Why We Shut ICE Down For A Day
Young Protesters See Activism Extending Past the Elections
Posted: Nov 04, 2008
New American Media
SAN FRANCISCO – Last week hundreds of youth, families and organizers from over 10 different cities in the Bay Area gathered at the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in San Francisco to demand an end to ICE raids, to demand that all detention centers be shut down and to demand real sanctuary cities.
For that day the community prevented ICE from breaking into our homes, and terrorizing our people. Crowds of young and old, black, white, Asian and Raza gathered around the police blockade chanting, speaking and singing in the rain.
We sent a clear message that immigrant communities are powerful and we are no longer willing to allow ICE agents, police agents, city officials or any laws to intimidate us.
The day began with young people walking out of their local high schools and heading to BART stations to get to Ferry Park in San Francisco, where people began preparing for the march to the ICE building. People dressed in black, with their faces painted as skulls, representing the many people who have fallen victim to the attacks on immigrants both here in the Bay Area as well as on the border.
Many carried signs, some with the same message that hung from placards on Treasure Island: "If Capital Can Cross Borders, So Can We!" At ICE headquarters, the crowd formed a huge circle with speakers highlighting the connection between the diverse communities that are affected by deportations and raids. It was an amazingly powerful day on which youth disrupted business as usual at the ICE building, preventing ICE from disrupting the lives of entire communities.
After Nov. 4th, this issue cannot be forgotten. Whether Obama or McCain win, there is no guarantee that the raids will stop.
No matter who comes into office there is still a huge border wall being built between the United States and Mexico. Corporations are still being allowed to take their business freely across the border, while forcing families to either work as cheap labor in their home countries or to cross the border in search of better jobs.
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=3719e389ebdef31db9d4961e19fc68cc
Showing posts with label Expulsions and Deportations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Expulsions and Deportations. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Railroading Immigrants
Railroading Immigrants
Monday 06 October 2008
by: David Bacon, The Nation
Tucson - A special Federal District court convenes every day at 1 pm in Tucson. All the benches, even the jury box, are filled with young people whose brown skin, black hair and indigenous features are common in a hundred tiny towns in Oaxaca or Guatemala. Their jeans, T-shirts and cheap tennis shoes show the dirt and wear from the long trek through northern Mexico, three days walking across the desert, and nights sleeping at the immigration detention center on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
Presiding over one court session in June, Judge Jennifer Guerin called these defendants before her in groups of eight. They walked up in tiny waddling steps, heavy chains binding their ankles and wrists to their waists, and sat. Judge Guerin recited a litany of questions, translated into Spanish through headphones. "You've been charged with illegal entry, a criminal offense...at trial you would have the subpoena power of the court...you have certain rights," she intones. At the end she asks anyone who doesn't understand to stand up. No one does. She asks if they plead guilty. After a moment in which her question is translated, seventy voices mumble "Sí."
Leaving the courtroom a young woman stumbles, eyes streaked with tears. A public defender tells the judge her feet are covered with blisters from walking through the wilderness. A boy no older than 13 or 14 searches the room with his eyes as he's led away, perhaps seeking a friend or relative. No one seems older than 30, and most are much younger. They are today's border crossers - the mostly indigenous youth of southern Mexico and Central America.
They all plead guilty to a Federal criminal charge. Sentences run from time served to six months in a Federal lockup run by Corrections Corporation of America.
According to the Spanish news agency EFE, this new court process, dubbed Operation Streamline, convicted 5187 migrants from January 14 to June 10 of this year. Isabel Garcia, who heads Derechos Humanos, a leading immigrant rights organization in southern Arizona, says the current daily quota of 70 chained defendants will soon be raised to 100 - 50 tried on one shift, and 50 on another. Twenty-one new federal prosecutors will handle the surge, with CCA detention facilities to house it
http://www.truthout.org/100508D
Monday 06 October 2008
by: David Bacon, The Nation
Tucson - A special Federal District court convenes every day at 1 pm in Tucson. All the benches, even the jury box, are filled with young people whose brown skin, black hair and indigenous features are common in a hundred tiny towns in Oaxaca or Guatemala. Their jeans, T-shirts and cheap tennis shoes show the dirt and wear from the long trek through northern Mexico, three days walking across the desert, and nights sleeping at the immigration detention center on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
Presiding over one court session in June, Judge Jennifer Guerin called these defendants before her in groups of eight. They walked up in tiny waddling steps, heavy chains binding their ankles and wrists to their waists, and sat. Judge Guerin recited a litany of questions, translated into Spanish through headphones. "You've been charged with illegal entry, a criminal offense...at trial you would have the subpoena power of the court...you have certain rights," she intones. At the end she asks anyone who doesn't understand to stand up. No one does. She asks if they plead guilty. After a moment in which her question is translated, seventy voices mumble "Sí."
Leaving the courtroom a young woman stumbles, eyes streaked with tears. A public defender tells the judge her feet are covered with blisters from walking through the wilderness. A boy no older than 13 or 14 searches the room with his eyes as he's led away, perhaps seeking a friend or relative. No one seems older than 30, and most are much younger. They are today's border crossers - the mostly indigenous youth of southern Mexico and Central America.
They all plead guilty to a Federal criminal charge. Sentences run from time served to six months in a Federal lockup run by Corrections Corporation of America.
According to the Spanish news agency EFE, this new court process, dubbed Operation Streamline, convicted 5187 migrants from January 14 to June 10 of this year. Isabel Garcia, who heads Derechos Humanos, a leading immigrant rights organization in southern Arizona, says the current daily quota of 70 chained defendants will soon be raised to 100 - 50 tried on one shift, and 50 on another. Twenty-one new federal prosecutors will handle the surge, with CCA detention facilities to house it
http://www.truthout.org/100508D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)