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The Texas Civil Rights Review is pleased to publish the following report by Ralph Isenberg concerning Amal and Jasmine Suleiman. The twin girls, who are citizens of the USA, were deported with their parents and older brother following a pre-election immigration raid on their home. For two months, the parents and older brother of the twin girls were held in Texas prisons by federal authorities. Isenberg will be actively seeking the family’s return from Jordan, and the Texas Civil Rights Review will be standing by to help. Please stay tuned.–gm

By Ralph Isenberg

One morning in November of 2006, the lives of Amal and Jasmine Suleiman were changed forever. At the crack of dawn in what can only be described as a SWAT style paramilitary operation, officers from Immigration Customs Enforcement {ICE} stormed the home of the twin sisters. The twins were born in Texas on July 9, 2001.

Suddenly the twins were forced to view automatic weapons being pointed at their parents and brother. Strange men were seen yelling at the top of their lungs. Their otherwise clean home was being messed up by these strangers. Used to their mother dressing them, they did not know what to think when their older brother helped them get dressed. The twins had never seen their parents cry and they had great fear as both father and mother were crying. But nothing prepared them for the sight of seeing their father and brother handcuffed like common criminals.

The twins had no idea as they left their home that morning that they were but a few hours from even more terror. Despite being told by ICE that the family would remain together, the twins were told they could not stay with their parents or brother. Each family member was given a few minutes with the twins to say goodbye before they were ushered out of the holding area. The twins were now screaming at the top of their lungs. They did not want to go.

Their Uncle was kind enough to take the twins into his home. Otherwise the twins would have been placed with Child Protective Services and put in foster care. They were scared and wanted to be with their parents and brother. This did not happen for the next 60 days. When they were united the joy was short as the twins learned they were moving to Jordan. All the twins wanted to do was to go to their home in Arlington, Texas.

The twins were told everything would be OK for them in Jordan. False promises for the twins, because they were citizens of the United States who had grown up and gone to school in an orderly society. The forced separation is still fresh in the minds of the twins. The twins refuse to leave the side of their parents for any reason. This includes going outside to play.

The twins clearly remember the words of ICE telling their parents how if the parents fought deportation the children would be put up for adoption. Mother and Father were kept from one another and ICE told each parent a different story of what the other had said. The duress at this moment of time was unbearable. How does a parent cope with the idea of having to abandon their children? Is there any decent parent that would even contemplate such an idea?

Little children were being used to make sure the policy of the United States Government, whether right or wrong, was carried out. The concept enacted by Congress of “family unity” was being completely ignored. The Suleiman family concluded that the family must remain intact at all costs. No government was going to separate their family.

The United States Government was not concerned with the particulars of this family. All ICE cared about was getting this case closed. In the details lay the horrible truths of what was being done to this family.

This story has been played out thousands of times by ICE. Countless Citizens forced to exile their country of birth because of September 11, 2001. We were a kinder people before that time. We prevent terror from abroad by creating terror from within. Just ask Amal and Jasmine Suleiman.

forwarded by Jay Johnson-Castro

Thursday, Dec 21, 2006
Ramsey County sheriff acts as policy study launched

BY TIM NELSON

Pioneer Press (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN)

The door to the Ramsey County jail is shut for suspected illegal immigrants picked up by federal immigration authorities.

Sheriff Bob Fletcher said Tuesday he would no longer accept “immigration boarders” brought to the St. Paul jail by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Fletcher announced the administrative change the day Ramsey County commissioners launched a policy study on housing detainees.

“I think you’re going in the right direction,” Fletcher told the commissioners.

Several commissioners expressed concern about the appropriateness of holding suspected illegal immigrants in the county jail.

The change of course was prompted by Commissioner Rafael Ortega, of St. Paul , who said he wanted to see the county get out of the business of holding immigration detainees. The 494-bed jail averages 60 such detainees per day and received $2 million from the federal government for doing so last year.

Ortega and others noted that one immigration detainee has been held for more than 400 days in a jail where the average stay is only four days.

“This isn’t going to get any better,” he said of the extended stays in the jail. “It’s only going to get worse. We at least need to have a conscious look at our policies.”

He also said that refusing to accommodate immigration detainees is “a simple issue of social justice.”

“These people are here because we need them,” Ortega said. “They’re part of our economy.”

Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt, of White Bear Lake , agreed and added that responsibility for the appropriate custody of immigration detainees must ultimately fall to federal officials.

“I agree with the philosophical position here,” she said. “We need to send a message some way that they need to do their job.”

The County Board as a whole, though, reacted with caution on the proposal. Some said they hadn’t been aware of Ortega’s plans before Tuesday.

Commissioner Tony Bennett, of Shoreview , said other considerations factor in the decision, noting the detainees won’t be freed just because they are not held in St. Paul . They will be sent elsewhere, said Bennett, a former U.S. marshal.

Commissioner Jim McDonough, of St. Paul , said routing people elsewhere might make matters worse for detainees.

“Are we actually doing more harm to people who are already in a tough situation … separating them further from their families?” McDonough said.

He also advised caution on taking the initiative in matters involving the jail.

“At what point are we going to say we have a problem with this law, and we’re not going to accept people arrested for it,” McDonough said. He noted that the county surely will jail some protesters during the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul — a largely Democratic city in a largely Democratic county.

The matter hasn’t yet become an issue in other local facilities that might house detainees for immigration authorities, though few are in the same position as Ramsey County .

• Washington and Dakota county jail authorities say their facilities are already full of local inmates and can’t accommodate any other jurisdictions.

• Sherburne County has a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was holding 168 of the agency’s detainees Tuesday, according to Sheriff Bob Anderson.

• Carver County doesn’t have a formal contract with immigration authorities, but it has agreed to hold detainees on an as-available basis, according to Sheriff Bud Olson.

• Anoka County jail Capt. Dave Pacholl said his facility didn’t take immigration detainees for practical reasons, citing the language and translation demands immigrants put on jail staff.

Fletcher told Ramsey County commissioners that detainees in his jail come from dozens of countries and speak 12 languages that require more attention from staff. He has also cited the safety risk of housing nonviolent immigration offenders on a long-term basis with suspected “murderers, serious weapons offenders and rapists.”

Although illegal immigration is a hotly debated issue, public presence at Tuesday’s discussion was small. Deborah Rosenstein, a program coordinator with the Labor Education Service at the University of Minnesota and a St. Paul resident, later expressed her support for the board’s consideration.

“To me, this is a humanitarian issue,” she said. “It is absolutely horrible what happened in the Worthington raids (on a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant). We have a crisis here, and I am glad to be a part of a community that’s addressing it.”

Commissioners, though, only directed county administrators to study the potential impact of turning away detainees in the custody of immigration authorities.

Fletcher thought it could be as much as $800,000 next year. Commissioners are expecting initial results sometime next month.

Nancy Yang and Frederick Melo contributed to this report. Tim Nelson can be reached at tnelson@pioneerpress.com or 651-292-1159.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/16278295.htm

“To me, this is a humanitarian issue. It is absolutely horrible what happened in the Worthington raids (on a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant). We have a crisis here, and I am glad to be a part of a community that’s addressing it.”

Deborah Rosenstein, program coordinator with the Labor Education Service at the University of Minnesota …

from Jay Johnson-Castro (Dec. 23 pm)

Afternoon y’all…

The media has played a great role in getting this truth out to our fellow Texans and Fellow Americans. This is an appeal to you of the media…

Regarding this vigil, I received this caution from someone who knows more about the inside of the Hutto prison camp than most of us.

I would be careful though, because I heard that as a result of the last vigil, the detainees were kind of in lock-down most of the day. They didn’t get to go outside that day. So I would be careful, because you wouldn’t want ICE to get upset and take it out on the detainees. Just a heads-up.

I appeal to the media to help people know what happened last week as mentioned here. The media has a great opportunity to inform the public about what is really going on. By doing so…perhaps the children and their moms will not be mistreated this way tomorrow evening.
Here is the latest great link…and networking together of two local media folks to bring transparency to this cruelty right here on Texas , American soil. Greg Moses, editor of The Texas Civil Rights Review has consistently been right on top of this. http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/index.php

Gratefully the Austin American Statesman, Fox news, Univision, BBC and even the Taylor and Williamson County newspapers have shown journalistic leadership in weighing in on the prison camp that has incarcerated innocent children and helpless mothers behind razor wire walls. I keep asking myself…where is the outrage from the other big(s)?

Where’s CNN…and all the national networks? Where is Houston , Dallas , San Antonio ? Is this too insignificant of a story for them. Where’s USA Today, NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post? Where’s Lou Dobbs and Bill O’Riley, Jack McCaferty, Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer? What does it take for these folks to weigh in? Do the children and their moms in this prison camp have to somehow be tortured too before they respond? Or are they too deep into Chertoff & Company for their national ratings? Let’s hope not!

Meanwhile…my deepest respect and admiration to all the media that has had the courage to report this issue of incarcerating children in the Hutto prison camp. Until this garners the national and international media…much credit goes to the local and grassroots media…and the many blogs that have picked up on this heartbreaking story. You are perpetuating the truth and exposing the immoral and criminal actions of those who would exploit and abuse the weak…for obscene profits…all in the name of national security. When history is written about this expanding Texas-American Gulag for greedy profit system…you of the media who have already courageously weighed in…will be recognized. The internet has the reporting time-line all archived.

Keith Olbermann? Where are you? You’re not afraid to say it like it is?

The Christmas Eve Vigil goes on tomorrow evening. 5pm-6pm.

Jay

The following email from Ralph Isenberg is a dawn musing on the frustration of trying to visualize justice for the Suleiman family. The email references Isenberg’s spouse, Nicole, and New York attorneys Ted Cox and Joshua Bardavid. He also discusses a draft testimonial from the teenage youth Ayman Suleiman recounting his experiences of arrest, imprisonment, and deportation. A response to the email from Ayman’s father, Adel Suleiman in Jordan follows.–gm

The Suleiman Family and the Law

Hi Guys,

5:30 am here in Dallas and I woke up thinking about the Suleiman Family. I understand all the reasons why they (father, mother and son) can not come back to the United States. What I do not understand are why we can not prosecute the reasons why they can come back to the United States. Allow me to humor you guys. Law to me has always been based on two simple premises; common sense and right and wrong. Common sense screams at us that the right thing to do is to bring the entire family home. How we do that is the more interesting question.

I believe that while our current policies may have changed the laws of Congress still promotes family unity, humanitarian concern and of the public interest. I submit the Suleiman Family falls into all of these major areas of concern. It is my understanding of law that the laws of Congress rule over policies enacted to enforce the law; thus we have one tier of our court system. But it does not stop there.

We also have Constitutional law which is not exclusive to citizens. The main area of concern here is the doctrine of “due process.” It is further my understanding that Constitutional law rules over the laws of Congress. Here also the Suleiman Family has claim to relief. I believe the fact that the Suleiman Family was forced from this country by duress is a clear violation of due process. I also believe that past attorney error was also a violation of the due process doctrine. These concepts and other doctrines of fairness need to be bottled up and prosecuted. We may be on new turf but it would be wrong to the family not to try.

Think outside of the box with me. When Nicole and I got on that plane to China many thought we would never be back or it would take years at best. We were back in fourteen months. Ted, do you recall those fourteen months. How many times did you give me hope where there was none. Josh, you were lucky and did not know me then or you would have learned how to speak Chinese like Ted.

Every time I got hit with bad news I made something potentially good happen. In the end I believe it was my brief work that I presented to the Department of State that led to our freedom. The law was in need of a simple explanation. In the case of the Suleiman Family I believe we need to start in Federal District Court and go form there. I also believe that we are on solid ground to enlist the assistance of the FBI as it relates to human rights violations by those directly and indirectly connected with ICE here in Dallas. What we did to this family was clearly illegal and those that violated the law need to pay.

An example of “out of the box thinking:” Can we not file suit in whatever circuit the family might intend to live in? Put differently, if the family says they are going to live in Queens, file the actions in Queens, I say this because they are in deed out of the United States right now and I’m not sure the Fifth Circuit has any more jurisdiction over them than say the Second or Third.

I know you guys have read the story written by the father and the one written by the son. I know you have also read the events that the twins were exposed to. I think of my children and how I would feel if these actions were happening to me. To some extent they did and thus I am very dedicated to helping people. We may not have a leg to stand on but a leg we will in fact stand on. In so doing we let the Suleiman Family know that they are not alone and we care.

Guys, I appreciate you very much and look forward to once again doing battle with you. Ours is the higher ground to stand on.

************

Dear Mr.I,

I just read your statement Suleiman family and the law. I don’t know but i just felt the need to write you back. first i do appreciate what you are doing , but I’m sure you don’t need our thanks you need more than that because i used to feel the same way when i used to help somebody. helping others it’s spiritual message, only special people and chosen people get that message and carry it out.

i just would like to let you know that me and my family are in the bottom of the well in spite of all the darkness we see in front of us, yet we keep our heads up and we see birds of freedom flying over the well and you are one of them, matter of fact you are the only one… what ever happens , what ever the result you’ll be in my and my family’s prayers……

Adel S.