LatinaLista — The first family at the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility, the converted prison where non-Mexican immigrant families awaiting processing of their deportation cases, have been released.
T. Don Hutto Residential facility
E-rumors were circulated late last night that the Ibrahim family, who include four children ages 5, 8, 14 and 15 and their 5-month pregnant mother, would be released at 10 a.m. this morning at the facility outside Austin, Texas. The e-rumor evidently is fact and the family is being picked up by limousine and chauffeured back to their home in Richardson, Texas. Presumably to be reunited with their father who was held at a separate detention facility in the state of Texas.
The family will be returning to their apartment that has been kept and paid for by the brother of Mr. Ibrahim for the past 3 months, who has also been taking care of the youngest Ibrahim child, 3-year-old Zahra. Zahra was born in the United States and therefore could not be held with her family.
Because of the nature of the Ibrahim’s case, being Palestinians seeking asylum because of the extreme violence and danger taking place in their home country, plus the medical condition of Mrs. Ibrahim, the children with her, the father detained elsewhere, the separation from their youngest child, and the fact that no country would accept them — all combined in a perfect storm of pressure and public outcry that it forced a federal appeals board, The Board of Immigration Appeals, to reopen the asylum case.
According to experts, it’s unheard of that the Board of Immigration Appeals would reverse itself on an asylum case and reopen it for a Palestinian. An ICE spokesman said that the board’s decision “in effect, wipes away the Ibrahim’s deportation order.”
That is good news.
Yet, there are more children locked up behind those bars with their mothers who are supposed to be having their cases reviewed for deportation as well. They don’t come from countries where violence drives the people out to look for a better way of living, but rather, those countries where abject poverty is the cause.
The sad thing is that these other children, who don’t deserve to be behind bars, are anonymous and have no one to give their voice to their situations, like the Ibrahim children luckily had.
One man, Jay Johnson-Castro, is trying to give those other children a voice by staging a march from San Diego to the Hutto facility in Taylor, TX.
In an email that Jay sent to his supporters last week, he says:
I’m taking off in a few minutes for San Diego. I will be joining others for the Border Caravan, a motorcade, that will drive from San Diego all the way to Brownsville…in protest of the border wall. Virtually every mayor that I’ve been able to contact, from El Paso to Brownsville, is either hosting us if we stay in their city or meeting us as we pass through the 1280 miles of the Texas portion.
The Border Caravan will then swing up to Taylor, Williamson County, Texas on the (February)12th…before we head back to San Diego. We will hold Vigil IV in front of the Hutto prison camp. We want every mother and child freed immediately. We want the two Palestinian families that were living in Dallas freed…to go back to their American way of life.
Then Jay made an uncharacteristic request that Latina Lista feels deserves to be shared:
For those of you who have read this far, I make a most humble appeal. I often don’t know how to pay for the gas to travel from Del Rio to Austin, to Brownsville…let alone to San Diego. When I leave this morning, I will only have $62 in my pocket. I am embarking on a 7500 mile trip. If any one is willing to help…I will humbly accept that help…with deep gratitude. I am providing the e-mail address of my friend as volunteer assistant, Sarah Boone. sboone@stx.rr.com.
As an “out of the box†60-y-o American who was raised in poverty in the Alaskan wilderness, I am proud to say that I’ve never asked for any help and I have never used one dollar from a social program. But I find myself having to swallow my pride here and ask for any help that anyone is willing to offer. I am totally dedicating my life to freeing these children. This crime cannot continue to be committed on American soil…let alone in the State of Texas. Not in the name of democracy, liberty, justice. Surely…not in the name of national security.
May the true Americans…may “We the people of the United States of Americaâ€â€¦FREE THE CHILDREN…
All they need is a voice to be heard.
