What Would You Ask Speaker Pelosi?

Next week, I will have the opportunity to travel to Austin, Texas to attend the Netroots Nation conference, thanks to a scholarship from Democracy for America.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will be attending and doing an “Ask the Speaker” session with participants. I just submitted the following question for consideration by the moderators:

Madame Speaker:

Thirty miles to the north of Austin, in Taylor, Texas, is the T. Don Hutto prison facility that is serving as one of many holding tanks for migrant worker families in the U.S., including children. Is Congress preparing any action that would immediately halt the violation of human rights of the children and other prisoners at these sites, such as blocking of habeas corpus protections, access to medical care, and family unification? Will the Democrats on a national-party level be endorsing the recently passed resolution by the Texas Democratic Party, calling on the end to family detentions at sites like T. Don Hutto?

The text of the resolution is listed below:

RESOLUTION FOR ALTERNATIVES TO DETENTION OF IMMIGRANT AND ASYLUM-SEEKING CHILDREN

WHEREAS border protection is important to the security of the nation as a whole;

WHEREAS immigration affects the economic and social well-being of both the United States and Mexico;

WHEREAS a private firm re-opened the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility in Taylor, Texas, for the purpose of detaining immigrant and asylum-seeking families who are awaiting immigration proceedings,

WHEREAS it is not appropriate to convert a medium-security prison and rename it as a family detention center where children are detained with their families and some children are separated from their families;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Texas Democratic Party add to its platform that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security should consider all alternatives to the detention of immigrant and asylum-seeking families with children, and must reunite children with their families; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a child who is brought into this country by a family member shall not be subject to criminal sanctions, and the child’s presence in the U.S. shall not be defined as unlawful.

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What would you ask the Speaker of the House if you had the opportunity?

 

Another Citizen Ensnared In ICE

Nothin’ to see here, move right along.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Texas woman whose American-born daughter was deported to Mexico with the father and not recovered for three years is suing the federal government for $5 million.

Monica Castro, a native of Corpus Christi, Texas, accuses the U.S. Border Patrol of refusing to release her daughter to her when the girl’s father was arrested by agents in December 2003. Despite proving the child was born in the U.S., officials took the girl from Lubbock to the Texas-Mexico border. Castro did not find and regain custody of her daughter until three years later, according to Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which represents Castro.

Houston Chronicle

 

"Wetback" Making A Comeback

There are some words that have rightly been banished out of the lexicon of everyday conversation. They are loaded with hate, xenophobia and ignorance. Those who choose to use them are quite aware of their volatility, but have seen an opening lately to allow their bigoted views to be trotted out.

Charles Laws, a water company executive whom local officials are calling on to resign, on Friday defended his decision to characterize a proposed detention facility for illegal immigrants as a “holding pen for wetbacks.”

Laws said “wetback” is widely acknowledged to mean immigrants who swim the Rio Grande and enter the United States illegally, not American citizens. Laws said the term is not racial, an assertion that others dispute. He said he wishes he had not used the wordin an agenda item for the Creedmoor-Maha Water Supply Corp.’s board of directors but will not resign over it.

He said he thinks the politicians calling for his resignation are in effect defending criminals who should not be in the United States.

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Mr. Laws, who is the Mayor Pro Tem of Mustang Ridge, TX, remains indignant and uses the old “I’m sorry if I offended anyone” excuse for a term that has a dark history in the U.S.

In 1954, even the federal government used the term. The Immigration and Naturalization Service launched Operation Wetback, which sought to remove vast numbers of undocumented immigrants and focused heavily on California and Texas, particularly the Rio Grande Valley.

Historians say thousands of legal immigrants and U.S. citizens of Mexican descent were rounded up in the mass deportations.

Immigration agents routinely approached working-class Mexican Americans and questioned them, said Jose Limón, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas.

“A lot of people who remember that must surely take offense that they are characterized that way, as people who are here illegally,” Limón said.

“In saying ‘wetback,’ you’re saying Mexican of a lower and marginalized and illegal class. I think that’s why a lot of Mexican Americans would take offense. … Some of them were born here.”

Plascencia said that both inside and outside the immigration debate, that slur and other labels serve to objectify the subject as less than human.

“They all function the same way: All are intended to distance (the user) and at the same time assert superiority,” Plascencia said.

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Yup.

 

Moratorium and March Called by Tejas Border Activists

Repeated violations of property rights and environmental laws has united a growing group of Tejanos in opposition to the Great Wall of America™. They are mobilizing to make sure that the voices of residents along la frontera are heard in the continued hysteria of the immigration debate.

The groups are also calling for an immediate suspension and repeal of section 102 of the Real ID Act of 2005, which gives DHS Secretary Chertoff the power to waive all laws in order to build the border wall. Such power concentrated in the hands of an unelected official makes a mockery of democratic processes. Texas border resident Scott Nicol said of Chertoff’s waivers, “The only reason to waive the laws is because you intend to break them.”

In the hurricane-prone Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, as well as in Presidio, Texas, the border wall is planned to be constructed on or near the flood control levees. Yet, there have been no studies published that describe what impact the proposed wall would have on flooding or on the integrity of the levee system.

DHS has continued to operate under the false assumption that the harsh conditions of the desert are a deterrent for people seeking entry into the U.S. As DHS build walls in populated areas, desperation drives more people into remote desert areas where they are more likely to die from dehydration and exposure. The General Accounting Office found that as walls have gone up, the number of people who have died attempting to enter the U.S. doubled between 1995 and 2005. This is an ongoing humanitarian crisis that requires an immediate solution.

It is irresponsible to erect a permanent wall without full knowledge of what those consequences will be. DHS’s blind rush to draw lines on a map, heedless of the consequences on the ground, makes a moratorium on border wall construction imperative. Congress must take the time to evaluate the serious costs and impacts of the border wall and to determine whether it is in fact the best way to address the complex issues of immigration and national security.

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Via the No Border Wall – Take Action blog, the following locations will play host to a human rights march in the coming days:

March 8- SATURDAY- Roma to Rio Grande City
March 9- SUNDAY- Rio Grande City to La Grulla
March 10-MONDAY- La Grulla to La Joya
March 11- TUESDAY- La Joya to La Lomita
March 12-WEDNESDAY- La Lomita to Las Milpas
March 13- THURSDAY- Las Milpas to Progreso
March 14- FRIDAY- Progreso to Los Indios
March 15- SATURDAY- Los Indios to Ranchito
March 16- SUNDAY- Ranchito to Brownsville

More information here

 

Tejas Latinos United Against Border Wall

Poll results courtesy of a survey sponsored by Texas A&M/Latino Decisions (a nonpartisan group)

Texas’ Latino voters do not support a border fence.

Despite the conventional wisdom among many commentators, the data couldn’t be clearer. Our poll finds that 73 percent of Texas Latinos think a wall along the Texas-Mexico border is an ineffective policy idea that will not decrease illegal immigration into the United States.

On this issue, the survey finds agreement across party lines. Among Republicans, 70 percent are opposed to the border fence, as are 72 percent of independents and 74 percent of Democrats.

Step one is to put an immediate stop to the theft of land along the line. Step two is to get a government that actually listens to residents that live here. Step three is to communicate to the rest of the country that we are not at war with Latin America and that it’s offensive to treat the situation down here as if it’s the Korean DMZ.

 

Imprisoning Children? No Problema!

Wow. Just wow.

A Texas County Commissioner says out loud that the concentration camp in Taylor is a way better deal for migrant families than their homes back in Latin America (still think it’s not racial?)

Hat tip to the myspace activists who are working tirelessly on the local level to shut down the prison. They are holding twin marches next weekend:

The Hutto child prison in Taylor and the Raymondville tent internment camps are the most visible yet sinister violation of international human rights on American soil…and they both happen to be here in Texas . Hutto has children and their mothers imprisoned at the tune of about $10,000 per child/per mother/per month. Raymondville is the most flagrant of adult immigrant internment camps in the world, let alone on American soil.

Therefore, Raymondville Walk II and Hutto Walk III have been rescheduled for a Texas Super Weekend the last weekend of October. Here are the dates: (Maps and details will be in a follow up notice).

Raymondville Walk II. October 26-27. Friday and Saturday. From the Harlingen Travel Center to Raymondville, the seat of the corruption ridden Willacy County Commissioners Court .

Hutto Walk III. October 28-30. Sunday through Tuesday. From the Hutto children’s’ prison camp in Taylor , Texas to the seat of the Williamson County Commissioners Court in Georgetown , Texas .

more info here

 

Nativism in the Congress

Tom Tancredo, who is already well-known around here, continues his dangerous rhetoric. This time the target of his ire are border communities who have the audacity to exert their influence on what happens within their jurisdiction (and he calls himself a conservative. pffft)

“These mayors are jeopardizing national security with their not-in-my-backyard attitude,” Tancredo said. “Congress approved the border fence with the overwhelming support of the American people to protect our nation from terrorists and illegal aliens and it will not be thwarted by a handful of rogue mayors.”

The outspoken Tancredo, who is polling in the low single digits in national polls, also offered his solution to the problem, which is to “build the border fence north of these communities.”

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Belly rubs to any corporate media journalists who ask Tom if he supports the death threats that are being aimed at the El Paso mayor since he has no trouble calling Mayor Cook and other border community officials traitors.

And since the congressman and Republican presidential candidate is presumably mentally fit for the highest office in the land, despite the precedent of the dim bulb that currently presides in the White House, it should be pointed out that if the supporters of the Great Wall of America™ have their way, much of the wall will, in fact, be north of many locales in the United States.

The border isn’t exactly an east-west line. Residents in every border state, south of the Yumans in Yuma, could presumably travel north to get to Mexico.

Just some food for thought as the ignorance of the nativist wing of the United States continues unchallenged by the mainstream media.

 

Why Was David Morales Lynched?

It’s too early to know any specifics, but it doesn’t erase the fact that an angry mob killed this man.

A group of men fatally beat a passenger in a car that police said accidentally struck a child outside an East Austin apartment complex, police said today.

As many as 3,000 people were in the area following a Juneteenth celebration at the time, officials said. Austin police Cmdr. Harold Piatt estimated that dozens were in the parking lot of the Booker T. Washington apartment complex at the time and that preliminary information shows no witnesses apparently tried to prevent or stop the attack.

[snip]

Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 477-3588.

“We know we had a number of folks who saw something,” Piatt said. “Hopefully there are some good Samaritans who are as upset about we are about what happened.”

tplohetski@statesman.com; 445-3605

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Of course, the trolls over at FreeRepublic are taking the opportunity to call this “jungle justice”, pondering whether or not Morales is undocumented since he has a Latino surname, and other bile that I won’t bother linking to – but this whole incident makes me very sad.

During a Juneteenth celebration of all things.

[UPDATE] Welcome to any TailRank readers that made their way here.

[UPDATE #2] Dos Centavos is linking to a video with a joint statement from local LULAC leaders and the Austin Black Democrats to help alleviate any prospective racial tension.

 

A Sampling of Texas Immigration Bills

This is what the rabid members of the Texas State Legislature have in the coffers with respect to immigration reform inhumane treatment of people.

HB127: Requires state agencies to ask customers whether they are legal U.S. residents and report the cost of services provided to illegal residents.

HB38: Requires proof of legal residency in the U.S. to obtain professional licenses.

HB40: Applicants for medical assistance must prove their legal status.

HBs578, 691, 1377: Applicants for a marriage license must swear they are not marrying as a way to circumvent immigration laws.

HB28: U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants would be ineligible for state services and state jobs.

HBs104, 141, 159, 39: Eliminates undocumented immigrant students’ ability to receive in-state tuition rates.

HBs858, 905, 907 1012, 1256: Allows state and/or local police to enforce federal immigration laws.

HB904: Prohibits cities from setting up day labor centers.

HBs931, 932: Requires proof of legal status for a driver’s license and a citizenship label on driver’s licenses.

HB29: Imposes a fee on money undocumented immigrants send to Central and South America.

HCR11: Resolution calling on the Texas attorney general to pursue lawsuits to collect money from the federal government to repay the state for the cost of undocumented immigrants.

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All are egregious, but the ones I highlight are to show you the true gall of these rabid hardliners. They care nothing for the well-being of the targets of these bills. Can you imagine? Medical care only provided if you’re able to prove your legal status – and nope, there won’t be any racial profiling ::cough:: ::gag::

Plus, the Constitution is little more than toilet paper to them. They wish to pretend that the 14th Amendment doesn’t exist. Actively trying to create new classes of citizenry is just another way for the privileged and elite to preserve their vantage point in society – sneering down their noses at them.

There was a time when such radical action by a legislative body would be mocked and exiled to a political graveyard – but in this era of vigilante-ism and blatant hate-mongering by radio and tv personalities, there is no limit to this type of extremism.

And I wonder why I’m so disgusted with the news…