Posts Tagged ‘detention’

Spending X-Mas in Detention

// December 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Immigration

Carl contacted DreamActivist through our contact form to share the story of his legal immigrant friend who was in detention. His point was that the system isn’t just broken for undocumented immigrants here but even for those who try to play by the rules and still end up getting burned.

I have cross-posted his story at Change.org and Promigrant.org and sent him an intake form, which he will fill with the help of his friend in detention. I also admire Carl for realizing the business of immigrant detention in his few encounters with the system. We hope to have his friend out soon.

I am a citizen of the United States and I have a friend that is from Paris, France here on a student visa to finish his degree. Noureddine Feddane has been here since 2005. His visa is valid until March of 2010, his passport is valid until 2014, and his I-20 is current. He is not what people call an ‘illegal immigrant.’ In 2008, he fell in love and married a U.S. citizen that just happens to be addicted to prescription medications. Noureddine knew nothing about this. But he was arrested due to her mistakes.

He was placed in detention and scheduled for deportation. My friend has been in detention center in Pompano Beach Florida for 5 months now. This couple has lost all there savings on lawyers, she lost her job, and they are in the process of losing their home. All this was caused because ICE has the wrong person in jail.

I have written many letters to Janet Napolitano, Senator Bill Nelson, Representative Ginny Brown-Waite and even President Obama. But no one will listen. What is illegal in this case is the way DHS is treating this guy, who is 51 and has never had a traffic violation.  While in detention center, they have abused him, denied him food and proper medical treatment. Noureddine is diabetic and they will not give him the proper food or medical attention. The phone system is very poor and hardly works. I suspect that they plan it that way so the detainees cannot contact their lawyers and family. I fear he will be next on the long list of persons that have died while in detention.
Until you go to one of these detention centers and see with your own eyes, you will not believe what America is doing. I was shocked, on my first visit and after almost 6 months of seeing what happens and how they have to live, I am still in shock. It is all about the money. My friend has never cost America anything until they locked him up. He is in a private prison owned by a company called GEO based near Miami, Florida. They are paid very well by our tax dollars, but the treatment is unbelievable. I wonder how many politicians have stock in this company. They are doing quite well even in a bad economy.

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Trangender Asylee Speaks Out About Immigrant Detention

// November 12th, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Immigration

Courage comes in many different forms. For Esmeralda a transgender asylum seeker from Mexico who faced horrific circumstances in immigration detention, it came in the form of seeking justice. Kept in a segregated cell with other transgender detainees, Esmeralda never realized that her experience in detention would match the trauma of discrimination she had faced back home. But her story is also one of hope for change.

While the Obama administration has pledged to reform the detention system, its promises do not go far enough. Spread over a patchwork of more than 500 county jails, privately run prisons and federal facilities, immigration detention is a $1.8 billion business estimated to hold 442,941 detainees in custody in 2009 alone.

Transferred far away from their homes and families, stories are rife of how detainees are denied visitation, access to lawyers, medical care, and are subject to physical and verbal abuse. Many vulnerable people, including asylum seekers, pregnant women, children, lawful permanent residents and even U.S. citizens are among those detained.

Listen to Esmeralda’s voice of courage and take action now to fix a broken detention system.

Crossposted from Restore Fairness

Musings

// July 8th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Immigration

The last few weeks were thoroughly exhausting. Between the long week in D.C., the non-gay drama (highly boring) of my father and some promigrant bloggers, a horrible court decision against us, the exhausting but exhilarating National DREAM graduation and efforts to save Walter Lara, I am just about ready to move on.

But I made a commitment, hence I am a hero to some, a burden to my mother and I happen to stand in the way of my own dreams by staying here.

Something still troubles me–the way SEIU swept in to co-opt the work of undocumented student leaders the last week of Walter Lara’s deportation. Lets be honest and forthright–Walter would have gotten a stay of deportation without their new media efforts. It is absolutely outrageous that SWER did not get credit for all their hard-work. DreamActivist could have done more had their hands not been tied by lack of software (people are laying eggs on the contract as I write). Of course, the limits and top-down know-nothing nature of SEIU became more apparent when their action this week to sustain momentum asked supporters to ‘Call Congress’ for the DREAM Act. That is such a bright idea! Why didn’t we think of it before now?! Oh, this time, instead of calling our Senators directly, we would have to give SEIU our information in order to call. SEIU should stick to raiding real unions to bring home the bacon. Oops, I guess the real labor movement opposes that too. No offense to Josh Bernstein; his work and support for DREAM students is always welcome.

I just wonder where these DC orgs go when a non-honors student is facing deportation, when Sarjina Emy stayed in detention for two years and finally broke down and went back to Bangladesh, and when a case does not look winnable. Why are some immigrants disposable? My mother never went to college, is a janitor who supports the entire family and pays thousands in taxes; my grandmother does not speak English, never worked or paid taxes in this country, cashes in her social security checks; I have a Master’s but don’t make any financial contributions, hence don’t pay taxes and can’t stand this country–Who would you deport?

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Stop the Deportation of Walter Lara

// June 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Immigration

“…doesn’t matter what they tell you. YOU belong here.”

Advice

DO NOT SIGN A VOLUNTARY DEPARTURE. EVER.

Walter Lara, age 23, came to the United States from Argentina 20 years ago. Unless Congress or the Department of Homeland Security intervenes in his case, he will be required to leave the U.S. by July 6th.

Walter, having lived in the U.S. since he was three, speaks English without any trace of an accent. Miami is the only home he remembers. Walter graduated from Miami Central Senior High School in 2004 with a 4.7 grade point average, fourth in his class. He dedicated over 1,000 hours of service to his community.

After high school, Walter attended the Honors College of Miami Dade Wolfson Campus. He earned an Associates of Arts degree in Computer Animation having maintained a 3.7 cumulative grade point average and used this education to do freelance web design. On the side, he has found time to be involved in sports and teach himself many aspects of computing. Walter Lara has never broken the law and continues to be an active and important member of his community. He aspires to work for Pixar as a graphic designer, but without a Social Security number or visa, and therefore unable to attend a 4-year college, he has worked instead as a cable installer for Direct-TV.

On February 17, 2009, he was on his way to Fisher Island for an install when he was stopped by I.C.E. officials. When he admitted to them that he is undocumented, Walter was arrested and jailed for 20 days. He now faces deportation within days to a country he has never known.

Walter can probably get his case re-opened on that grounds that he never received proper counsel. In the meantime, please take the following actions to keep Walter Lara in this country:

1. Sign the online petition

2. Join the support group on Facebook

3. Sign and send this letter to my members of Congress demanding that they do something!!

4. Send a letter of support to mjlacayo@aol.com

More footage of Walter Lara will be up soon.


The Archipelago of Detention

// April 9th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Immigration

No crime means no police. What makes the presence and control of the police tolerable for the population, if not fear of the criminal? This institution of the police, which is so recent and so oppressive, is only justified by that fear. If we accept the presence in our midst of these uninformed men, who have the exclusive right to carry arms, who demand our papers, who come and prowl on our doorsteps, how would any of this be possible if there were no criminals?

-Michael Foucault, Prison Talk

When the immigration question is framed as a matter of law-breaking, the inevitable result is the criminalization of migrant workers and families which feeds into the migrant-prison-industrial complex.

In a recent article published in La Prensa, Ali Noorani-Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum (www.immigrationforum.org),– subscribes to the dangerous ‘rule of law’ discourse that criminalizes undocumented workers and their families.  The ‘enforcement-mantra’ of the mainstream DC organizations holds that comprehensive immigration reform is key to holding undocumented workers accountable and ensuring that U.S. security is not compromised:

Only through a controlled legalization of those who meet certain criteria can we hope to isolate those few immigrants hiding under the radar that may wish to do us harm or take unfair advantage of our generosity.
Combining an enforceable immigration system with effective, targeted enforcement is the only way we can achieve an immigration system consistent with American values. We must reestablish the rule of law by fixing our immigration system and then enforcing the heck out of it. This is how we regain control, create an even playing field for all workers in the economy, and ensure that workers and employers who play by the rules will be rewarded rather than undercut.

(www.laprensa-sandiego.com)

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/457/detention.png

This ‘rule of law’ discourse is devoid of the fact that many immigrants fell out of status by trying to follow the rules. Moreover, a quick study of the new ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ discourse and agenda citing President Obama in ABC News (www.ABCnews.com) would tell one that it hardly applies to the horror of immigrant detention camps–the Guantonomizing of America (www.homelandgitmo.com). The  heterosexualized concept of immigrant ‘family unity’ (www.Change.org) stops just outside the immigrant-detention complex.

In a recent report named Jailed Without Justice, Amnesty USA (www.amnestyusa.org) found the number of immigrants held in detention camps had tripled from 10,000 in 1996 to 30,000 in 2008, with the numbers likely to increase this year. The ‘rule of law’ discourse somehow forgets that the migrants detained in these archipelagos of detention constitute not only ‘criminal aliens’ but asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors, legal permanent residents, and survivors of torture and human trafficking. And they probably would not benefit from any sort of ‘comprehensive immigration reform.’

The gender dynamics of immigrant detention are also unavoidable. See studies by Human Rights Watch and Southwest Institute for Research on Women, that highlight the mistreatment, lack of prenatal care, and other serious medical conditions that migrant women undergo while under detention. And these are women who have committed no crimes nor pose any flight risk.

As this country moves towards reforms via legalization, it is important to pay attention to the gross, inhumane violations of human rights in our immigrant detention facilities. Not engaging in dialogue and action about the creation of these achipelagos of detention would certainly not amount to ‘just and humane’ immigration reform.

U.S. Border Wall and Detention Policy Listed as International Human Rights Concerns

// November 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Human Rights, Immigration

Courtesy: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS)



Border Wall in Texas, United States

Audio Video in original language Video in Spanish Video in English Photos


Due process problems in the application of policies on immigrant detention and deportation in the United States

Audio Video Photos

Exposing the Business of Immigrant Detention – CCA

// September 21st, 2008 // 7 Comments » // Immigration

I recently discovered a Reuters report featuring CCA (Corrections Corp of America)–the biggest privatized immigrant detention facility in the United States–almost gloating about the fact that these coming elections won’t make a difference to their company since there will always be a population that would need “service.” I wonder why the major newspapers and newswires in the United States missed this story–the UK Reuters link has been taken down since then but it is here for the timebeing.

“If there is any meaningful immigration (policy) change, I think there is going to be a population that is still going to have to be serviced.”

Why is the CCA so self-assured of continued business?

In the late 1990s, CCA overbuilt many detention facilities following the “if you build it, they will come” rule. According to Anton Hie, an analyst in the Nashville office of Jefferies and Co. who covered industry leader Corrections Corporation of America and its closest competitor, the GEO Group, “There was a lot of promise of new inmates that never came … It kind of all came crashing in.” States stopped contracting after high-profile escapes, riots and other scandals and subsequently, stocks came crashing down.

In 2000, the CCA had reported a net loss of $253.5 million but that is history with a 470% boom in immigrant detention over the past 15 years. CCA finally banged a lucrative deal that year–the former INS came to their rescue to house 1000 detainees at the CCA-owned San Diego Mesa Facility, and hence, saved the private detention industry from collapse, giving rise what Roberto Lovato and other prominent scholars call the migrant-prison complex. With 32,000 immigrants behind bars, some indefinitely await hearings, some commit suicide, some are dehumanized and abused, and others sedated with psychotropic drugs upon deportation, the numbers are only growing for ICE, CCA and sadly, the numbers behind bars. Today, the ICE, U.S. Marshals and Bureau of Prisons account for 40% of CCA’s revenue (13% from ICE at $1.5 billion)–which controls a little under half the private prison beds in America. Last year, the CCA reported a net profit of $133 million.

The number of jail beds funded annually in congressional appropriations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement:

FY 2001: 19,702

FY 2002: 21,109

FY 2003: 19,444

FY 2004: 19,444

FY 2005: 18,500

FY 2006: 20,800

FY 2007: 27,500

FY 2008: 32,000

(Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

For more details and background story, see the Huffington post here.

“We are doing business with 20 different states around the country. I would say it’s probably 50-50, where you’ve got half the states where the governor is a Democrat and the other half is Republican,” COO and President Damon Hininger told Reuters from Nashville, Tennessee.
“I think we have shown a good track record that we can work regardless of who is in the capital or who’s in the governor’s office within various states,” said Hininger, who began his career at Corrections Corp as a correctional officer.

With the little time I had, I did some more independent research and found out that CCA has exercised it’s ‘free speech’ rights this year by contributing $15,000 each to the Republican and Democrat Senate and Congressional races (Republicrats anyone?) for these upcoming elections as well as to several other individual races funds for a total of more than $60,000. The CEOs and managing directors have also made noteworthy contributions. The report is here – cca-contributions. Yes, Mr. Hininger, a little glance at your contributions and we know exactly what sort of ‘business’ you are doing to maintain a good track record with the different states regardless of their political leanings. (Keep in mind that this is just the CCA and other privatized prisons companies like Geo also contribute massively to skew the ‘democratic’ process in their favor).

On a related note, the artists from the Just Seeds collective have contributed about 100 murals to the upcoming Critical Resistance CR10 conference that has workshops, round-tables and panels to discuss strategies around fighting the prison-industrial complex. If you are in the Bay Area California, do check it out at Laney College this upcoming week.

Cr10_poster_favianna_2

Being undocumented is not a crime but when criminalizing immigrants makes $$ for corporations …

Here are some more useful resources on this:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dw5vh94_498fcss5db

http://prernalal.com/2008/05/04/the-business-of-detention/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPcsCxV0-tc

Welcome to America – Here We Make ‘Criminals’ Out of Jet-Skiers

// September 1st, 2008 // 8 Comments » // Immigration

This news story feeds perfectly into the socio-political construction of the migrant criminal / ‘inmate’ touched upon in the last blog post. It also shows the ludicrousness and tragicomic hilarity of our archipelagos of detention.

Two jet skiers that had an accident in Lake Ontario and were “washed UP” or even swam into the United States, were held in detention as INMATES courtesy the U.S. border patrol for two days, until the Canadian consulate and media got on the case. They are now undergoing ‘REMOVAL PROCEEDINGS” and may be barred from entrying the United States for as long as 5 years.

All Canadian jet-skiers, in the future, carry your passport in a waterproof case, in case you get washed up on the U.S. shore–the agents will throw you into immigrant detention centers–estimated at $88 per day paid for by your dear American taxpayers–after dragging you out of hospital.

Here is the article, courtesy The Toronto Star:

In hindsight, it wasn’t the best move to stop on Yankee soil and empty out a waterlogged jet ski, admitted Jason Haist, who spent two days locked in an American detention facility after washing up on the wrong side of the Niagara River.

But what choice did he have?

His cousin Edward’s Sea-Doo had flipped over in the turbulent river and had taken on water. They hauled the craft over to the American side, and spent “two seconds” emptying it with cups, he said.

“We were at the bottom of a 15-storey hill; you could not climb up there if you tried. We weren’t even docked,” said Haist. “And we really weren’t sure what side we were on.”

That stop landed the 28-year-old and his cousin, 21, in jail, said A.J. Price, an agent with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

They were released from a Batavia, N.Y., detention centre yesterday on a promise to appear. “It’s been pandemonium. It’s been so crazy. A simple day of Sea-Dooing, just a regular guy, turned into ‘we’re inmates,’” said Haist.

Haist and his cousin, both of Toronto, are frequent jet skiers on Lake Ontario, but not as experienced with the strong undercurrents typical of the Niagara River.

Despite the Sea-Doo flip they thought they were getting the hang of the rough waters. Around 8 p.m. Saturday, Haist was knocked off the jet ski. He doesn’t remember much. The Coast Guard pulled him out and he was taken to hospital, unconscious with lungs full of water.

“Then at 10 p.m., I’m lying in my hospital bed and Eddy calls me … He goes ‘we’re going to jail.’ I’m like, ‘what?’ I have tubes down my throat.” Discharged about 3 a.m., Haist was promptly arrested.

“We were like, totally freaking-out … Eddy’s still wearing his wet suit. There’s a cold, hard floor and one blanket,” he said. “We wouldn’t believe this was happening.”

Haist called his girlfriend. “I said, ‘you’ve got to call the radio and newspapers … They’re talking about holding us here for months.’”

By yesterday morning, officials had changed their tune.

“They kind of just said to me, ‘today the media’s all involved in this.’ We got the Canadian consulate people calling, get your stuff and get out of here,” said Haist, who returned home. Price says the men never “washed up” on U.S. soil.

“That’s a big misconception. They swam to shore, and that was after the accident,” the agent said. “And that is not the only landfall (coming ashore on the American side) they made that day and that is why they’re in removal proceedings.”

It may be more than two weeks before the Haists see a judge and plead their case. They could be barred from entering the United States for as long as five years.

I don’t think any Canadian would be doing a “Michael Phelps” without ‘documentation’ anytime soon, accident or no accident. This is almost right up there with jailing hurricane / cyclone evacuees!

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