Shut Hutto Down! - Change we can believe in

Students for a Democratic Society of the University of Houston is calling for a protest at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center in Taylor Texas on Saturday March 7th. The T. Don Hutto Facility is a retrofitted medium security prison run by the Tennessee based Corrections Corporation of America, that detains pregnant women and women with children awaiting immigration court hearings.

This is a violation of the rights of children, a draconian false solution to the issues raised by human migration, a huge waste of taxpayer dollars going into the pockets of CCA shareholders, and a bad public policy, period. The intersection of xenophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria and the continual growth of prisons for profit is a threat to human rights. We can not sit by and allow private companies to profit of off the incarceration of children.

As part of the 100 actions in 100 days to end family detention we are calling on people and organization from throughout Texas to join us on March 7th in Taylor Texas at 11am at the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility 1001 Welch St, Taylor, TX‎ 76574. Please get in touch if you would like to be listed as a co-sponsor.

SDS in Houston will be leaving from the University of Houston campus at 7:30am to caravan to Taylor. If you would like a space in one of our vans (we are also asking for a deposit for the rental), or to carpool with us, please write us an email SDSUHtx@gmail.com.

To learn more about the T Don Hutto Facility and the struggle against detention for profit, check out:

http://tdonhutto.blogspot.com/
http://www.grassrootsleadership.org/100Actions.html
http://www.texasprisonbidness.org/

Please Repost
*Hutto: America's Family Prison*

Come see a short film about T. Don Hutto immigrant detention center, a private prison holding immigrant families including children as young as newborns in Taylor, Texas. The film makes a powerful argument against the detention of children and their families. After the film hear from of those who have been terrorized by our immigration system and learn how to become involved in the campaign to close Hutto. Proceeds from the event will go to benefit families who have been detained at the Hutto family detention center.

Saturday, February 9th, 7pm
MECA, 1900 Kane Street, Houston,
Call 713-802-9370 for directions or more information

5 to 10 dollar donation requested to help support families released from this family prison.

http://tdonhutto.blogspot.com/

We finished this for the Houston IMC Filmscreening that took place on January 16th 2008. Check it out and tell your peeps.

More information about the camp and how to support the folks who got arrsted, (including one who faces deportation) is online at www.nobordercamp.org

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About twenty protestors gathered Labor Day morning to protest in front of the Houston Processing Center. We called attention to the detention of workers and other folks at this Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility which is owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America.

We chanted and held signs and banners for passing traffic on Greens Road, which was slow on labor day, but quite supportive. We called for a press conference at 10am and it was well attended with reporters from El Dia, XicanoPwr, KTRH 740am, KHOU, KPRC, Telemundo and Univision (as well as us representing for Indymedia).

The press conference was kickef of by RoB of the Sin Fronteras Defense Committee, followed by Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership in Austin, followed by Luissana Santibanez also of Grassroots leadership, who spoke about her expierience of having her mother detained for 15 months in the Houston Processing Center and ultimately being deported. Ben Browning finished up by talking about the need for direct action, why they did it and how they dont regret it.

We ended with a little more chanting, and departed for some snacks and strategizeing our future campaign against detention of immigrants for profit.

coverage we've seen online so far:

http://www.khou.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=171677



PRESS RELEASE:
Houston Sin Fronteras and supporters will be rallying outside of the Houston Processing Center, an immigrant detention facility owned and managed by the private prison corporation Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), on Monday, September 3 from 9:00am – 11:00am. A press conference will be held at 10:00am.

The protest will be held on Labor Day to demand an end to the deportation of workers in the U.S. and for an end to the repressive detention policies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Corrections Corporation of America. The demonstration will also be held in solidarity with Elvira Arellano, the Chicago immigrant rights activist and mother deported after a protracted fight to stay with her U.S. citizen son, and other mothers held in detention centers as “criminals” often after committing the most minor of violations.

Legal charges against the two Houston Sin Fronteras defendants, arrested in June for committing civil disobedience at the prison, have been resolved. Out of initial charges that could have resulted in 3 and 1/2 years in prison, the defendants ended up having to pay a hundred dollar fine.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that operates the Houston Processing Center, this week settled a lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union regarding the human rights of immigrant children detained at the T Don Hutto Facility, another CCA prison in Taylor, Texas. Conditions at the prison will improve dramatically.

Assembling

by Houston Sin Fronteras
Monday, Sep. 03, 2007 at 4:05 PM

houstonsinfronteras[at]riseup.net

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Lots of Cop Cars

by Houston Sin Fronteras
Monday, Sep. 03, 2007 at 4:05 PM

houstonsinfronteras[at]riseup.net

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There were lots of cop cars and police horses, but had no verbal interaction with cops, ICE or CCA people.

Stop the Raids

by Houston Sin Fronteras
Monday, Sep. 03, 2007 at 4:05 PM

houstonsinfronteras[at]riseup.net

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Bob of Grassroots Leadership in Austin

by Houston Sin Fronteras
Monday, Sep. 03, 2007 at 4:05 PM

houstonsinfronteras[at]riseup.net

bobl.jpg, image/jpeg, 500x375

Luisanna of Grassroots Leadership

by Houston Sin Fronteras
Monday, Sep. 03, 2007 at 4:05 PM

houstonsinfronteras[at]riseup.net

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On August 16th, Ben and Ashley accepted a plea bargain at their court appearance for the civil disobedience they took part in on June 4th to block the entrance gates of the north Houston immigration jail for three hours. Upon pleading guilty to Criminal Trespassing, a class B misdemeanor, they were given time served and a $100 fine. With court costs, they have to pay $326 each ($752 total) and still owe the lawyer $4000. They accepted this plea bargain so that we could return to the front lines of the struggle as soon as possible, and return their energies to where they feel it does the most good - in the streets.

We feel that this plea agreement is an effort by Harris County and most likely the Corrections Corporation of America to sweep this issue under the rug. We have no intention of letting this happen. The struggle against the unjust policies of immigrant detention enforced by the federal government and private companies is becoming more widespread and coordinated throughout Texas and the United States.

This summer has seen an escalation of injustices in this system:
On July 20th Victoria Arellano died in the San Pedro California Detention Facility after being deprived of medication for treatment of AIDS, In the Del Rio, TX detention facility, run by GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut), 2 detainees have died this July and 2 hospitalized due to a mysterious illness. in El Paso on August 9th a pregant woman died after complaining for more than a week of a pain in her leg. At the Willacy County detention center (run by Corrections Corporation of America) in South Texas dozens of detainees have been fed food with maggots this month. We will not let these extreme injustices pass without comment, we will not let the terror of immigrant communities by Government agencies and predatory corporations pass without resistance.

Our victory in the courtroom is a signal that the injustices taking place behind the walls of these internment facilities are so grave, that CCA would prefer to keep it silent avoiding public prosecution of those of us with the priveledge of US citizenship who are dedicated to making stop, as well as by deporting and detaining immigrants who resist.

Houston Sin Fronteras will continue the campaign against the Corrections Corporation of America and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We will continue to struggle against the restrictions placed on freedom of movement. We have seen direct action work successfully to hinder the operation of the machinery of repression and encourage others to escalate our resistance to the immigrant detention system and prison industrial complex and physically shut it down!
We need your help! By charging Ben and Ashley with felonies early on we incurred large legal costs in getting a lawyer to fight these charges. We still need to raise $4,000 in legal fees. We have a benefit garage sale upcoming on September 1st at 1430 Studewood starting at 7am.

We also have union made t-shirts for sale with awesome hand drawn artwork. To get one, specify size and send money as designated below.

We need folks to open up their wallets, and where possible, organize benefits and send donations via paypal to seditioncollective@yahoo.com and via mail (send blank check, or well concealed cash) to:
Houston Sin Fronteras Defense Committee
c/o Houston ABC
PO Box 667164
Houston, TX, 77266

We will also be protesting outside of the Houston Processing Center (5520 Greens Road) on Labor Day September 3rd at 9am, to keep pressure on Corrections Corporation of America and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, demanding freedom for all the detainees.

Please keep track of what we're up to at:
http://myspace.com/houstonsinfronteras
and feel free to contact Houstonsinfronteras[at]Riseup.net if you can help support us or would like to get involved in Houston with the struggle for freedom of movement.

While we have won this small victory in the courtroom, the real criminals are still free - those who profit from the kidnapping, imprisonment and exploitation of millions of migrants.

Until all people are free, the struggle continues!

Ashley and Ben have to pay over $4000 in legal costs stemming from the June 4th arrests at the Houston ICE Detention Center in solidarity with Immigrant communities, and they still need our help. A benefit garage sale will be held on the 1st of September beginning at 7am at 1430 Studewood and we are seriously low on items to sale. We need your help in having more item to sell so that we can raise the money Ashley and Ben need to pay their lawyer. We are asking for people to bring any donations to 1430 Studewood Houston TX 77008 on Friday evening the 31st. If you need for items to be picked up, email me (Jose) at jlrodri4@yahoo.com or call 713-298-4854 and we'll try to make it happen. Please distribute widely and let's not leave our friends alone.

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We have also just printed Houston Sin Fronteras Defense Committee t-shirts to raise funds (see below), they are union made shirts on black and white. We have smal, medium and large, we can get other sizes made if you need them.

To order them, please 15 or 20 dollars per shirt (send blank check, money order or well hidden cash), and designate size and color to:
Houston Sin Fronteras
c/o Houston ABC
P.O. Box 667614,
Houston, TX 77266-7614

Please get in touch if you have any questions about how to support us:
houstonsinfronteras[at]riseup[dot]net

Small Black


Medium White (please ignore soy ice cream stains)

Houston Sin Fronteras joined activists across the state to participate in the 12th demonstration against the T. Don Hutto immigrant detention facility in Taylor, Texas. The Hutto "residential" facility, owned by Corrections Corporation of America, incarcerates and detains families and children.

Protestors carrying signs that read "Free the Children," "Toddlers are not Terrorists," and "Shut Hutto Down" marched 1.5 miles from Heritage Park in Taylor to the Hutto detention facility. The march took activists through the mostly abandoned downtown, across railroad tracks, and through a neighborhood near the facility. The facility is located at the end of the Martin Luther King Memorial Drive.. [ Read more ] [Photos of the Rally]

A group called Free the Children has been organizing the monthly protests against Hutto. Next month's protest will be Saturday, September 29th. Houston Sin Fronteras' next demonstration will be at the Houston Processing Center on Labor Day, September 3.

It was a pretty incredible and terrible sight. The facility is huge and the first thing we saw was children playing on a little playground that was completely surrounded by barbed wire fences. Activists started chanting "free the children" and "ninos, escucha!, estamos en la lucha!" in hopes that some of the children could hear us. As we got closer to the facility, the children were taken back inside.

The rest of the demonstration was held in front of the facility. A big sign in the front reads "Don T. Hutto – Residential Center."

"They say that it's a family center, but it's a prison," said Sherry, a Georgetown resident who has been to every protest at the Hutto facility. She says most people don't even know that children are being imprisoned in the facility.

Georgetown and Taylor are both in Williamson County. "We [the Williamson county residents] are paying to imprison innocent people," Sherry said.

She's been working with other Williamson County residents to put pressure on the county commissioners, who refuse to provide oversight at Hutto. The commissioners, according to Sherry, have been having secret meetings regarding their contract with CCA. She's working to make whatever's going on at these meetings to be public information.

A few other residents of Williamson County attended the protest, including representatives from the local LULAC chapter. Four members of Houston Sin Fronteras were there and the other attendees came from Austin and San Antonio.

Jeannette, a San Antonio resident, has been coming out regularly to the protests. During the June 23 protest, she learned that the children don't have access to physical education and rarely get to go outside. She also learned that the Muslim detainees are being forced to eat pork, which is strictly against their religion. Jeannette wants the detainees to be freed. "They're just immigrants coming here to work for a better life," she said..

The monthly protests at Hutto are being mainly organized by a group called Free the Children. The group began having monthly rallies in order to "not let anyone forget that children are still in prison," according to Antonio, a Free the Children organizer from San Antonio.

One of their goals has been to get community involvement from Taylor residents living near the detention facility. Two residents from a neighborhood facing the detention center participated in the rally on Saturday.

Margarita lives right around the corner from Hutto and thinks the facility is violating the human rights of its detainees. "Suposedly we're going oversees to give liberty to other countries, but there's no liberty here," she said.

She's especially disturbed by the detention of children and said she thought and she and her other neighbors should support the protests because Hutto is making children prisoners. "We are here protesting to free the children," Margarita said.

The next protest at Hutto will be Saturday, September 29.