from http://blog.amnestyusa.org

This past weekend, the New York Times reported on the widespread and coordinated cover up of deaths in immigration detention. One such case, highlighted in our 2009 report on immigration detention, Jailed Without Justice, involved Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had lived in the US for ten years when he was detained. Newly available video shows him begging for help while handcuffed on the floor in solitary confinement. After four months in a coma, he died in detention.

The deliberate and coordinated dehumanization of the 107 people known to have died in immigration detention is shocking and shameful. For the last seven years Amnesty has monitored, investigated and advocated on the mistreatment of immigrants in detention, some of the core problems seemed to stem from incompetence and mismanagement. But it seems clear now that officials involved in immigration detention were regrettably quite competent at re-framing deaths due to neglect, and that detention facilities were in fact well coordinated in the cover up of ill-treatment and disregard.

What crime would you assume a woman committed to deserve to be shackled while giving birth, to not be able to hold her child, and to have to bare the pain of the increasing breast milk that would not go to feed her newborn? What if she was not convicted of anything at all?

This is what happened to Alma Chacón in October. It took a while for me to hear about this, surprisingly. But apparently it has happened to another woman in MCSO custody just this past week (as of yet it doesn't seem to have been covered by the media).

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from The Nation
By Jacqueline Stevens

"If you don't have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he's illegal, we can make him disappear." Those chilling words were spoken by James Pendergraph, then executive director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of State and Local Coordination, at a conference of police and sheriffs in August 2008. Also present was Amnesty International's Sarnata Reynolds, who wrote about the incident in the 2009 report "Jailed Without Justice" and said in an interview, "It was almost surreal being there, particularly being someone from an organization that has worked on disappearances for decades in other countries. I couldn't believe he would say it so boldly, as though it weren't anything wrong."

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from judicialwatch.org

Arizona courts must stop conducting large criminal hearings involving illegal immigrants arrested along the Mexican border because they violate federal rules, according to a decision issued this week by a notoriously liberal appellate court famous for getting overturned by the Supreme Court.

To ease the overwhelming load of annually trying tens of thousands of illegal immigrants caught entering the U.S., federal courts in the Grand Canyon State hold mass hearings for those arrested in high-traffic areas, known as zero tolerance zones. A 2005 program (Operation Streamline) implemented to help curb the illegal immigration crisis in border states calls for the criminal prosecution of undocumented aliens in federal courts.

The idea is to dramatically reduce and deter illegal immigration and secure the nation’s borders from a potential terrorist threat and the illegal entry of weapons and drugs, according to Border Patrol officials. Before Operation Streamline was implemented, illegal border crossers were simply routed to civil deportation proceedings with no further consequences. Under Operation Streamline they face incarceration and subsequent deportation.

Last year alone, Arizona held criminal immigration proceedings for 25,000 illegal aliens. To deal with the influx, overwhelmed courts routinely include 50 to 100 defendants at a time. But the San Francisco-based 9th Court of Appeals claims the procedures involving multiple defendants violate federal rules and must be stopped.

"No judge, however conscientious, could have possessed the ability to hear distinctly and accurately fifty voices at the same time," according to the 19-page decision which acknowledges the “understandable” shortcuts that border-state courts adopt to manage their huge caseloads.

Privately-run Eloy Detention center in Arizona had the highest number of immigrant detainee deaths of all facilities that house immigrants. The Corrections Corporation of American (CCA) is notorious for bad conditions in their private prisons and other facilities.

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How soon will it be that anyone who refuses to submit to an iris scan will end up in a detention center? Or at least we'll be unemployed...

I mentioned the biometrics as part of immigration reform in my "Freedom Not Reform" article recently, but i didn't even take it as seriously as i think it now needs to be taken.

Some promoters of immigration reform are insisting that biometrics technology will be necessary to keep everyone in line. Man, what a great way to get all those who value civil liberties to unite against giving undocumented immigrants a way to become legal- even those who would like to see legalization. Is Schumer getting kickbacks from the biometrics industry? Someone needs to look into this. And what's the status of the Real ID, anyway?

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

While i think it is wrong to place value on someone based on their citizenship like most people do, i also think that the example of Brad Zazueta shows the ways in which targeting a group of people can catch unintended victims up in it. Zazueta was adopted at 11 weeks old after he arrived from Mexico into the hands of his adoptive parents.

from arizona.indymedia.org

Arpaio's latest media stunt has been described as dehumanizing, degrading, barbaric, and worse. During the afternoon of Wednesday, February 4th, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio had about 200 undocumented immigrant inmates marched down a public street to a segregated tent city jail facility. He claims that housing the inmates separately in tents would save money, but has not explained how.

The procession was short, but dozens of protesters demonstrated their opposition nearby. Some inmates responded by raising their fists.

One individual was arrested while leaving. He faces a charge for Class III Criminal Trespassing. He was released later that night but must return to court.

Arpaio has been specifically targeting undocumented immigrants with sweeps and workplace raids. "I expect more arrests," Arpaio said. "I expect to put more tents up." (Associated Press). Recently, continuing media attention has been drawn over a video of a ski-masked Maricopa County Sheriff's officer arresting a mother of two crying kids during Arpaio's latest sweep in Buckeye in early January.

Further media and links:
Parade of Injustice (video)
Immigrants get one camp. But which one is for you?

Stop Arizona. Stop Arpaio. Stop the Circus.
Joe Arpaio Goes Medieval, While Barack Obama's America is a Million Miles Away

February 2, 2009

Immigration News

Immigrant Prisoners Stage Uprising

Details are still sketchy of an inmate uprising at a privately-operated federal detention facility in West Texas last Saturday. Reports in the US and Mexican press suggest the revolt, involving hundreds prisoners at the Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos, Texas, erupted after complaints of poor medical treatment went unheeded.

More arizona police are getting trained to enforce immigration law. The maricopa county sheriff's department is already doing this, and this time it's the Yavapai county sheriff' department. The article, Sheriff's deputies set to begin ICE training, said,

The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors this past week approved an agreement between the sheriff's office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, that will allow YCSO officers to begin enforcing federal immigration law after receiving specialized training.