Protest of Immigration Detention Center : Houston Indymedia

This week the leaders of the richest and most powerful 8 countries in the world are meeting in Germany for the Group of 8 (G8) conference. During the G8 gathering these leaders will continue to strategize and promote the economic and political policy of neoliberal "globalization". These 8 nations, which compose 65% of the global economy have pushed for an economic system which impacts the whole world, making the rich richer, and impoverishing millions.

These meetings have been met with resistance from workers, youth and social movements from developing countries as well as inside rich countries, who object to the global machine that feeds on blood and defecates dollars. Today, June 4th, the Dissent! Network in Europe has called for a Global Day of Action for freedom of movement and equal rights for all! We here in Houston, Texas, USA have heard this call to action and share the same concerns as our brothers and sisters in Europe and all over the world who are taking action today in solidarity with migrants and refugees of the global economy.

Here in the United States, a rising xenophobic sentiment in large parts of the population is being fed and exploited by politicians who are scapegoating immigrants and this system that is stratifying the working class.

To this end we have chosen to commit an act of civil disobedience, blocking gates to the "Houston Processing Center"; an Immigrant Detention Facility in North Houston run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). CCA is a company that turns a profit of over a billion dollars a year by administering prisons for state and federal governments. They run the notorious Don T. Hutto Facility in Taylor Texas, a converted jail that imprisons asylum seekers and children. These children are subject to inhumane treatment and ICE/CCA denied access to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants this past month as he tried to investigate the conditions at the Hutto Facility. By the fall of 2007 ICE will spend an estimated 1 billion dollars a year to detain over 27,500 people. ICE operates eight Service Processing Centers and seven contract detention facilities such as Hutto, Raymondville and the Houston Processing Center, all three run by CCA.

We decided we had to put our bodies on the line in an effort to slow down and expose the oppression and exploitation of immigrants by the capitalist economic order, the US Government and the US Prison Industrial Complex. We condemn the policies of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Corrections Corporation of America. We recognize this escalation of raids and deportations are not a fundamentally new development, but part of a continued effort to terrorize our communities for the sake of maintaining an unjust social order.

We stand for globalization from below; equal social, political, and cultural rights for all, and the right to freedom of movement. We want a political and economic system that puts people before profits. On June 4th we stand with oppressed people and those all over the world taking action for human freedom and against the encrouching borders between our peoples.

photos from the scene

check out this coverage from Chanel 13:

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=5364318

not that bad..

Esta semana los líderes de los países más ricos y poderosos en el mundo se están reuniendo en Alemania para la conferencia del Grupo 8 (G8). Durante la reunión, estos líderes continuaron a promover las políticas económicas y políticas neoliberales de “globalización.” Estas ocho naciones, quienes componen 65% de la economía global, han empujado por un sistema económico que impacta todo el mundo, uno que enriquezca los más ricos, y empobrezca millones.

Estas reuniones del G8 se han enfrentado con mucha resistencia desde los trabajadores, jóvenes, y movimientos sociales desde países desarrollando y también desde adentro los países mas ricos, quienes están en contra de la maquina global que se alimenta con sangre y defeca dólares. Hoy, el 4 de junio, la Dissent! Network (¡Red de Disentimiento!) en Europa hizo una llamada por un Día Global de Acción por el movimiento libre e igualdad para todos. Nosotros aquí en Houston, Texas, EEUU hemos escuchado esta llamada y compartimos las mismas preocupaciones de nuestros hermanos y hermanas en Europa y por todo el mundo que están actuando hoy en solidaridad con los emigrantes y refugiados de la economía global.

Aquí en los Estados Unidos, el sentimiento de xenofobia contra los inmigrantes esta en alza en una gran parte de la población. Los políticos estadounidenses en contra de inmigrantes explotan y alimentan este sentimiento, y al mismo tiempo, fortalecen el sistema que esta estratificando la clase trabajadora en nuestro país.

Por eso, hemos decidido realizar un acto de desobediencia civil, bloqueando las puertas del Houston Processing Center, un centro de internamiento de inmigrantes situado en el norte de Houston y administrada por la Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). CCA es una empresa que gana más de un mil millones de dólares cada ano, manteniendo cárceles para los gobiernos estatales y federal. Esta empresa mantiene el centro de detención famoso, Don T. Hutto, que antes era una cárcel. Ahora el centro Hutto encarcela inmigrantes esperando asilo político y niños; ambos sufren de tratamiento inhumano. El mes pasado, CCA prohibió la entrada del Rapporteur Especial de los Derechos de Emigrantes de las Naciones Unidas cuando trató de hacer una investigación sobre las condiciones en el centro.

Para este otoño, es estimado que el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos (conocido como ICE) estará gastando un mil millón de dólares cada año para poder detener mas que 27,500 personas. ICE administra ocho centros de proceso y siete centros de internamiento como Hutto, Raymondville, y el Houston Processing Center, los tres mantenidos por CCA.

Decidimos poner nuestros cuerpos en frente de la maquinaria de represión, para poder retrasar y exponer la opresión y explotación de inmigrantes realizado por el orden económico capitalista, el gobierno estadounidense, y el complejo prisión-industrial estadounidense. Condenamos las políticas del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos y la Corrections Corporation of America.

Reconocemos que esta intensificación de redadas y deportaciones no es algo nuevo, sino es parte de una esfuerza continua para aterrorizar nuestras comunidades con el objetivo de mantener un orden social injusto.

Nosotros salimos en defensa de la globalización desde abajo, la igualdad social, política, y cultural para todos, y el derecho de movimiento libre. Queremos un sistema político y económico que pone la gente antes de ganancias. Hoy nos unimos con toda la gente oprimida, y esos por todo el mundo que están defendiendo la libertad humana y luchan contra la construcción de todas las fronteras que nos están separando.

Houston Sin Fronteras
4 junio 2007

When visiting my husband at that detention center, i read a sign that stated how much that facility takes pride on their "Accountability" which i have found to be NONEXISTENT! Nobody seems to know anybody about my husband, according to Immigration, he is not even in custody, bu he has been calling me from that facilty for the last month and i have been visiting him there and putting money in his commisary for the last month! When I called immigration-which by the way, after a million calls, finally answered- i was told that whoever processed his information left it unfinished and "...it looked like they did not finish their job.." This has been ongoing and i do not see how the government pays this facility while they do not even do their job and in the meantime the people in there could be functioning members of society and paying taxes if they were granted the chance to work legally int he united states. The recession the US is going thru has nothing to do with the war, it has to do with the fact that so many underpaid illegal aliens are being deported, hence the decrease in productions and the loss in crops because there is not enough cheap manual labor to do the job! Sure most people who are against illegal immigrants want them out, but they do not realize that whoever will be replacing them (the immigrants) at their job will now be able to DEMAND benefits, fair pay and varius other benefits that immigrants are not paid.

GIVE IMMIGRANTS AN AMNESTY AND WATCH THE US ECONOMY FLOURISH LIKE IT HAPPENED IN THE 80'S!! IMMIGRANTS ARE THE DRIVING FORCE OF THIS NATION, THEY WERE IT THEN, AND THEY ARE NOW! IT WOULD ONLY BE SMART TO GRANT THE AMNESTY THAT WE HAVE ALREADY EARNED.