Pardon me if I am posting incorrectly here, but this story needs to get noticed by the Canadian media.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/17/84624/4516Story originated here:
http://www.thenextagenda.ca/It also needs some media notice here, but i hold little hope media here would do anything resembling the right thing. I also called Senator Leahy's office, they were all there today. She, his staff, took down all the info and is following up.
From Kos today 2/17/07
by edie
Sat Feb 17, 2007 at 06:05:32 AM PST
Crossposted from The Next Agenda
I just read this story this morning and had to share.
I've heard of these detention centers in the US but now they have incarcerated one of ours.
Follow me below the fold
* edie's diary :: ::
*
An aircraft heading for Canada from Guyana had to make an emergency landing in Puerto Rico after a passenger suffered a mid-flight heart attack.
It is a complicated story so click on the link to read more. I'll post a few snips.
The Star
Feb 16, 2007
A 9-year-old Canadian boy is in a Texas detention centre after his flight to Toronto made an unscheduled stop and U.S. officials detained his family.
Now the boy's Iranian parents are pleading with Canadian officials to help secure the family's release from the immigration holding facility, which has come under fire for allegedly detaining children in sub-standard conditions.
"All the time he is asking me, `Why am I wearing the uniform? Why I am here?'" the boy's mother said, as she sobbed during a telephone interview from the detention facility yesterday.
"We didn't do nothing. My child is innocent."
The parents, who have no status in Canada, asked that their names not be published out of fear of eventually being returned to Iran, where they say they were previously imprisoned and suffered physical and sexual abuse.
The family was detained for 5 days in Puerto Rico and then flown to the detention facility in T. Don Hutto Family Detention Center in Taylor, Texas.
More
On Tuesday, the boy's father phoned the University of Texas's immigration clinic and spoke with Matthew Pizzo, a student worker there. Pizzo then called the Canadian consulate in Dallas, where an unnamed employee told him the consular officials would investigate the detainment.
When he didn't receive a return call, Pizzo said he called back late Wednesday and left a message. There's been no further word from Canadian officials and consulate spokesperson Henry Wells could not be reached for comment yesterday.
And this
"The interesting issue here is they weren't even trying to get into the U.S.," said Francis Valdez, a supervising attorney at the university's immigration clinic. "They were just trying to get back to Canada."
The parents said they hoped to reapply for asylum in Canada armed with evidence of what happened to them in Iran after they were deported.
That boy is Canadian, born in Toronto.
Here are some stories I dug up on that detention facility in Texas.
Look inside immigrant detention center
The Department of Homeland Security invited us to look beyond the protesters, the razor wire and prison bars to see the other side of the controversy - the detention of immigrant families at this modified state prison in Taylor, Texas.
Since last May, an estimated 400 detainees, most of them children, await deportation, sometimes for months.
"We can either split them up or let them stay together in a safe and humane place, the best way to detain families," said Gary Mead, assistant director for the detention and removal operations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Up to 20 families live in each dormitory pod. They wear uniform scrubs and sleep in six by eight foot cells which feature bunk beds, a sink and a toilet.
Jeez, these kids really need to be locked away behind razor wire (snark)
And from The Dallas News
An inside look at where families are held
It looks like a maximum-security day care. Razor wire, strung high atop security fences, surrounds a "Backyard Adventures" swing set. Fake trees soften entrances to sunless cellblocks. And Sony PlayStations entertain immigrant children where Texas criminals once served hard time.
But human rights observers and civil rights advocates have condemned the decision to keep children in the Hutto center, citing abuses that include inadequate education, weight loss and psychological trauma. The government, they say, has a responsibility to find less-restrictive environments when the incarceration of minors is necessary.
And the LA Times
Immigration's net binds children too
Khadijah Bessuges is confined by metal gates and razor wire. She wears a uniform. She sleeps in an 8-by-15 cell, and stands by her cot four times a day when the guards count heads. She has only two pairs of panties. Her favorite teddy bear was confiscated. But she has her father, Sebastien, who sleeps in the cell with her.
Khadijah is 9 years old.
and
"Children being in jail with their parents is what is morally and ethically wrong with this picture," said attorney Frances Valdez of the University of Texas Immigration Law Clinic, who has clients at Hutto.
A former prison northeast of Austin, Hutto is run by a for-profit company with a controversial record. And though the facility is meant for detention measured in days, many immigrants are detained for months.
The average stay is about 55 days for asylum seekers, 40 for others, officials said.
The longest any family has stayed is 205 days. At Immigration and Customs Enforcement's other family facility, in Pennsylvania, the average stay is 59 days, activists say.
Damn, can you imagine your child or grandchild living inside these places for that long.
Here is a link with video of this horrid place.
Media Allowed To Tour Controversial Detention Center
The media was invited to tour the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, at 1001 Welch St. in Taylor. The center is being investigated by the American Civil Liberties Union for alleged human rights violations.
What the media saw was exactly what the government wanted them to see, and nothing else. The tour was very controlled and lasted just over an hour.
Does this sound like the media visits to Gitmo to anyone?
I am listing the address and phone numbers for the Canadian Embassy in Washington and Dallas, Texas
Embassy of Canada
Address: 501 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001, U.S.A.
Tel.: (202) 682-1740
Emergency toll-free to Ottawa: 1-888-949-9993
Fax: (202) 682-7738
E-Mail: wshdc-outpack@international.gc.ca
Canadian Consulate General - Dallas
St Paul Place
750 North St Paul Street, Suite 1700
Dallas, Texas
USA
75201
Tel: 1 (214) 922-9806
Fax: 1 (214) 922-9815
Can anyone please tell me how to go about getting more attention to this important story for our Canadian child?
With Thanks!
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/17/84624/4516
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