ACLU releases detainee abuse doc: Tuesday in Tucson

Tucson Forum to Discuss Abuse of Detained Immigrants

http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/21101-1

TUCSON, Ariz. - The mistreatment of thousands of immigrants in Arizona detention centers will be discussed Tuesday evening at a community forum in Tucson. A two-year study by ACLU Arizona documents inhumane conditions, abuse and a lack of adequate legal protection for some 3,000 detained immigrants.

The July 12 forum starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Pima Community College downtown campus. Amethyst Room, Building CC, 1255 N. Stone Avenue, in Tucson.


Ten percent of the country's detained immigrant population is being held in Arizona. Many of the detainees have been held for months - or even years - while appealing their legal status.

ACLU Arizona staff attorney Victoria Lopez says some of the worst abuses were found at the Pinal County Jail, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracts for bed space.

"They noted verbal and mental abuse by guards. They noted a lack of ability for detainees to have contact visits with their family members. They noted detainees not having the opportunity to have outdoor recreation."

ICE officials say conditions at the Pinal County Jail meet or exceed federal detention standards. However, Lopez says, no one but ICE monitors conditions, the standards vary from facility to facility and they are not legally enforceable.

The ACLU report findings demonstrate the need for immediate reform of the immigration detention system, Lopez says. She suggests that a good first step would be for the federal government to terminate a costly contract that pays the Pinal County Jail an estimated $13 million a year to house immigrants.

"Detention costs are much, much higher than some alternatives to detention, which can cost as little as $12 dollars per day. At the Pinal County Jail, for example, the federal government contracts $59 dollars per day, per detainee."

Lopez adds there's a major misperception among the public about who is being held in Arizona's federal detention centers. She says they detainees are not necessarily "illegal" immigrants.

"Many of those being held are people who have legal permanent resident status and, in fact, may have an opportunity under the current U.S. immigration laws to fix their immigration status or remain legally in the United States."

The report is available for download at http://www.acluaz.org/detention-report-2011.

Upcoming Orientations and Trainings

August 20, Tucson: Special Training on Human Trafficking.
Learn the difference between smuggling and trafficking. How to recognize it. And what to do.
Led by ALERT: Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking.
10 am — 12:30 pm
St Andrew’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall
545 South 5th Avenue, Tucson
This training is open to all.
Contact us with questions.

August 27, Phoenix orientation
Learn about the immigration detention system. Get involved in the Restoration Project network of solidarity and support. Be part of starting the Phoenix Greyhound hospitality network.
10 am — 12:30 pm. Contact us for location.

September 17, Tucson orientation
Learn about the immigration detention system and how you can get involved in the Restoration Project network of solidarity and support by writing, visiting men and women detained, hosting asylum seekers and others just out of detention in your home, and being present at the Tucson Greyhound station to greet men and women just released from the Eloy detention center.
10 am — 12:30 pm.
Casa Mariposa, 340 S. 3rd Ave., Tucson


All events are free. Bring snacks to share.

Photos from Dignity not Detention Vigil

More than 70 people from across Arizona gathered to call for an end to the ICE contract with Pinal County Jail. Monthly vigils will continue until action is taken. Next vigil: August 11.

This first gathering was a beautiful, organic, peaceful, grassroots beginning. Poetry, personal testimony by two men who had been detained, ways to get involved, Aztec dances, singing, were all part of the vigil.

Vigil to ask ICE to terminate contract with County Jail in Florence

MEDIA ADVISORY

For Immediate Release:

Thursday, July 07, 2011   

Contact:

Alessandra Soler Meetze, ACLU of Arizona at 602-418-5499 (cell)/602-773-6006 (office)

COMMUNITY VIGIL CALLS FOR “DIGNITY NOT DETENTION”

Advocates Call for an End to Detention Contracts between

Pinal County Jail and ICE

PHOENIX— A coalition of immigrants’ rights groups, civil rights organizations and community members from across the state will hold a vigil at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 7^th at the Pinal County Jail (PCJ) in Florence to highlight abuses of immigrant detainees and call for an end to the detention contract between PCJ and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

According to a report recently released by the ACLU of Arizona, detainees at PCJ face conditions that jeopardize their safety and well-being including inadequate medical care, no contact visits with family, no outdoor recreation and verbal and mental abuse by jail personnel. Pinal County Jail is one of five detention centers contracted by ICE to detain 3,000 immigrant detainees on any given day in Eloy and Florence, Arizona. 

Advocates are calling on ICE to terminate its contract with Pinal County Jail, which according to news reports makes about $36,000 a night – or $13 million a year – off its contract with the federal government to house immigrants.

WHAT:                        Vigil outside of Pinal County Jail in support of immigrant detainees

Find the vigil event page on Facebook

WHEN:            6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 7, 2011 

WHERE:            In the parking lot of the Pinal County Superior Court (in the same plaza as the jail) at 971 N. Jason Lopez Circle in Florence, Arizona  

WHO:            The vigil is being organized by The Puente Movement, ACLU of Arizona, No More Deaths, The Restoration Project at Casa Mariposa, Corazón de Tucson, The Black Alliance for Just Immigration and other organizations and individuals

WHY:             To support all of the people inside immigration detention centers and to bring awareness about misguided immigration detention policies that have led to the dramatic increase in the number of detained immigrants who are subjected to inhumane conditions and injustices perpetuated by county contracts with ICE.   

Streamline steamrolls human dignity

 Vicki is a community member of Casa Mariposa in Tucson and a volunteer with the Restoration Project visiting, writing, and offering hospitality to detained immigrants. This article by her was published on the National Catholic Reporter blog. 

Tougher immigration enforcement ignores the humanitarian needs of migrants

Jun. 13, 2011

By Vicki Kline

• Immigration and the Church

TUCSON, ARIZ. — Every day, the courtroom in the De Concini Federal Courthouse which hosts Operation Streamline is typically full of 70 men and women from various parts of Mexico and Central America. Processed in groups, they are divided up into groups of people who will receive the same sentence. Each group, listening to the proceedings through interpretation headphones, waits its turn to be called in front of the Magistrate. Each person is given a plea bargain that has been created in advance between prosecutors for the U.S. Government, and defense attorneys who have met with each defendant for a few minutes that morning.

Operation Streamline was created in Del Rio, Texas, in 2005 to place criminal penalties on illegal entry into the various jurisdictions along the border. These criminal charges were to act as a deterrent to people; the idea was that the threat of jail time would prevent people from attempting to enter the United States without authorization.

I'd been there before, and this was all I expected to see when I walked into the courtroom recently. But it was not all: I walked into the courtroom and was greeted by a friend, a young man named Jaime*, with whom I had been visiting over the course of several weeks in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. 

Jaime turned his head toward the door, expressed his surprise to see me, flashed a smile, and lifted his hands, shackled together and to his waist, to wave. I smiled and waved in return, with some worry mixed in, and found a seat.

Read the rest...

Arizona Daily Star/ La Estrella article

Newspaper article about our greyhound station hospitality with men and women just released from Eloy detention center...

Sí tenemos una cara amable para indocumentados: los voluntarios

Una noche, hace muy poco, dos mujeres, una de China y la otra de México, entraron a la terminal de autobuses Greyhound del centro de Tucsón. Se veían perplejas y cansadas, y cada una llevaba una bolsa transparente de plástico y un sobre grande color amarillo, además de algunas pertenencias personales.
No conocían a nadie en la prácticamente vacía sala de espera. Ninguna hablaba inglés.
Pero al cabo de algunos minutos, Vicki Kline y Jean Boucher amablemente recibieron a las dos temerosas mujeres...


Read the full article in Spanish and English here...
http://azstarnet.com/article_dfc17698-87d1-11e0-848f-001cc4c03286.html

On a recent night, two women, one from China and other from México, walked into the downtown Greyhound bus terminal. They looked bewildered and tired, and each carried a clear plastic bag and a large yellow envelope, plus a few personal belongings.

They knew no one in the near-empty waiting room. Neither spoke English.

But within minutes, Vicki Kline and Jean Boucher gently greeted the two scared women.

The twoare volunteers who welcome immigrants released from the Eloy immigration detention facility. Five nights a week a government vehicle arrives at the Greyhound station, housed in a temporary building squeezed between Interstate 10 and the federal courthouse, and deposits the freed immigrants. They are released with the belongings they had with them when they were detained.

They are given nothing else but their release papers in the envelope.

That’s why a few Tucson volunteers with the Restoration Project have stepped in to offer assistance and, more important, a friendly smile.

“They’re free,” said Boucher.

Some of the immigrants require no assistance or don’t want help, said Boucher and Kline. Most do, however.

“Some people don’t know how to use a phone or don’t speak English,” said Kline.

The Restoration Project is a small, faith-based group which offers respite and hospitality to immigrants like María García. She was released from detention and looking to return to her New York City home.

Full article

Things we need

Four people have stayed at Casa Mariposa in the last week and a half. And volunteers have met dozens of folks at the greyhound station.  Some one goes every week night.

We bring water and snacks, extra bags and sweatshirts. If you'd like to help out this effort, we could currently use:

toothbrushes
toothpaste
bags, like cloth shopping bags, duffle, or back packs
longsleeve shirts or sweatshirts (the buses are cold)

Thanks to Jim M. who has brought us a lot of water, drinks, and snacks. And to Sean's mom who has donated a great deal of supplies and water as well. Thanks to all the amazing crew of volunteers too.  If you'd like to get involved, please contact us.

Thanks.