Detention Watch Network: Monitoring & Challenging Immigration Detention, Immigration Enforcement & Deportation

Video by @ResistNetwork: Silky Shah on the Profit Made in Detention Facilities

Will Coley — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:12:04 +0000

Research interview from www.resistnetwork.com

Bloggers from @LIRSorg Visit Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, #NJ

Will Coley — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:18:45 +0000

Written by Anne Dutton is LIRS’s Advocacy Assistant. Kavita Puri is LIRS’s Advocacy Intern. Reposted from the LIRS blog.

The Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, New Jersey is an ominous large grey brick building located on a street filled with industrial plants. It houses immigrant detainees, asylum seekers and individuals awaiting their immigration removal proceedings before the Immigration Court.

This place felt different from other correctional facilities we have visited. Absent were the bright white and grey walls that color most penitentiaries. Detainees moved freely about their unit which includes bedrooms and day rooms. Counselors, instead of guards, roam the halls monitoring and interacting with the detainees while carrying out the positive reinforcement model of the center.

Although the staff has worked hard to create a community-based feel to the facility, it was impossible to forget that these immigrants have violated U.S. civil laws, not criminal laws, and should not be detained in the first place. We also found it hard to reconcile how the facility staff described how easy it was for immigrants to access legal counsel and presentations with the reports from the organizations that work with these detained immigrants on a daily basis.

We were fortunate to meet with three detainees and to hear their stories and perspectives on living a detained life. Three women, from Haiti, Guatemala, and Liberia, spoke to us about the violence and tumultuous events that made them flee their home countries to come to the United States, hoping for a life of freedom and opportunity.

The woman from Guatemala shared how dehumanizing it was to be detained.

The Haitian woman recounted the devastation after the earthquake in 2010 and how difficult it was to leave her young child while she sought a job to help support him back in Haiti.

The Liberian woman described how government officials asked her to check-in periodically with them. She followed all of their rules, but for no apparent reason during one of her regular check-ins, the government locked her up. Today marks one month that she has been detained.

While U.S. immigration detention policy has slightly improved in recent years, speaking to the detainees at the Delaney Hall Detention Facility was a clear reminder that this punishment does not fit the crime.

Stand with LIRS as we oppose harmful detention provisions and demand dignity for detained refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons.

Police Disrupt #Jan24Divest Action in Los Angeles County: Video via @PrisonDivest

Will Coley — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:00:59 +0000

via Enlace’s Prison Divestment campaign:

After they wrecked our economy, Big Banks are now financing anti-immigrant laws and policies making millions from separating and incarcerating our community. AND these Big Banks want US to pay for it, by giving up basic human rights of housing, migrating, healthcare, education and jobs… We’re going to FIGHT BACK!

We Demand Big Banks:

Stop financing anti-immigrant policies and laws like Arizona Copycat Laws and (IN)Secure Communities

End connections with racist anti-immigrant politicians and the prison industry

Pay the community reparations for the harm they have done by creating insecure neighborhoods and destroying families

Invest in people and Pay Reparations to OUR Community!

ACTION ALERT [update] via @The_Advocates: Submission on immigration detention to UN Special Rapporteur

Will Coley — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:24:33 +0000

Reposted from the Advocates blog

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants is seeking submissions on immigration detention worldwide. Michele Garnett McKenzie of The Advocates and Laura Rivas and Cathi Tactaquin of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights have offered to coordinate a joint submission for Detention Watch Network. The submission will include:

A brief background of immigrant detention in the U.S., the status to date of promised detention reforms, and a list of 5 priority issues linked to international human rights for the Rapporteur’s investigation.
An appendix of recent reports on detention and past submissions to international human rights bodies

Here are ways that you can be involved:

You are welcome to send any reports, case examples, and other materials that you think should be included in the collaborative submission. Please send these directly to Michele Garnett McKenzie at mmckenzie@advrights.org
Given the very short timeframe, we are not able to have a more collaborative process. However, you are welcome to send suggestion for priorities to Michele as well. We will do our best to draft as comprehensive a submission as possible.
There will be an opportunity for organizations to add your name to the final submission.
We also encourage you to submit your own materials directly to the UNSR if you have the capacity and resources.

There will also be other opportunities to share your expertise on immigration detention with international human rights bodies throughout 2012, including drafting of the ICCPR Shadow Report.

Video by @TheRealNews: National Actions Target Private Prison Investors, @WellsFargo

Will Coley — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:45:14 +0000

Demonstrators call upon Wells Fargo and others to divest from for-profit prison corporations like the Geo Group

Protest Photos from Texans United for Families & Against the Prison Prison Industry

Will Coley — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:33:18 +0000

Click to view slideshow.

A coalition of immigrant rights groups called on Wells Fargo to divest of their holdings in the for-profit private prison industry. Detention of immigrants will destroy countless families and cost taxpayers more than $1.7 billion this year. Benefiting from this practice are companies like GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, as well a companies like Wells Fargo, that have invested in the growth of the private prison industry.

According to SEC filings, Wells Fargo currently holds over 4 million shares in GEO Group and 50,000 shares in CCA. Combined, those shares are valued at $120 million. Further, Wells Fargo, a recipient of billions of bailout dollars, is a major contributor to politicians who have championed the increased incarceration of immigrants. Tell Wells Fargo to invest in our communities and divest from the private prison industry!

Protest endorsers include Grassroots Leadership and Texans United for Families.

Immigrant rights & criminal justice communities join forces to protest private prisons in DC

etucke — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:01:48 +0000

On January 24 over a hundred people gathered in Tivoli Square to call for a boycott of Wells Fargo, one of the primary investors in GEO Group. GEO is the second largest private prison corporation in the country, and manages about 18% of immigration detention beds. Private prison companies lobby extensively at the federal, state and local levels for the laws and policies that are putting ever-growing numbers of people behind bars.

Tuesday’s protest was part of a National Day of Action, called for by Enlace’s Prison Divestment Campaign. The action in DC was one of a dozen simultaneous events around the country calling attention to the role of private prison companies in perpetuating the mass-incarceration epidemic. Friends and allies from OccupyDC as well as from the criminal justice community helped organize, produce and to outreach for what turned out to be a great event.

3/23 in Newark, #NJ: Immigrant Detainees – Alone, Unrepresented & Imprisoned

Will Coley — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:10:02 +0000

via Anju Gupta, Director, Immigrant Rights Clinic, Rutgers University School of Law – Newark

Please save the date for a day-long conference on immigration detention to be held on March 23, 2012 at Rutgers Law School — Newark. A save the date flyer is attached and the text pasted below. Please circulate widely.

As of now, panel topics will likely include:

The realities of civil immigration detention (including who is being detained and why and the conditions of their confinement);
Mandatory detention (including the impact of mandatory detention policies and alternatives to detention);
Security and technology (including the use of video hearings, restricted access to lawyers, or restricted access to a law library or computer technology); and
Access to counsel in immigration court proceedings for detainees

Conference speakers will be announced and registration will open shortly. Feel free to e-mail me with speaker recommendations.

——————————

PLEASE SAVE THE DATE
MARCH 23, 2012Rutgers School of Law–Newark

123 Washington Street, Newark, NJ

IMMIGRANT DETAINEES: ALONE, UNREPRESENTED, AND IMPRISONED

A day-long conference examining the immigration detention system.

Co-sponsored by Rutgers School of Law – Newark, Seton Hall Law, Lowenstein Sandler PC, Rutgers-Newark Center for Migration and the Global City, Rutgers Immigrant Rights Collective, and the Rutgers Human Rights Forum

1/24 across US: National Day of Action for @PrisonDivest ( #Jan24DIVEST)

Will Coley — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:32:44 +0000

Enlace, in partnership with community groups and unions across the US, is calling on all public and private institutions to divest their holdings in Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group, America’s largest for profit prison corporations which have profited from billions in taxpayer money.

Together with Wall Street investors these companies finance anti immigrant laws like AZ Copycat Laws and lobby for anti immigrant federal policies like SCOMM.

Prison investors include Wells Fargo, Bank of America, General Electric, Fidelity, Wellington, and Vanguard.

Enlace is coordinating a National Day of Action on January 24th. Actions are being planned across the US. To host an action and get involved contact Daniel at 213-284-3802 or Daniel@enlaceintl.org

Actions are being planning in:

Video by @Breakthrough: DESERTED – The Human Rights Crisis on Our Soil

Will Coley — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:52:11 +0000

The remains of at least 6,000 migrants have been found in U.S. desert land since U.S.-Mexico border policies were implemented in the 1990s. Some groups estimate that for each set of remains recovered, those of 10 more people are lost to the harsh desert elements. Advocates and authorities attribute the escalating number of deaths not only to rising heat but also to ever-tightening border security forcing migrants into more remote and dangerous terrain. Deserted calls on viewers to recognize these deaths as a humanitarian emergency and human rights crisis.

The video includes chilling images of a morgue in Tucson, Arizona in which row after row of body bags contain human remains that may never be identified, of people whose families may never know what happened to them.

Stand with Breakthrough and recognize this human rights crisis that is taking place at our border. Watch and share this video, and take action against this human rights crisis with No More Deaths and Coalition de Derechos Humanos.

VIDEO CREDITS: Directed, filmed and edited by Dana Variano with Ishita Srivastava; music by Denver Dalley; post-production audio by Hobo Audio. Produced by Breakthrough.