Human Rights Activists Protest Immigrant Prisons
Written by admin, Jul 31, 2009, 0 Comments
Courtesy Stephen Sullivan,
Local pro-immigrant groups will convene at the CCA facility located near Saunders and Loop 20. The demonstration will take place on August 1, 2009 at 10:00 a.m and includes a march from the HEB parking lot on Saunders to the immigrant detention center. The protest is against the nationwide detention of immigrants that has been steadily occurring in the last few years. This group of people hopes to bring awareness to a national dilemma that is taking place on a day to day basis in our community.
The CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) facility is one of many privately funded prisons that profit from the government’s attack on Latin American immigrants. Although Congress has managed to keep immigrant reform out of the limelight, they have done nothing to stop the building of these prisons and have only increased the number of Border Patrol and Immigration Custom Enforcement agents (more commonly referred to as ICE agents) on the US-Mexican border.
While the US continues its assault on the Latin community with more law enforcement aid and the arrival of a wall, many hard working men and women are being imprisoned unjustly. Their crime? Chasing the American dream just like all citizens and their ancestors before them. Locked up and stripped of all their human rights, these individuals often include the elderly, pregnant women, and even American born children. Reports of abuse have surfaced in multiple prisons including those in South Texas. Immigrants in a Port Isabel prison have resorted to hunger strikes as there only means of protest against the physical, emotional abuse and neglect they face in government custody.
Whether these may or may not be isolated incidents is of no importance. The only relevant thing is that humans should not be punished for wanting a better life. To many, America is the symbolism of freedom and that is what Lady Liberty states in her tablet. After all the words inscribed don’t read “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free so we can put them all in jail and treat them like animals
