Tehran Times Opinion Column, Feb. 8, By Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr. Free the child prisoners of Texas TEHRAN, Feb. 7 (MNA) -- There is a prison camp in Taylor, Texas named Hutto Residential Center. It opened in May of last year. It has hundreds of children from six months old and up with their moms imprisoned there -- in cells, 22 hours a day, prison uniforms, behind razor wire walls -- for profit by a private prison company called Correctional Corporation of America (CCA). [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A public protest was held in December by Jay J. Johnson-Castro along with a coalition of organizations. While local media did a professional job of reporting on this prison camp, no major media outlet has weighed in except Univision and BBC. Not one elected official on a city, county, state, national, or international level has come out against the imprisonment of helpless women and mostly innocent children in this prison camp. However, if you Google “Hutto detention families children” you will see that the blogosphere is glutted with information from all over the world -- Australia to the Middle East, Europe, and throughout all of the Americas. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The imprisonment of innocent children flies in the face of everything that democracy, liberty, and justice is supposed to be about. It violates everything in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The lease on the prison camp was to expire January 31. Yet, on January 30, despite the outpouring of local citizens’ protest and appeal, the Williamson County Commissioners unanimously voted to extend the lease for two years. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This is a money laundering project between Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and the federal bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -- and private prisons. The private prison CCA gets $7000 a month PER CHILD that it has incarcerated. This is not only immoral, it is criminal. It is insanity. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Two Palestinian families that are legal were taken from their homes in Dallas, Texas early in November. The father of the Ibrahim family is in one prison camp. The mother and five of her children were in the Hutto prison camp but were recently released. She is pregnant and did not get to see a doctor during here nearly three-month incarceration. She was in one cell with one of her children. Her other four children were in two other cells, disconnected from their mother both physically and visually for 22 hours a day. This family has a 2-year-old that was taken away by ICE and put in a foster home. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When Hutto opened last May, Chertoff publicly stated ICE wanted to build more of these family facilities. ICE says that it is like a home away from home for the women and kids from some 20 different countries. This American tragedy is going to break wide open… like real soon!!! The battle lines are drawn. On one side, those who are repulsed and appalled by this fascist act, and on the other, those who think it’s justifiable for national security. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We trust that the world will see that Americans will wake up to the fact that they have been duped into thinking that the administration would never commit atrocities, let alone right in our own country. That waking up is taking place at this very moment. The disclosure of the Hutto prison camp will break the current administration’s secret partnership with greedy criminal minds. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If anyone wants to learn more about this American tragedy, you can go to www.texascivilrightsreview.org and look around. Watch the few video clips there. Dig into the documentation, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which President George H.W. Bush refused to sign. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A motorcade called the Border Caravan of Americans is currently traveling from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas (scheduled arrival: February 9) in protest against the border wall legislation and the mentality behind it. The border wall was conceived by the same demented individuals that are imprisoning innocent children for money in the name of national security. On February 12, the Border Caravan will move up to Taylor, Texas to hold Vigil IV in front of the Hutto prison camp. The theme will be Free the Children. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]MS/HG[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]MNA[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The imprisonment of innocent children flies in the face of everything that democracy, liberty, and justice is supposed to be about. It violates everything in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The lease on the prison camp was to expire January 31. Yet, on January 30, despite the outpouring of local citizens’ protest and appeal, the Williamson County Commissioners unanimously voted to extend the lease for two years. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This is a money laundering project between Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and the federal bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -- and private prisons. The private prison CCA gets $7000 a month PER CHILD that it has incarcerated. This is not only immoral, it is criminal. It is insanity. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Two Palestinian families that are legal were taken from their homes in Dallas, Texas early in November. The father of the Ibrahim family is in one prison camp. The mother and five of her children were in the Hutto prison camp but were recently released. She is pregnant and did not get to see a doctor during here nearly three-month incarceration. She was in one cell with one of her children. Her other four children were in two other cells, disconnected from their mother both physically and visually for 22 hours a day. This family has a 2-year-old that was taken away by ICE and put in a foster home. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When Hutto opened last May, Chertoff publicly stated ICE wanted to build more of these family facilities. ICE says that it is like a home away from home for the women and kids from some 20 different countries. This American tragedy is going to break wide open… like real soon!!! The battle lines are drawn. On one side, those who are repulsed and appalled by this fascist act, and on the other, those who think it’s justifiable for national security. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We trust that the world will see that Americans will wake up to the fact that they have been duped into thinking that the administration would never commit atrocities, let alone right in our own country. That waking up is taking place at this very moment. The disclosure of the Hutto prison camp will break the current administration’s secret partnership with greedy criminal minds. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If anyone wants to learn more about this American tragedy, you can go to www.texascivilrightsreview.org and look around. Watch the few video clips there. Dig into the documentation, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which President George H.W. Bush refused to sign. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A motorcade called the Border Caravan of Americans is currently traveling from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas (scheduled arrival: February 9) in protest against the border wall legislation and the mentality behind it. The border wall was conceived by the same demented individuals that are imprisoning innocent children for money in the name of national security. On February 12, the Border Caravan will move up to Taylor, Texas to hold Vigil IV in front of the Hutto prison camp. The theme will be Free the Children. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]MS/HG[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]MNA[/FONT]
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