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Email from Joshua E. Bardavid, Esq.

Hi Greg — Once again, you are exactly on point in your posting “Ibrahim Asylum Miracle Makes World News, But Don’t Forget the Others.” What was achieved in this case was an individual victory. It is a long-overdue provision of justice to the Ibrahims. But we should not allow it to be a systemic defeat.

Most people I have talked to in the past 12 hours
agree that, by releasing the Ibrahims, the authorities hope to turn off the glare that has been focused on the CCA owned Hutto facility and ICE’s detention policies in general. Lest we forget, the Ibrahims have
walked out of a facility today in which many unnamed children remain.

In this regard, I also want to acknowledge the efforts of the Arab American Community Coalition of Seattle, Washington, who spearheaded the efforts to bring attention to this case, and continue to raise awareness of ICE’s detention policies around the country.

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you need help in the future. Thanks, and as I said before, keep shining the light!

-Josh

By Greg Moses

ElectronicIntifada / CounterPunch / UrukNet / DissidentVoice

For three painful months while his brother’s family was imprisoned by USA immigration authorities, Ahmad Ibrahim, a United States citizen of Palestinian heritage, kept his faith that “the people of America are good people.”

But Ahmad did not know that the one good American who would finally orchestrate the dramatic release of the family had himself been exiled by USA immigration authorities to China. So Ahmad’s faith in America had to hold strong from the beginning of November through the sacred Eid ul-Adha season of early January, until the exiled American could return.

On January 8, when Dallas real-estate developer Ralph Isenberg came home from China with his wife and infant daughter, the wheels of the Ibrahim family release were soon to roll.

On or about January 10, New York immigration attorney Theodore Cox sent Isenberg an email, asking if he’d heard about children imprisoned by the federal bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“Essentially, I’d had my run-in with immigration,” explained Isenberg over the telephone Friday night. “My wife had been detained at the immigration prison in Haskell, Texas, deported with our 3-month-old daughter to China, and I had to leave my adopted 16-year-old daughter in America in order to live with them and fight for their re-entry.” That fight lasted 14 months. “So I knew how lovely ICE could be.”

Following up on the email from Cox, Isenberg says he “looked at pictures of the kids in prison, found out it was in Texas, and I just went berserk. You do not imprison kids in Texas, the U.S., or anywhere. No, no, no, no, no. Goodness gracious, kids in prison? Give me a break!”

As a big-city real-estate developer, Isenberg knew the difference between wishing and doing, so he got busy grinding out results. By Jan. 26, Ahmad Ibrahim had a brand new friend and two new lawyers. How could anyone know that because of these things, release of his brother’s family was only one week away?

This past Thursday, Feb. 1, attorney Cox and his colleague Joshua Bardavid filed habeas corpus motions in federal courts of Dallas and Austin, stating shocking facts about the treatment of mother Hanan Ibrahim and her four children. The children sobbed uncontrollably at times. Hanan had been denied pre-natal vitamins for her pregnancy. Trips to the doctor were 8-hour ordeals during which the children back at jail fretted and cried. Hanan was placed in shackles for medical transport. She was torn between her children and her health care.

When Cox and Bardavid walked into the federal court building in Dallas, accompanied by Ahmad Ibrahim and his tiny niece Zahra–who had been separated from her family and placed into her uncle’s care–they were greeted by a half-dozen television cameras, a lobby full of reporters, and a phalanx of federal marshals. Whatever went on next between the legal professionals in those closely-guarded chambers of the Dallas federal court changed everything very quickly. Freedom for the Ibrahim family was only 48 hours away.

On Friday afternoon, Dallas attorney John Wheat Gibson sent out a jubilant email titled “Amazing Grace.” The Bureau of Immigration Appeals (BIA) had caved overnight. Suddenly, after years and months of denying Gibson’s pleas in behalf of the Ibrahims, the BIA reversed course completely. Gibson’s November 2006 appeal for the family’s asylum would be considered. And if the family was now eligible for asylum, then there could be no legal basis for their imprisonment. “Now there is no excuse for the Gestapo to keep the children in prison any longer,” wrote Gibson.

“I have never heard of the Board granting such a motion for Palestinian asylum seekers before, even though many people have tried,” wrote attorney Bardavid Friday evening. “I believe that the pressure put on the government by the actions filed in the federal courts, the media attention . . . and good work and thorough preparation of Mr. Gibson in his motion on behalf of the Ibrahims resulted in this outcome.”

“It’s the Declaration of Independence for the Palestinian people,” said Isenberg in a giddy mood Friday night. “We got the American government to blink!” How can he help but mention that he is proud of this achievement? How can he help but reflect that he is a son of Holocaust survivors?

“Every group goes through that period when they are treated with discrimination and then one event breaks the pattern. From now on the American government will no longer treat Palestinians as terrorists, but as humans. And I would hope that American citizens are realizing that if we continue to take away the rights of foreign nationals in an indiscriminate fashion, we are next.”

Meanwhile this Friday night, Jay Johnson-Castro, faithful organizer of three vigils outside the Hutto prison, promises to send photos of three ugly walls that stand between the USA and California: “I mean they are ugly ugly.”

It is past dark now and he stands upon a mass grave at the Holtville Cemetery near San Diego, where border crossers are buried who don’t make it over alive. “They are found dead and turned over to be buried.” It’s not the only mass grave at the border. There will be more to visit as the Marcha Migrante II Border Caravan begins its trek from San Diego to Brownsville and back.

“They say women are brought here in the middle of the night to do the burying,” says Johnson-Castro. “The federal government contracts with Imperial County to pay the city to bury these people, and nobody knows who they are. These are totally anonymous people who died as a result of our pathetic immigration system. Nobody is thinking of these people. The bodies are just thrown into the ground and dirt is pushed over them with a blade.”

From Holtville Cemetery, Johnson-Castro will caravan along the border, through the cities of the Rio Grande, making his way back to Hutto prison for his fourth vigil on Feb. 12. The release of the Ibrahim family is great news. But we know there are more Palestinian families in there along with anonymous border crossers and their children.

“We’re going to shut that prison down,” is something that Johnson-Castro and Isenberg have both promised over the phone tonight. In those merging voices, the faith of Ahmad Ibrahim is redeemed.

“I’m just enjoying the day,” says Ahmad Saturday morning, speaking by cell phone from a limousine that is somewhere between home and Hutto prison. The voice of his little niece Zahra chatters in the background. She is on her way to meet her mother. “It is a good day.”

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

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

Editor’s Note:John Wheat Gibson argues via email that the quotation–“Now people will no longer see Palestinians as terrorists”–does, in his words now, “nothing but deflect attention from the question of what forced the Ibrahims to flee their home to seek asylum.” And he continues:

Once again, the genius of the US media and even the organizations that pretend concern for human rights has been turned to the purposes of Zionist propaganda. The Ibrahims are Holocaust survivors for the time being, but the Israeli Occupation Force kills more Palestinian children every day. Your distortion of the relationship between criminal and victim helps the Holocaust to continue in the Occupied Territories, Afghanistan, an
d Iraq, and
will help ignite genocidal aggression against Iran. Shame on you.

Indeed, we share his concern that whenever we associate the terms terrorists and Palestinians, we risk doing nothing more than deflecting attention from a power relationship. It is a concern worth raising. However, at some point we have to ask, why are Palestinians so easily singled out for their political vulnerability. And we have to name the stereotype that works against them. If readers take our intention in the quote to be anything but mindful that there is a powerful stereotype on the lurk, then we have indeed written the story poorly.

As we are interested in Gibson’s claim that the story distorts the relationship between criminal and victim, we asked him to explain that a little more:

Here is a clue: Who are the people mentioned as conceivably “terrorists” and who are the people with respect to whom the question is not even
imaginable–in the universe of your story? What is the manichaean mythology underlying the dichotomy? Why did you choose to ignore the real reasons for
the release of the children and focus on the inane interventions of folks from New York? Can it be that the real reason is that you do not want the Palestinian Untermenschen to be perceived as victims of the criminal Zionist Master Race? Or can it be that you really, like the great mass of television watching North Americans, honestly do not know who is stealing
the land and killing the children, building roads and “settlements” for Master-Race Only, no dogs and Untermenschen allowed, imprisoning thousands,
and locking the rest behind an Apartheid Wall; and who it is that is getting killed and expelled from their own land and locked into concentration camps in their own country by foreign invaders? Why did you not mention that the Ibrahims survived a Holocaust?

In the 1930s a ship named the St. Louis docked in New York with a load of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. The U.S. government refused to let them land. Reporting the event, would you have found a Good German to quote, “Americans no longer will think of Jews as terrorists?” As if, apart from the Master Race propaganda, there would have been any reason to think of the victims as “terrorists” in the first place!

Gibson’s clues have been invaluable to this case. And again, if our quote seems to indicate anything other than a claim that master-race propaganda has in fact been damaged by the Ibrahim victory, then we sincerely apologize.

However, the interest that Gibson raised with respect to language and power left us feeling a bit more curious. So we have the following exchange, which I promise, dear reader, will be allowed the last word on the matter:

We wrote:

Hi John, along the lines of worrying about how
language is playing into or against unjust power
relationships, I wonder what you thought about the new legal rationale on the part of the BIA that Palestine is now under the leadership of a terrorist
organization?

I do worry that such language, adopted as a fact of
state policy to acknowledge “new realities,” may
signal worse news to come for the Palestinian struggle
at home. In fact, I had received an email sugggesting
that right-wing Zionists may have common interest in
the a solution of Palestinian repatriation.

It does seem something to think about.

To which the learned attorney replied:

I agree completely. But, as Hans Magnus Enzensberger reminds us, “People who work in the sewer must not be afraid to handle some shit.”

And so, today we dance.–gm

Comments listed in order received–gm

Did you attend all 19 hours? If so, well done. It seems we can write off the mainstream press. And that is a HUGE problem. Our collective ignorance just grows.

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you did great work on covering the hearing.

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Amen Brother!

You tell it like it really is in Texas! There are too many corrupt Republicans which will do whatever
it takes, legal or illegal to retain control of our
state. Just look at one of the worst on District remapping-Tom Delay.

We need to expose these b******** for what they are! Texas wasn’t always this way! Oh To have back the days of Ann Richards! I want my Great State of Texas back! How can I help? Who should I write? I WANT JUSTICE!

MORE responses, click READ MORE below

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Mr. Moses,
You have a keen eye for information. Thanks for revealing your information in such distinct precision. Remember, we now have a Department of Education executive who is willing to ask congress not to fund PBS. PBS is the last free bastion of educational journalism and offers neutral and factual coverage that is informative. You offer that same principle and integrity. It is up to professionals like you to find a way to reveal what is really going on, to the public.

Thank you.

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Keep Up the Good Work!

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Dear Mr. Moses,
Does the Texas Civil Rights Review have anything like a ListServ that sends updates &/or announcements of new articles that have been added to the web site? Ever since Nov. 2, 2004, I’ve focused more & more on getting my news on the Internet. A Brit told me years ago about his poor opinion of the MSM [mainstream media] in the U.S.A. I’m just now starting to see the truth of his words.

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I heard your interview on KPFK this morning [Uprising with Sonali Kolhatkar, Feb. 1, 2005]. If you have a list-serve, please put me on it, but please keep in touch.

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Thank you for reporting what was ignored by Texas journalists. It is further proof of my theory that many of the election irregularities in 2004 were conducted under radar. Unfortunately the Democratic party is not forceful enough to get investigations underway every location where problems were indicated in 2004: Ohio, Florida and Virginia are but some of the locations.

I appreciate your humor and honesty.

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Great story Greg. Thanks for putting this out there. You think someone would be interested in these voters who were moved without their knowledge. Or better yet how about that evidence tampering. As you say not one peep from all those media eyes covering this.

Good work on your part.

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Gee Texas politics is replete with incidents like this. We got tired of the (for the “little people”) democrats running this state.

If you really want to enlighten your readers about election fraud delve into history a little bit and chronicle the Democrats in the 60’s having dead people in Duval and Webb counties voting- and more than once! Your readers jaws will drop at the blatant good ol’ boy strong arm tactics.

You treat all this like its new. Sam Rayburn, Maury Maverick Sr. and LBJ ran this state like it was their own little socialist municipality.

Their rules ruled. Period. The liberals have been out flanked in this state and they won’t be in power for at least another 30 years- and it is of their own doing.

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Speaker of the Texas A&M Faculty Senate Martha Loudder responds via

email to questions from the Texas Civil Rights Review. The questions try to fill in the details of a

timeline. Near the end of the email, Loudder looks forward to good news from this year’s recruiting

efforts and argues that the Gates plan is best for the University. See Loudder’s complete reply

below.

TCRR:
A Report from the Committee on Minority Conditions recommends, “that

each year the Speaker of the Faculty Senate discuss the results/recommendations of this report with the

President, Vice Presidents and with the Board
of

Regents.”

http://www.tamu.edu/faculty_senate/MC02Report.PDF

Q: Will you

be able to follow the recommendation this year? Would you please share details of dates, persons, and

materials?

LOUDDER:
A: The following recommendations were made:
June 2002

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE FACULTY SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON MINORITY
CONDITIONS AT TEXAS A&M

UNIVERSITY
Summary of Recommendations
* Increase financial assistance to undergraduate and

graduate students to fulfill the University’s mission in the state of Texas.
* Provide

additional funding for increasing the total faculty.
* Create the office of Vice President for

Diversity with sufficient funding to make a difference in the recruiting, hiring, and retention of

minority faculty.
* Recognize and reward Colleges for aggressively recruiting, hiring, and

retaining minority scholars. This recognition and the rewards would include but not
necessarily be

limited to above average merit raises for Deans, Department Heads and other
administrators who

increase diversity in units under their supervision.

These recommendation had been made

every year since I have been involved in the Faculty Senate. It was only when Dr. Gates came to Texas

A&M in
September 2002 that any of them were seriously considered by the administration. Every single

one of them has been implemented. Dr. Frank Ashley (Director of Admissions) can provide more on the

first and third. Dean Jane Conoley can tell you more about the other

two.

TCRR:
According to the minutes of the Faculty Senate on Sept. 8, 2003, there

were four members listed for the Undergraduate Admissions Advisory

Committee.

http://www.tamu.edu/faculty_senate/minutes/sep2003.html

Q:

I’m not clear on the context for the four names.
Are they new to the committee? What was the

process the produced those names?

LOUDDER:
A: They are a number of standing

committees in the university. The faculty senate appoints one or more to them when there are vacancies.

The “Committee
on Committees” is charged with this duty. It consists of senators from each college

who are elected by their college senate caucuses.

TCRR:
The admissions committee

list was updated on Oct. 8.

http://www.tamu.edu/faculty_senate/DIR-

UnivAdm.PDF

Q: Would it be fair to report that the list was “finalized” on Oct. 8?

LOUDDER:
A: I believe that this is the composition of the current committee.

TCRR:
According to minutes of the Nov. 10 meeting of the Faculty Senate, a

report was approved and accepted from the Undergraduate Admissions Advisory Committee

[FS.21.56],

http://www.tamu.edu/faculty_senate/1208-A.PDF

Q: When this

proposal was approved by the Faculty Senate, was there any discussion about the significance of the

report in terms of affirmative
action?

LOUDDER:
A: Yes, there was a rather

spirited discussion about it. Dr. Mark Weichold and Dr. Frank Ashley were present to explain the

proposal and answer questions. Some of our faculty members were very dissappointed that the admissions

changes did not include race as an admissions factor. However, a large majority was satisfied that the

plan would have the desired
effect of increasing diversity.

As you know, we decided

to focus on our two major impediments to diversity: (1) only about 40% of the African Americans

admitted actually enroll, and (2)our inability to compete with substantial scholarships. There seems to

be a general, but certainly not unanimous, agreement that waiting until Fall 2005 (the earliest date

that admissions criteria changes can be adopted) is not the best strategy.

We

implemented a plan in December to recruit minority applicants in much the same fashion as we recruit

athletes…one at a time, aggressively. It
involves current and former students, faculty and

administrators. My own Dean (Business) made phone calls to over 90 prospects during the

holidays.
The President has worked to insure an additional 2,200 full scholarships, with over half

of them going to minority students. It’s too early to start bragging but early reports look like we

are making progress.

In my opinion, Greg, this is affirmative action at its best —

providing both active outreach and the financial means for minority students to come
to Texas A&M.

IT HAS NOT OCCURRED IN PREVIOUS YEARS (caps intentional)!

I have worked in the civil

rights movement since the Sixties, and was even an Affirmative Action Officer in an earlier life.

Accordingly, I was an advocate of considering race in admissions when we started this process last

summer. However I have become convinced of two things: first, we have a president who is personally and

deeply committed to improving diversity at TAMU, and second, he has the courage to do what he believes

is right for this university, even if he has to take a lot of heat over it.

I can see

that you care a great deal about this school, and I hope that you will tell your readers about our

efforts and our successes.

TCRR:
The report of the admissions committee was

approved by the President within four days.

http://www.tamu.edu/faculty_senate/Pending-

President.PDF

Q: In what form does the FS receive notice that a report has been approved

by the President?

LOUDDER:
A: Usually a letter comes from him to me.