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Update on Nashville Family that Lost Children to State after Surviving Violent Attack

2:51 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family| Immigration| Nashville| Women| children · 1 Comment

7 Oct 2009

It reads like a bad novela if it weren’t the real nightmare that so many families are living in the United States. First, Maria Gurrola is violently attacked and her newborn, Yair Anthony Carillo, is abducted by a woman claiming to be an ICE agent. Then, once reunited with her baby, Maria lost Yair and her other three children, this time to State authorities who cited vague “safety issues”.

Yesterday, the petition to remove the children from the home was withdrawn and Gurrola has been reunited with all of her children.

Tuesday’s hearing was planned at Juvenile Court to discuss allegations that the family may have known of a plot to sell the baby for $25,000. Court documents did not detail who made the allegations.

Metro police spokesman Don Aaron released a press release saying that Metro police agree that the children should be returned to the parents after extensive interviews by Metro, TBI and the FBI over the last day. All the agencies are in agreement, he said.

“At this time, (authorities) do not believe the parents, Maria Gurrola and Jose Carrillo, are involved,” Aaron said. “Significant unanswered questions remain, however, including why Gurrola and her newborn son were chosen by alleged kidnapper, Tammy Renee Silas. Statements made to law enforcement by Silas are part of the continuing investigation.”

Now if only all the babies can be reunited with their mothers, like Cirila and Angeline.

Via / USA Today

Fake ICE Agent Kidnaps Infant, “Misrepresenting how the Government Works or Behaves in this Country”

3 Oct 2009

ALeqM5jmKc6IsGwelpJZpUA6AiJRxvKq2g Four day old Yair Anthony Carrillo and his mother, Maria Gurrolla of Nashville, Tennessee were doubly victimized by the fear that is the current immigration system in the United States on Tuesday, when the infant was kidnapped by a woman claiming to be an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

The fake official slashed Gurrolla after she initially refused to hand over the child though in the end Carillo was taken away from her.

As if having your newborn child violently taken from your arms weren’t traumatic enough, enter Yuri Cunza, president of Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and publisher of La Noticia, a Spanish language newspaper in Nashville who instead of connecting the long history of how immigration enforcement separates parents from their children, from Elvira Arellano to Cirila Baltazar Cruz, asks Latino immigrants communities to trust law enforcement and other state agencies who act as de facto ICE agents.

“I am really concerned about the possibility of newborn babies and Hispanic women can be targeted because of a level of vulnerability,” Cunza said…

Cunza said that the suspect posing as an immigration officer will create a chilling effect for Hispanics who regularly interact with immigration authorities. “It is misrepresenting how the government works or behaves in this country,” he said.

From Postville to Patchogue, the cries of immigrant mothers and children tell what is just another day on the job for those who continue to terrorize Latino immigrant communities and the carriers of hate who spread their racist gospel via the mainstream media. It is why children at a young age learn to stay close to their mothers in immigrant communities and maintain a low gaze in the presence of law enforcement. It doesn’t even matter if the ICE badge is real or not, just ask el espiritu de Brisenia Flores and her father. Yair Anthony Carrillo, with four days on this earth, is learning how to live in fear when he should be in his mother’s loving care and Latina motherhood is criminalized and victimized.

Updated: Late last night, after I wrote this post, Yair was found safe.

Via/ The Latin Americanist, Standing Firm, The Unapologetic Mexican

No Room at the Inn for Detained Immigrant Families

7:53 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family| Immigration| children · Comments Off

10 Aug 2009

Article_6326405 Seems like there are problems with the closing of T. Don Hutto as an immigrant family detention center. Under the announced restructuring of oversight of immigrant detention centers, the controversial Hutto center will no longer be used for families with children and will only be used to house women immigrants. Families were to be transferred to another immigrant detention center, Berks Family Shelter Care Facility in Leesburg, Pennsylvania. Except no one checked with Berks, which apparently has no room for more immigrant families.

County Commissioner Kevin S. Barnhardt, who is chairman of the county prison board, said he was unaware of the move by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Kenneth A. Borkey Jr., executive director of the Bern Township facility, which houses families awaiting immigration hearings, said the center is at capacity.

Oye I.C.E, Enough is Enough!

7:35 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism| Immigration| media justice · Comments Off

31 Jul 2009

The change the people in the United States were promised under the new presidential administration and his appointees has been slow in reaching some the most vulnerable, including the undocumented who despite loud “si se puedes” still live in fear in their own homes and at their jobs. For all the talk of rule of law, seems that Immigration and Customs Enforcement can’t be bothered by that little something called the Constitution.

America’s Voice has launched a petition asking the Department of Homeland Security to cut their shit (my words, not theirs).

I.C.E. Breaking

9:45 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Cities| Immigration| Violence · 4 Comments

24 Jul 2009

immigration_and_customs_enforcement_swat Earlier this week a report was released by the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law stating that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E) violated their own standards and rules, as well as the U.S. Constitution when it came to raids on houses.

The raids were supposed to focus on dangerous criminals, but overwhelmingly netted Latinos with civil immigration violations who happened to be present, the study said. Raiders mistakenly held legal residents and citizens by force in their own homes while agents rummaged through drawers seeking incriminating documents, the report said.

What is most disturbing isn’t so much what has already been done by I.C.E, which has been well documented, even if ignored by the mainstream media and political parties, but rather how the communities are being asked to trust I.C.E in enforcing new, expanded 287(g) programs because they will go after the “bad” immigrants like children.

The report said a similar “cowboy mentality” emerged in many other raids. In Paterson, N.J., last year, legal residents from Guatemala and their 9-year-old son, a United States citizen, were threatened with guns by immigration agents who had entered their home while the boy’s mother was in the shower.

The Luis Ramirez Murder: A Logical Step in the Process of Establishing a Subhuman Class

13 May 2009

banner165new Seems like every org and their mother want to take the recent injustice in the Luis Ramirez murder case and use it for toned down cries for justice separated from the multiple places that breed the kind of hate and disrespect that led to the crossroads we as a community find ourselves at now. This is why The Sanctuary (of which I am a proud member) hoy draws a line in the sand.

The process of defining a subhuman class and institutionalizing discrimination and violence against that group is not new. How quickly and conveniently some of us allow our collective memory to cover its own tracks. Parasite, diseased, leeching, dangerous, over-breeding, vermin. These terms and this imagery have been deployed for ages, on various groups of people, on various pieces of land, in the service of various endeavors; and always to bring about the same ends. To demonize and dehumanize a group of people so that other people come to understand that the social compact with the demonized group is broken; that discrimination and violence against the dehumanized class now carries no moral consequence. That is the meaning of this latest ruling by an all-white jury in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Racial murder of a Mexican carries the same consequence as walking up to a white person and punching them in the belly: simple assault.

Are you down to make the commitment to radical cambio for our lives? Then read the entire post here.

More Civil Disobedience : 30 Arrested at Minnesosta Immigration Facility

11:09 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism| Immigration| Politics · 2 Comments

7 May 2009

A third act of civil disobedience took place this week with 30 people blocking the entrances to the Bloomington, Minnesota Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.

Immigrant rights activists and allies took action today at ICE headquarters, holding a conference just after 7am to demand that Obama sign an executive order to end all raids and deportations pending the passage of a just immigration reform act. Veronica Mendez described the climate of fear created by immigration raids: undocumented workers afraid to go to the police when robbed or assaulted, employees unable to fight back against employers who cheat them of wages or create unsafe working conditions, families whose children are citizens but whose parents are deported. “We in Minnesota have our own dark secrets of raids,…the times that in the middle of the night or in a parking lot you are simply rounded up and taken away,” said the Reverend Loren McGrail.

After the press conference the legal demonstration continued while those who planned to commit civil disobedience moved into place.

About 30 activists were arrested as they blocked the entrances to the Bloomington Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility as a support rally took place nearby. After activists had blocked all four driveways, Bloomington police clad in helmets and carrying extended batons, marking rounds and chemical canisters congregated around the activists at the east side of the facility. As activists from the initial blockade were arrested one by one and loaded onto a city-owned bus, others came from the other blockades to take their place. On the bus activists chanted and rocked vigorously. After the approximately twenty activists were arrested, the full bus was driven to the police station, returning thirty minutes later when the remaining activists were arrested.

Hypothetically speaking of course, wouldn’t it be something if there was a nationally coordinated day of direct action against ICE?

Via / ImmigrationProf Blog and Twin Cities IndyMedia

Stopping ICE for the Sake of the Census

12:23 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Media| Politics · Comments Off

11 Apr 2009

The idea of a federal anyone knocking on doors in our communities causes fear. With people of color communities targeted disproportionately by various Federal law enforcement agencies, undocumented families are especially wary of opening their doors with no signs from the Obama administration that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids will stop. Pero how then do we accurately count how many people are in the United States?

U.S. Rep. William Clay (D.-Mo.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives, “said he plans to ask the Obama administration to suspend immigration raids over the next year,” Fox News reported. “He wants the raids put on hold so illegal immigrants don’t worry that sharing accurate information with Census workers could somehow expose them to punishment, even deportation.”

One of the reasons I watch Spanish language news show like Al Punto is because weeks before the mainstream English language media will pick up on stuff, the Spanish language media is being used to talk to Latinos in the U.S. Weeks before this lawmaker made his statement, the U.S. government was using the Spanish language media to tell Latinos, immigrants especially, that the Census would not 1: be asking about immigration status and 2: sharing information with other agencies including the IRS and ICE.

My position on the immigrant detention and ICE raids is clear. They need to stop and not just so the Feds can have an idea of how many people live in the U.S., pero more importantly, because if Obama is serious about this, then real change needs to happen in an atmosphere without fear.

Via / Feet in 2 Worlds

Mainstream Media Finally Talking About Human Rights Violations in Immigration Detention

7:48 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Media| TV · 2 Comments

27 Mar 2009

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

It’s been talked about for years. It’s been documented for years pero suddenly when it’s a huge mainstream human rights organization or the mainstream media saying it, it’s real.

I guess we should be happy that the issue of human rights violations in immigrant jails (detention facilities as they say in fancy speak) are getting any play at all. The real important point though is if all the attention leads to some real action on the part of the U.S. government. This means an end to raids that help fill up these jails until the current immigration system is overhauled.

No, I’m not holding my breath.

Via / Citizen Orange

A Town Bands Together to Save a Friend from Deportation

10:47 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration| Spain| World · 1 Comment

26 Mar 2009

20090313elpgal_2 For a change from the posts about raids and militarized borders, an immigration story with a very happy ending.

It happened in Spain, a country with an “immigration problem” like the U.S., but where people as a whole tend to be a lot more likely to look at immigrants as people rather than “problems”. Hassane Moctar, at 21 years old, arrived by night on a makeshift raft to Spain from Mauritania, taking his life into his own hands to try to find a better life in Europe. He ended up in Galicia, where a family from Cangas do Morrazo, a town near Pontevedra “adopted” him. Hassane has been living with the Veiga family for 6 months, and the family who were once strangers now consider him part of their family.

But things weren’t so rosy with Hassane’s legal situation. Two weeks ago, Hassane, now 24, went to court to answer to a deportation order which would send him back immediately if something wasn’t done. His attorney demonstrated that the people of Cangas supported him, that he spoke Spanish, and that he even had job offers. The Veiga family began a signature campaign and managed to collect 5,000 names from townspeople in support of Hassane staying in Spain. His Galician “sister” testified on the stand to the fact that he was now part of the Veiga family:

“Ever since he started living with us, he’s been just like any member of the family. He’s never had any problems and we all love him. My 95 year old grandmother asks where Hassane is as soon as she gets up, and he spends a lot of time with her. If he gets deported, my grandmother will die.”

But initially much of this was considered irrelevant to his case by the judge. Now he had to wait for the verdict.
Read more…

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