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suggested by Toussaint, re-posted from Texas Observer
Hunger Strike at Port Isabel, 04/28/09
To listen to interview:
http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ramaedit.mp3
Anywhere from 50 to 100 detainees at the sprawling Port Isabel Processing Center near Brownsville stopped eating last Wednesday in an effort to draw attention to extended detention that they say violates their right to due process.
One of the detainees on hunger strike - Rama Carty - spoke to the Observer by phone on Friday about how he has been detained by ICE for more than 13 months.
“It’s unconstitutional. It’s unjust,” Carty said. “We’re held well past any reasonable time under the law, or just any reasonable time, period.”
Carty fell under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2008 after he served two years in prison for what he says is a wrongful drug conviction. He spent time in detention centers in Maine and New Hampshire before being sent to Texas in December. In March, he came across an article in USA Today about a new Amnesty International report on how thousands of immigrants are detained for months or years without any meaningful judicial review of whether they should be released.
“If immigration removal is not reasonably foreseeable at all, then detention, in essence, shouldn’t exist,” Carty said, citing a Supreme Court precedent for cases like his.
Carty turns 39 next week and has lived in the United States since he was a year old. His parents are Haitian, but he was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo while they were working there. Neither country will accept him, so he languishes in detention in the country he calls home.
“I am a U.S. citizen from a cultural standpoint,” Carty told the Observer.
He wants a chance to argue he is a citizen from a legal standpoint as well. He said ICE mishandled his mother’s application for naturalization, and he should be given an opportunity to be considered a citizen. But, like many in the 1,200-bed facility, he said he lacks access to legal assistance.
“We are told we have lawyers available thru pro-bono associations but that’s not the truth,” Carty said of the overwhelmed legal aid offices that mostly focus on political asylum cases. “The amount of effective assistance of counsel is grossly insufficient,” he said.
Carty says he thinks the hunger strike will continue to grow. The strikers’ demands include a meeting with Dora Schriro, the newly appointed special advisor on detention and removal for the Department of Homeland Security.
For more info, see: http://www.businessofdetention.com/
re-posted from Oakland Tribune
Cesar Chavez Day prompts march for student rights in Oakland
By Sean Maher, 03/30/2009
Oakland — Honoring the memory of civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, about 30 students and other activists marched down International Boulevard today demanding rights for immigrant students.
"The families of undocumented students pay taxes and make an enormous contribution to our nation's economy and prosperity, yet their sons and daughters face the same kind of discrimination that young black students experienced in the old Jim Crow south," read a statement from By Any Means Necessary, the organization that held the march.
The Federal DREAM Act, which would give those students access to financial aid, was reintroduced last week, as was a similar state bill in California. Both have gone through a variety of forms and names and stirred controversy for several years.
The group started at International Boulevard and 98th Avenue and marched in the direction of downtown. Oakland police monitored the march as a precautionary measure.
A truck drove slowly down the right-hand lane, the marchers following and chanting, "Join the march! Join the fight! Let's stand up for immigrants' rights!"
Tuesday is Cesar Chavez Day, which honors the civil rights leader's birthday. Many schools throughout the state, though not all of them, will be closed in recognition.
suggested by Miriam, re-posted from Huffington Post
Protesters Take On America's Toughest Sheriff, 03/02/09
By Matthew Palevsky
On Saturday, thousands of protesters walked the streets of Phoenix to air their displeasure with America's toughest sheriff, whose crackdown on the city's immigrant population has won him consistently high approval ratings from his constituents in Maricopa County.
The anger of local residents came across in one image that depicted Sheriff Joe in a white Ku Klux Klan robe. Latino protesters held signs stating, "We Are Humans," while the most popular sign read, "Stop Racial Profiling NOW!" Supporters of the sheriff took up residence on two street corners and held signs that read, "We Support Joe," as protesters walked by.
In mid-February, Democrats in Congress, including Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called for an investigation into Sheriff Arpaio's activities around immigrant arrests due to allegations of racial profiling and other civil rights abuses.
Arpaio has also been denounced for using volunteer "chain gangs" and housing inmates in tent cities. These severe tactics led Fox to give Arpaio his own reality show entitled, "Smile... You're Under Arrest!"
The backbone of Sheriff Arpaio's vast influence stems from an agreement between the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The 287(g) provision allows federally-trained and supervised state and local law enforcement officials to investigate, apprehend, transport, and detain people who are living and working in the country without authorization. Protesters hope their demonstration will lead to further investigations into alleged crimes committed under the 287(g) provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
For video, go here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/02/protesters-take-on-americ_n_171091.html
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