members in jail.) One child is with me, because she is born in America [not in jail].

This is a terrible time for our family, and I hope you can help the children be out of the jail and in the school where they belong, and in the playground.

Sincerely,
Ahmad Ibrahim

World Responds to Family’s Jailing Despite Media Silence
The Continuing Story of Ibrahim’s Faith in America

By Greg Moses

CounterPunch / ElectronicIntifada / DissidentVoice

After a hectic day of child care and phone calls, Ahmad Ibrahim decided not to attempt a San Antonio protest Friday.

“I am very thankful for the support,” said Ibrahim in a late-night email Thursday. “And I hope when this nightmare is over, the Hutto women’s and children jail in Taylor, Texas will be shut down forever.”

The T. Don Hutto jail is where Ibrahim’s three neices, nephew, and pregnant sister-in-law have been held for alleged immigration violations since early November. Ibrahim’s brother was separated from the rest of the family and placed at a jail in Haskell, Texas.
Ibrahim had planned to protest the jailings in front of offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The protest has been tentatively rescheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 2 at 10:30 a.m.

In other developments Thursday, Dallas attorney John Wheat Gibson announced via email that he had received official notice from ICE that clemency for two jailed families had been denied:

“Today we received written notice from Marc J. Moore, Field Office Director in charge of the T. Don Hutto concentration camp for children at Taylor, Texas, that our requests for clemency on behalf of the Ibrahim family and the Suleiman family have been DENIED. Nothing remains but habeas corpus based on local and international legal limitations on child abuse, kidnapping, and imprisonment. A well publicized suit in the Interamerican Court of Human Rights would be useful.

“I called Marc J. Moore today, but he refused to accept my call. His secretary said he would call later, but he has not done so and I do not think he will. Also, I am certain it would make no difference if he did. If somebody with money does not get involved in these cases, then they are at a dead end.”

In an email earlier in the day to concerned supporters, attorney Gibson wrote about the need for political and media support:

“We need demonstrators outside Marc J. Moore’s office every day and all the media exposure possible, with spokespersons denouncing the terror instead of clucking the tongue.”

According to Gibson and Ibrahim, the family came to the USA from Palestine, using Jordanian passports, with 5-year visas issued by the American embassy in Jerusalem. The family is pursuing asylum, but has been subjected to an order of deportation by ICE.

To date, the story of the families’ detention has not been reported by anyone other than the Texas Civil Rights Review, although our reports have been circulated around the world by blogs such as Latina Lista and activist websites such as CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, Electronic Intifada, IndyMedia, Infowars, and Uruknet.

As a result of the story’s popularity on the internet Thursday, Ibrahim received messages and calls of support that kept him busy for many hours.

Especially significant for Ibrahim was an offer of support from Rita Zawaideh, Chair of the Seattle-based Arab American Community Coalition (AACC). Zawaideh and the AACC have been active in anti-Arab discrimination issues since Sept. 11, 2001.

“Unfortunately, discrimination against Arab and Muslim Americans has only just begun with the need for a civil rights organization dedicated to and focused on the Arab and Muslim communities strong,” says the AACC website. “The Arab American Community Coalition is going to be around for quite some time.”

The Muslim community is preparing for a major religious holiday, Eid ul-Adha, that will run from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2. Wikipedia describes the holiday as “a commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismael for Allah”–a story that is also of great significance for Jewish and Christian believers, too. In the end, Ibrahim’s hand was stopped by God, but the prophet’s willingness to sacrifice his only son at God’s command is a very influential instruction about faith in the Abrahamic [or Ibrahimic] traditions.

As for Ahmad Ibrahim, besides being overwhelmed with child care, phone calls, and bad news, one other thing he pondered on Thursday was the effect of waiting until after the holiday season to stage a symbolic protest against the two-month-long jailing of three nieces, a nephew, brother, and pregnant sister-in-law.

An official with ICE in San Antonio also advised Ibrahim that the Homeland Security offices were located on private property where protesters might be subject to arrest.

As foster parent to a 3-year-old niece who was born in the USA, and as an American citizen who hasn’t participated in protest activity, the mention of possible arrest on Homeland Security premises for the crime of holding a sign may have played a part in Ibrahim’s decision to postpone the event.

Whatever the effect on Ibrahim may have been, the thought of Homeland Security officials passing along such “advice” about arrests is a discomforting reminder to us all of the climate we seem to be sharing in the USA, where Homeland Security’s privatized offices serve as auxiliaries to the power of their privatized jails for children and pregnant mothers.

At any rate, we join issue with Ibrahim when he calls Homeland Security officials “criminals” for their treatment of his family, and we don’t mind if Homeland Security calls our well-chosen words “obscenities” as they did on Thursday when Ibrahim used them.

If there is an obscenity here, it will be found in the indelible memory of a Bible-thumping American culture that took a woman from the Holy Lands who was pregnant with a boy and instead of granting her amnesty from her torn-up homeland locked her and her family in jail during the Christmas holidays without even a single mention of the story being printed or broadcast through the usual media channels to an audience of self-proclaiming Christian conscience.

There is an America that Ibrahim loves. In the New Year we resolve to live there with him.

In reply to a question about the status of the legal battle to win the freedom of the Ibrahim and Suleiman families, Dallas attorney John Wheat Gibson sent the following email on Dec. 29:

I cannot “set aside” these cases, because I am too disgusted by the U.S. government’s brutality and cynicism, but I am at an impasse. First we filed and followed up with telephone calls for administrative
remedies. The filing fees were substantial. Now the administrative agencies have told us to go hang.

It is clear what the next step has to be, but I cannot take it because it is such a large one. The next step is a suit for habeas corpus and other relief invoking constitutional and international law protections for
children, and for the diabetic father. You do not file federal suits unless you are ready for a long and nasty battle.
If I file suit in the Oklahoma and Texas district courts, I will have to concentrate more time and money on them than I have or can make available. There is no point in my filing the suits–taking the next step–if I will be
unable to complete them. I doubt anyone else can litigate them as competently as I can, but that does not mean somebody else could not do a good job.

I already have put a huge amount of free work into these cases because what the government is doing is unconscionable, and I am willing to continue at half my usual fee or less, but I am at the end of my financial
string. It will do nobody any good, except the DHS, if I go bust and have to abandon the suit anyway.

The gist of it is, the next step is a big one and requires somebody with resources to take it. If the resources come my way, I am eager to fight. If somebody else who already has the resources wants to pick up the
fight, sign and file the pleadings, research the domestic and international case law, glean the evidence, conduct discovery, and travel to the hearings, I am ready to help that lawyer however I can. But nothing would be worse than doing a half-assed job or being unable to finish the litigation once it is begun, regardless of who the lawyer is.

John Wheat Gibson, P.C.