La Raza Rally

Photo Courtesy of Bryan Barras

The August 29th Rally was organized to call for a complete moratorium on all immigration enforcement, including deportations and detentions. The original plan for the rally was to call for the shutdown of T. Don Hutto, a prison in which immigrant children were being jailed. Because of the intense work of many, many people, the Obama administration decided not to jail children at Hutto anymore. Additionally, the administration decided not to jail children at three other facilities which were scheduled to be built for the same purpose.

Because of these changes, the rally morphed into both a battle victory and a call for more mobilization for a bigger war against our gente. It was specifically a call to mobilize around the issue of a moratorium. We did so in solidarity with a national call:

If we can’t have reform this year, we absolutely require relief in the form of a moratorium of the enforcement of employer sanctions, raids, deportations, e-Verify, and prolonged detention for immigration related offenses, which are civil in nature.
–A Press Release By MAPA, and a dozen other organizations from around the country.

My own opinion is that as long as there is no border for corporations (thanks to free trade agreements), there should be no border for human beings, but I digress.

So I arranged everything with the county parks administration and reserved the basketball court. I told them that there might be counter protesters, and that they should be prepared for it. They begrudgingly promised to direct all of the counter protesters to the pavilion about fifty yards away. I told them that I disagreed with their assesment that the pavillion would provide enough distance, and they told me “too bad” in so many words.

So the day of the rally, everything’s running on schedule, except that our opening performer doesn’t show and doesn’t call. No biggie. The racists show up and start hurling insults from the parking lot. Still no biggie. Right as I get the sound system set up, the racists decide that they are going to come right up on the edge of the basketball court. Biggie, well it could have been…

The homies and families in the park, along with most of the supporting activists inched up right to the edge of the basketball court and they start verbally going at it. They start saying that we need to go back home and that they don’t want to pay for our pregnant teens y que esto y que el otro. Someone shouted back at them that they should go back to England, which is about the only thing that made sense to me in the whole shouting match.

I told the deputies (again) about the agreement that they should be directed to the pavilion, and they refused to enforce the agreement, just saying that they had not been briefed and that it was a free country. Even though I wasn’t surprised, I was caught off guard. I don’t know if that makes any sense…but como quiera. They seemed to have the same demographic tendencies as the counter protesters. No surprise here. Maybe they were related.

It started getting heated and more people started to get more and more agitated, and the crowd started screaming. One little thing could have caused violence, if only because of the proximity of the two crowds.

Then some of the other activists started coming after me (not in a bad way, just about logistics). I don’t know who I did or didn’t snap at, but my main goal was to make sure that we got the program on track. I didn’t want these pendejos to jack our program. I got on our sound system and said:

“I’m from this neighborhood. I know we’re not a neighborhood of cowards. Get on the phone and call your friends, neighbors, tias, carnales. Everybody. I know that you’re not gonna let more racists than Raza be here.”

So many did.

We got on the bullhorn and the sound system and started shouting at the top of our lungs that everyone should line up for a march. We circled the park with chants of “Si Se Puede,” “La Raza Unida Jamas Sera Vencida.”

And that’s how we got the program back on track.

By the time we finished the march, it seemed like our numbers had doubled.

In the end, the racists probably helped our turn out, since many of the neighbors were moved so much by anger that they were going to make sure to have their familia represent.

More on the program in part II.

As a result a change in theme has been proposed for the rally on August 29th at Driver Park in Houston.  The proposed new theme is a call for a moratorium on all detentions and deportations.  Many of us believe that this is appropriate because 1) immigration violations are a civil infraction and current detention conditions are more akin to how criminals are treated and 2) we are continually told that immigration reform is on the horizon in the next few months or perhaps next year.  If so, continued attacks on us through deportations are a bad faith violation of their promise. 

It seems that we are not alone in our concerns.  Here is a recent press release from MAPA.

Greetings!

Call For Immediate Action From Immigrant Workers

President Barack Obama could not have been clearer than the statement he made at the close of the two-day summit meeting with the presidents of Mexico and Canada on August 10, 2009, that immigration reform legislation will have to wait until 2010 and indicated that even then will prove a major political test (as reported in the Los Angeles Times). Immigrant advocates and proponents in favor of fair immigration reform and legalization should now have no illusions about the timetable for the change that we hoped for and the change that our people want and need. However, the demand for an immediate moratorium of the Obama enforcement policy becomes more apparent and pressing. There is no other alternative. If we can’t have reform this year, we absolutely require relief in the form of a moratorium of the enforcement of employer sanctions, raids, deportations, e-Verify, and prolonged detention for immigration related offenses, which are civil in nature. All non-violent tactics need to be put on the table.

Worker Councils from a growing number of companies that have been targeted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under the direction of Secretary Janet Napolitano, directed by the policy of President Barack Obama, are forming and fighting back under extremely adverse conditions the enforcement of employer sanctions sweeping the country. These companies bear the names of Overhill Farms, American Apparel, Farmer Johns, Micro Solutions, and many others. In fact, some 650 have been profiled by this administration. The initial mass terminations have only just begun.

We are organizing ourselves to openly oppose these policies and practices, which are devastating our families during the worst economic times since the 1930s. We call on workers, employers, unions, churches, immigrants’ rights coalitions and advocacy organizations, human rights groups, and worker centers to unite and respect our broad call to mobilize urgently and demand an immediate moratorium of the aggressive unprecedented enforcement of employer sanctions with the I-9 audits of profiled companies that hire immigrants, the expanded use of eVerify, the federal system of employment verification, and the expansion of police-ICE collaboration through the 287g program. Enforcement heavy and legalization light is now the order of the day for President Obama.

We call on all unions of the labor movement, that has a responsibility to defend us, to clearly articulate their open opposition to employer sanctions and the I-9 audits, defend their members and all workers targeted for termination due to no-match discrepancies with the Social Security Administration, and openly oppose contract-worker programs as modern indentured servitude no matter by what name they are titled.

We call on the churches of all denominations, which have a responsibility to safe-guard our spiritual well- being, to express vocal opposition to the policies and practices that are tearing up our families and destroying the prospect of us remaining in the U.S. You have a duty to hold the line against any assault on the integrity and unity of the family.

We call on the immigrants’ rights coalitions and national networks of different names, that represent that they work on behalf of immigrants and advocate in favor of fair and humane immigration reform, to not fear mass mobilizations of workers and immigrants openly demanding an end to the Obama enforcement strategy, but instead to join us. We want you to demand a full and generous legalization of undocumented immigrants without accepting a horrific deal of “smart enforcement” as a trade-off.

We call on the state and federal legislators to have courage and fight for humane immigration reform and to not be sold on the idea that by demonstrating more enforcement they will be able to win over more moderate and even Republican politicians in favor of legalization. How much more does President Obama want to push us down in order to demonstrate his “tough on immigrants” façade to the American people? We can only stand for so much.

We call on all honest employers that depend on immigrant labor to join the broad movement to oppose employer sanctions and all its discriminatory implications as government heavy invasive intrusions and interruptions of the work-place. You have a moral duty to pay an honorable wage for a good day’s work.

We are taking the brunt of the attacks and suffering the immediate consequences of this misguided policy, therefore, our call is urgent to take to the streets on September 5th, the Labor Day weekend, and October 12th, not to ask but demand that President Obama stop the attacks on immigrants and that he fulfill his promise of immigration reform, that which we heard during the presidential campaign, but has recently been forgotten.

We are convening all organizations, unions, churches, and all those who support fair and humane immigration reform to march in the streets and let our voices be heard as one – all at the same level and force – that WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH MR. PRESIDENT. We declare that just as you politicians we also are human beings and we also need to eat and live with dignity. We are honorable workers and we deserve respect. The same as is demanded of us to pay taxes, we demand to be blanketed by the very programs that exist thanks to our contributions, especially during these distressful times.

We represent a blessing for America and the solution to the economic crisis. We demand a fair and humane immigration reform for all NOW. We demand that Obama LEGALIZE AMERICA NOW!

All out on Labor Day September 5th and October 12th!!!
Worker’s Council of Overhill Farms
Worker’s Council of American Apparel
Worker’s Council of Farmer Johns
Worker’s Council of Micro Solution
Hermandad General de Trabajadores Union International
Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana
Mexican American Political Association
Chicago Community and Workers Rights
CONLAMIC (The National Coalition Of Latino Clergy And Christian Leaders)
People’s Assembly for Popular Education & Liberation (PAPEL)
Chicano-Latino Artists for Social Equality (CLASE)
Congreso Internacional de Mujeres Activistas de las Americas (CIMA)

A few nights ago the feds announced that they would immediately stop sending children to Hutto, America’s baby jail.  Thousands of individuals have been mobilized for the last three years for a very specific purpose: to end the detention of children at Hutto. This has come to pass, and praise is due to those who have been working so diligently for months and years. A couple of people sent me congratulations, but I have only been working on the issue for the last two or three months. I really have not done much except write about it and screen the documentary a half dozen times. The true praise is due to people like Maria Elena Castellanos, Frances Valdez and I believe organizations like SDS who have been working on this issue for months, if not years.

Most important are the people who became politically active because of Hutto. I can think of several off the top of my head, and the deserve the praise for their dedication and sacrifice. We should not dismiss their efforts by suggesting that it is not a “real” victory. How can I look at the gente del barrio that became active in the group over the last few months, and tell them, “thanks for your efforts, but you really didn’t accomplish anything.” 

Instead, we need to see it for what it is: a small battle victory in a much larger war against our people. Obviously, one victorious battle does not mean the end of the war. We must continue pushing on a variety of issues. It is true that there are accommodations for seventy people or so in the Berks facility, and that some of those will be children. This is horrendous and still against international agreements.

However, with a handful of active members, we have to choose our battles wisely and we must allocate our few resources where we might have most impact.

Yesterday morning La Raza Justice Movement met, and we seemed to be in agreement that we will likely focus on other fronts, at least with respect to the August 29th rally.

It is not that we think that Berks is an acceptable alternative. It is simply that the people from the neighborhood think that there are ways for us to be more directly relevant.

To make a long story short, most people don’t believe that there should be ANY detention for immigration-related issues. Immigration offenses are a civil issue, as most of our volunteers already knew. So their question was, “why should anyone be detained for a non-criminal infraction?”

Furthermore, many had already directly experienced what I believe to be the 287(g) effect: more enforcement; more deportations for traffic offenses; more racial profiling. ALL of the participants had a story. One told of a friend who was pulled over by a highway patrol and, as the story was recounted, was specifically told by the highway patrol that he was pulled over because he was “Hispano.” Another re-told his story of an officer requesting immigration documents from his wife. There exists a widely held perception that enforcement, deportation policies and detentions are wildly out of control. I presented the idea of focusing on 287(g), and idea which most seemed to agree with.

Then today, while talking to Alma of Alimex, I brainstormed the idea of using the rally to call for an outright moratorium on deportations and detentions. She seemed to like the idea. I spoke to two other people of other organizations, including Houston Hutto and CRECEN, and both seemed particularly interested.

Our organizational position is that there should be no detentions for civil infractions-period. We also happen to believe that we are the original caretakers of this part of the world and are entitled to it (can I get a grito).  I have to admit that it was somewhat of a shock to find that this belief is popularly held outside of the world of El Plan Espiritual.  I was excited when a couple of our members brought ME this idea this morning.  I digress.

Apart from that position, however, to continue to promise comprehensive reform while at the same time deporting thousands of people is, at best, a bad faith promise to keep us in check. At worst, it’s a conspiracy to continue Operation Endgame and to fill the coffers of private prison contractors. If immigration reform is coming SOON, then they need to stop breaking up families NOW.

So, I will speak to the other rally sponsors, and propose a moratorium as a focus. August 29th, after all, happens to be the anniversary of the Chicano Moraotium on Vietnam. Tiahui.  Got a couple of good poets committed and my sister’s mariachi juvenil.

New York Times: feds to stop sending families and children to Hutto. “One move starts immediately: the government will stop sending families to the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a former state prison near Austin, Tex., that drew an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit and scathing news coverage for putting young children behind razor wire.”

This will only embolden our efforts for the August 29th rally.  Too many more changes are needed. More later. Going to sleep.

Fine print: “Mr. Morton, (who heads the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency as assistant secretary of homeland security), a career prosecutor, seemed to agree. Hutto will be converted into an immigration jail for women, he said, adding: ‘I’m not ruling out the possibility of detaining families. But Berks is the better facility for that. Hutto is not the long-term answer.’”

The report, based on confidential Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents obtained in litigation, alleges there are pervasive problems throughout the country’s immigration detention facilities, many of which are operated by private contractors.

Detainees are routinely denied visitation with family members, access to legal materials and regular recreation, according to the report. Many never get an explanation of their rights while being detained, the report claims.

“The conditions are much more harsh than they ought to be,” said the report’s co-author, Ranjana Natarajan. “This is a civil detention, and these folks are being treated like hardened criminals.”

I have been speaking to a woman who has had a dear friend in the north Houston immigration facility, which is adminstered by CCA, the private contractor listed in the above-mentioned article, which also adminsters the Hutto baby jail in Taylor, Texas.

This woman, describes purposely-inflicted mental anguish perpetrated against the detainees. She describes repeated instances of the guards grabbing drying undergarments and ripping them up in front of the detainees and later throwing them in the trash. She also described one instance in which a woman was denied medical attention because she was halfway unconscious and thereby unable to complete a medical request form. Several hours later, the appropriate exception was made and she was allowed medical attention.

The detainees are regularly served outdated food, sometimes on moldy serving trays. The health department was called and for a couple of miraculous days the detainees received regular food like baked chicken. The woman making the reports suspects that CCA was tipped off to the upcoming inspection.

Keep in mind that CCA is the same company whch administers Hutto, the detention facility in Taylor, Texas in which children are housed.

It is hoped that the woman described above will read several letters from different ex-detainees of the north Houston CCA detention facility at the August 29th Shut Down Hutto Rally at James Driver Park in Northeast Houston.

One of the biggest problems is that the private contractors that run this facility are unlicensed and unregulated. This is the same free-for-all set up that lead to the Abu Ghirab debacle in Iraq. The article continues:

This week, ICE officials did not deny the allegations contained in the report, vowing to continue to improve conditions. But Department of Homeland Security officials recently decided against creating uniform detention center standards that the National Immigration Law Center wants. ICE is supposed to conduct yearly evaluations of every detention center, but has no enforceable, binding legal rules on how inmates are treated, according to the report.

“It creates a lot of gray area,” Natarajan said. “Because (detention centers) are not expected to follow the rules, they’re all over the map.”

Join us on August 29th to Shut Down Hutto and to end the detention of children.

I have written a little about our protests regarding Hutto, but not much about the details of this baby jail.

A cell in the baby jail

The children at Hutto have done nothing wrong, and their parents have not been charged with any crime, and they will not be charged with any crime. The children and parents housed here are Raza, mostly Central Americans, and other people of color from around the world, at least including Pakistan and Sudan.

They started using the prison as an alternative to the catch and release programs. Before, people of non-Mexican decent were released when they were suspected of illegal presence, and were set to appear before federal immigration judges. Now they are imprisoned here.

There does seem to be at least one Mexican family there, but we have no confirmation just yet.

I write this, because in my experience, people are very curious about the nationality of the families imprisoned there and of “what they have done.” They are usually more surprised to find what they have not done.

Many are there ostensibly due to “illegal presence,” meaning that they are in jail for being undocumented.

If Raza children being imprisoned doesn’t make you want to explode, what about the rule of law? In my own personal research, I believe that imprisoning anyone for a civil infraction is against an international agreement (treaty) known as the American Declaration on The Rights and Duties of Man which states that a person must not be detained for infraction of purely a “civil character.” Immigration infractions are purely a civil matter, which is one of the reasons that we fought like hell to stop HR4437, which would have criminalized “illegal presence,” and even potentially giving a ride to someone who had no papers.

What about Article 7 of the Declaration:

All women, during pregnancy and the nursing period, and all children have the right to special protection, care and aid.

People had to fight in order to get more food for pregnant women.

Article 12 says

Every person has the right to an education, which should be based on the principles of liberty, morality and human solidarity.

As I understand, the same agreement which provided more food for pregnant women also forced the administrators at Hutto to provide education. However this agreement, forced by an ACLU lawsuit, seems to be up this year in August of 2009.

Article after article of all kinds of human rights treaties are being violated, but those of us in the struggle understand that this is a political fight and a battle of wills between haves and have nots. Those who have, have a large will to continue profiting from the damage that they cause our little ones. Those who have not have an increasing will to save the niños imprisoned there and to stop this cycle of prison mentality perpetrated in our barrios, which Hutto is happily continuing to maintain.

Hutto is administered by CCA (nicknamed Concentration Camps of America by its opponents). CCA is a private contractor who nets something like 300 million a quarter. You can check out a documentary online which provides the exact figure. They are unlicensed, which I take to mean requires little or no oversight. Even day care centers in Texas require licenses to operate, but CCA requires none. Remember all of the trouble private contractors got into in Iraq?  Private contractors are notoriously under-supervised.

Most of the people that are working to shut down Hutto are doing so for the children locked up there, but some are beginning to recognize that this is part of a psychological and general war against our communities.

One compa asked, “how come criminals can be monitored by ankle monitors and these children have to be locked up.”

The answer becomes obvious as they join the struggle and beginseeing the multitude of other attacks against our community.  We are in an outright war against our gente.

I have gotten a whole host of arguments as to why Hutto is a good thing or why I shouldn’t worry about it. I have heard the same remarks from different people, so I will post the most frequent talking points.

The people from the government just want to change it to a publicly administered facility to create more government control.
No. I have not heard of anyone who wants to simply change the administration from CCA to the government. In our case, we don’t believe that there should be any confinement for immigration infractions.  So we want the whole thing shut down.

They are being kept safe and treated for medical and psychological issues.
They are being treated for the psychological issues that Hutto has created for them. This would be the same as if someone broke your leg, and then people thought it was good thing because they paid your doctor bills. In this case it is worse, because the psychological damage is perpetual and will likely last a lifetime.  The victims will bring that psychological damage to whatever community they take refuge in and perpetuate it even more.

What about the condition of prisons in other countries. They have terrible conditions.
I don’t know of any other countries in this hemisphere which imprisons non-criminal children, and I don’t have the resources to fight those countries. This is happening in my backyard…Taylor, TX.

Many people with different ideas and analyses, are forming a coalition to fight this injustice.  Join today.  Shut down this baby jail!

PODER, youth from Austin

A group of about two hundred fifty protesters came from all over the state of Texas to demand the shut down of Hutto, a prison which houses immigrant children and families even though they have committed no crime.

About fifty people from Houston, TX attended, most of which drove together in a caravan. After meeting at a school in Taylor, TX, the protestors marched over a bridge and through a field to arrive in front of the prison. The playground was visible behind the barbed-wire fence, but there were no signs of the incarcerated families. The only signs of life came from the guards who aggressively made sure that the protesters did not get on the “private property.” They also filmed the entire rally.

About eight people came with La Raza Justice Movement.

Large contingents came from Austin, and San Antonio.

Proclomations read from Sponsoring Groups, Austin City Council and Jessica Farrar of Houston

La Raza Justice Movement of Houston

One of the other arguments is that Hutto is administered by private, unlicensed company, called CCA (which if you ask me should stand for Concentration Camps of America). We need licenses in Texas for everything from selling insurance to opening a daycare. Hell, I even needed a permit to put up a pinche sign in front of my office. But this facility is unlicensed (read no oversight).

A few days ago, a lawsuit was filed against a private prison operation in Nuevo Mexico.

According to the lawsuit, the seven inmates were locked in a cold shower room with little or no clothing for five hours, then coerced into crawling out through a small, dirty hole in the shower wall after guards said they couldn’t find the key.

The inmates were in the shower room when a disturbance in a neighboring pod prompted a lockdown, and Hatch ordered the seven locked in the shower room, according to the complaint.

It said two of the men were naked, while the others wore boxer shorts or had small towels.

A female guard filmed the men with a video recorder and “giggled and danced” while doing so, the lawsuit alleges. Other guards passed by and laughed at them, the lawsuit claims.

Tear gas from the neighboring pod, where the disturbance occurred, wafted into the shower room and bothered an inmate who had breathing problems, but he was denied access to his inhaler, according to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

The plaintiffs allege they were kept in the shower without additional clothing or access to a bathroom for three hours after the incident in the neighboring pod had been resolved, and then told they would have to crawl through the hole to get out.

Bryan J. Davis, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that employees of private prisons aren’t adequately trained, and “the inmates suffer the consequences.”

So, right here in Texas at the Hutto prison, we have two of the most damaging types of incarceration situation aimed at our Raza: juveniles imprisoned by private, unlicensed (unsupervised) companies.

Coalition

We have been preparing and promoting the Hutto Caravan, the details of which were posted earlier. A coalition meeting of about twenty people was held, and the turn out looks promising.

I was also honored to give the caravan a bump on the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show and the Proyecto Latino-Americano show.

Free-The-Kids Houston Organizing Collective

To hear the audio, follow the link. Then right click the file. The save it to your computer. Then you can listen as an mp3 file.

Nuestra Palabra Show

Proyecto Latino-Americano