La tierra prometida (The Promised Land)

Articulo publicado en Alianza Metropolitan News
Por: Roberto Hernandez

Roberto Hernández

Roberto Hernández nació en México. Es conductor de Roberto al Mediodía; el primer programa radial de Estados Unidos en español, dedicado a informar, analizar y promover el respeto a la comunidad homosexual. www.robertoalmediodia.com Programa Roberto al Mediodía 13 de febrero de 2009 Tema: Violaciones a los derechos humanos de inmigrantes indocumentados en Arizona, cometidas por el sheriff Joe Arpaio. Escuche el programa completo y tome acción para frenar los abusos de este servidor público. Invitados al Programa: Hector Iturralde Presidente de Somos America, y Lydia Guzman Vice-Presidenta SOMOS AMERICA Peticiones al DOJ a investigar Sheriff Joe Arpaio > America's Voice Online Petition > Peticion de ACORN al DOJ y al Congreso que investigue violaciones a los derechos civiles en Arizona > Febrero 28, Marcha en Phoenix en protesta de Joe Arpaio

Hoy escribo con una tristeza infinita y una gran desilusión al ver como el pasado 4 de noviembre, las comunidades afro-americana y latina que han sufrido en carne propia la discriminación en este país, han dado su aprobación a seguir con este mal que ha padecido la nación por años. Me refiero a la Proposición 8, que retira los derechos civiles a las parejas del mismo sexo a contraer matrimonio civil. Faltan palabras para describir el daño tan grande que se ha hecho a una comunidad que por años ha luchado por la igualdad de derechos y el respeto a las garantías civiles y humanas.

Fue verdaderamente asombroso ver cómo California, el estado más liberal y progresista de este país, y que siempre se ha distinguido por ser el líder en protección y apoyo incondicional a los derechos humanos y civiles, sin embargo, en estas ultimas elecciones nos dejó saber que en el país todavía existen seres humanos de segunda clase, tal y como lo fueron las mujeres cuando se les negó su derecho al voto, la comunidad negra luchando en contra de la esclavitud, los latinos en su lucha por injusticia a los inmigrantes indocumentados, y podríamos seguir y seguir con una lista interminable de triunfos y lágrimas en cuestión de derechos humanos.

Quisiera enfatizar la importancia del momento histórico que se está viviendo en este país y el ser testigo y vivirlo es todo un privilegio, del cual algún día les hablaremos a nuestras futuras generaciones, de cómo influimos en él para combatir las injusticias, la discriminación y los abusos a nuestros semejantes. Para mí como inmigrante latino, gay y trabajador incansable de la igualdad de los seres humanos, es muy triste saber de cómo la historia hablará de mi comunidad hispana, máximo cuando sabemos lo que es ser maltratados, violados en nuestras garantías, excluidos a un segundo término, engañados y discriminados, y sin embargo, en esta ocasión cerramos la razón y nuestros corazones. Tal parece que el sueño del Dr. Martín Luther King Jr. se dejó escuchar parcialmente y sin mucho eco en las minorías que, antepusieron su fanatismo y creencias en el nombre de un Dios inquisidor y discriminador, para negar igualdad y derechos a sus semejantes.

Como parte de una comunidad que ha sido expulsada de congregaciones religiosas en el nombre de Dios, de países que nos han negado nuestras garantías individuales, víctimas de homofobia, violaciones a nuestro cuerpo, maltrato en nuestras comunidades y peor aun, separados de nuestras familias por el simple hecho de ser homosexuales, más de una ocasión me he preguntado si la comunidad gay, al igual que la judía, tenemos que buscar nuestra tierra prometida en donde al igual que la mayoría de los seres humanos podamos vivir en paz, gozar del aire y el sol libremente, compartir nuestra vida con quien más nos plazca, formar nuestras familias en donde ni el color ni el sexo de la persona tenga que ser un impedimento para darse amor, protección y respeto. Hoy quisiera compartir un sentimiento que me ha perseguido por toda la vida y creo que la mayoría de la comunidad LGBT (Lesbianas, Gay, Bisexual y Transgénero) lo han experimentado al igual que yo, y es el complejo de ET, el extraterrestre, como lo llamo, siempre añorando volver a casa, de regreso a nuestra galaxia, ya que sentimos que por equivocación Dios nos dejó abandonados en este mundo lleno de prejuicios y convencionalismos, que cada día nos separan más y nos envuelven en guerras por la ambición del dinero y el poder.

Hoy las palabras de ese amante de la paz y la igualdad de los seres humanos, John Lennon, me suenan más sensatas que nunca, "Imaginar que no hay gloria como tampoco un infierno, solamente un cielo soleado... Imaginar que no existen países, como nada porque matar o morir y tampoco religión… Imaginar que no existe el hambre y el dolor, solamente la hermandad del hombre... Imaginar a toda la gente viviendo la vida en paz... Imaginar a toda la gente compartiendo el mundo... Podrán decir que soy un soñador, pero no soy el único, sólo espero que algún día ustedes se unan a este sueño".

* Fragmentos de la canción Imagina de John Lennon

Escuche "Imagine" de John Lennon

Judiciary Committee Members Call for Investigation of Sheriff Arpaio’s Disregard for Rights of Hispanic Residents

For Immediate Release February 13, 2009

Contact: Jonathan Godfrey (Conyers) Pedro Riberio (Lofgren) Ilan Kayatsky (Nadler) Larry Dillard (Scott)

WASHINGTON – House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), and Immigration Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), and Crime Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) called on Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to investigate allegations of misconduct by Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Sheriff Arpaio has repeatedly demonstrated disregard for the rights of Hispanics in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Under the guise of immigration enforcement, his staff has conducted raids in residential neighborhoods in a manner condemned by the community as racial profiling. On February 4, 2009, Arpaio invited the media to view the transfer of immigrant detainees to a segregated area of his "tent city" jail, subjecting the detainees to public display and "ritual humiliation." Persistent actions such as these have resulted in numerous lawsuits; while Arpaio spends time and energy on publicity and his reality television show, "Smile… You’re Under Arrest!", Maricopa County has paid millions of dollars in settlements involving dead or injured inmates.

"Racial profiling and segregation are simply not acceptable." said Conyers. "Media stunts and braggadocio are no substitute for fair and effective law enforcement."

"The basic premise of our justice system is that people are innocent until proven otherwise," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren. "I’m concerned that in Maricopa County that basic premise appears to have been turned upside down and that Latino members of community are considered "undocumented" until proven otherwise. That’s not how our Constitution works and it’s time for the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to take a closer look."

"We cannot tolerate vigilantes using the police power to violate the fundamental rights of anyone they can get their hands on," said Nadler. "Sheriff Arpaio has consistently abused his office in violation of federal law. It is time for the federal government to step in and uphold the rule of law in this country, even in Maricopa County." "Law enforcement is not a game or a reality show, it is a public trust," said Scott. "There is no excuse for callous indifference to the rights of the residents of Arizona, whether in their neighborhoods or as pretrial detainees."

The text of the attached letter is linked here.

####

CCA No. 1 in Immigration Detention Contracts

SOURCE:

INVESTIGATIVE REPORT 2008

The nation's largest private prison company has partnered with the federal government to detain close to 1 million undocumented people in the past 5 years until they are deported. In the process, Corrections Corporation of America has made record profits. Critics suggest the CCA cuts corners on its detention contracts in order to increase its revenue at expense of humane conditions. Thanks to political connections and lobby spending, it dominates the industry of immigrant detention. CCA now has close to 10,000 new beds under development in anticipation of continued demand.

RELATED: OPERATION ENDGAME

DETENTION

Private detention centers – most of which are operated by CCA – are key to the federal government’s goal of “ensuring the departure from the United States of all removable aliens,” which are estimated to total about 12 million.

Houston, TX - In a business park aptly named Export Plaza, Corrections Corporation of America runs a complex of concrete buildings surrounded by razor wire. It’s here where immigrants, like Sergia Santibanez, are locked up until they agree to leave the country.

“When you first get there, they tell you you’re nobody,” said Santibanez, who spent 16 months there. She still breaks into tears whenever she recalls the experience.

In 2005, the mother of three U.S.-born children was giving several people a ride outside of Austin, where she had been living as legal resident since the 1980s. She got into an accident, and when the police came, she was arrested and eventually convicted for transporting undocumented immigrants, an aggravated felony that revoked her legal status. She served four months in a federal prison before ending up at CCA’s Houston Processing Center while the court decided whether she should be deported. Read More...

Renee Feltz on Democracy Now! talking about Business of Detention.

PROFITS

The math is simple. More demand for immigrant detention beds, plus more government funding, equals more business for Corrections Corporation of America. Every year since 2003, the company has made record profits.

CCA generated its highest revenue ever in 2006 when ICE doubled its detention beds from 19,500 to 27,500.

The company won contracts to provide about half of these new beds.

“We’ve never seen the wind at our back like it is today,” CCA’s President and Chief Executive Officer, John D. Ferguson said after discussing $1.3 billion in revenue during a May 2006 conference call with investors.

The infusion of detention center contracts marked a high point for the company after it had struggled for several years to expand. In 1999, independent auditors expressed doubt that CCA could even stay in business after the company suffered a net loss of $72 million mainly due to an abundance of empty beds.

That year, CCA spun off its real estate operations, Prison Realty Trust, from its correctional management services in a failed move that required a bailout from well-connected private equity firm, The Blackstone Group. The firm brought in Lehman Brothers and Bank of America to lend $350 million in exchange for four seats on the company’s board and 25 percent of company stock.

Blackstone’s Senior Managing Director, Thomas Saylak, convinced the Wall Street partners that the infusion of capital would allow CCA to “maximize growth prospects. Over time, we believe this new direction will be recognized and rewarded by investors.” Read More...

CONTRACTS

In San Diego, the ACLU lawsuit prompted ICE to move some of the detainees to other detention centers. It also prompted CCA to propose constructing a new facility nearby that would hold four times more detainees. Thus, rather than being penalized for overcrowding, the company may even end up winning a new contract.

San Diego, CA - In 2006, the CCA-run San Diego Correctional Facility was so crowded that three immigrant detainees lived in cells designed for two. So where did the third person sleep?

“They would put what they called a boat, a plastic unit, on the floor in the only floor space available in the room – beneath the toilet,” explained Tom Jawetz, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Prison Project.

The detainees soon became restless from living in cells where they could barely move around. When new detainees were brought in, they nearly broke out into a riot and had to be subdued with teargas. By the time Jawetz filed suit to stop the overcrowding, CCA was housing overflow population in the facility’s day rooms.

Over the years, ACLU has sued CCA for overcrowding and substandard medical treatment. ACLU lawyers say that CCA squeezes profit from immigrant detention contracts by scrimping on the already minimal services it is required to provide. Unlike prison contracts, immigrant detention contracts only provide for housing, food and medical services, not rehabilitation and education services.

CCA makes the most money from facilities that are full or beyond capacity. In San Diego, the ACLU lawsuit prompted Immigration and Customs Enforcement to move some of the detainees to other detention centers. It also prompted CCA to propose constructing a new facility nearby that would hold four times more detainees.

Thus, rather than being penalized for overcrowding, the company may even end up winning a new contract. “We have an existing relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal customers and we want to be able to maintain that relationship,” CCA spokesman, Steve Owen, told the San Diego Union Tribune.

CCA also got away with providing only substandard medical care. At the San Diego facility, conditions were so bad that the Department of Immigration Health Services was forced to take over.

“The DHS concluded CCA’s provision of medical care was deficient and that CCA was attempting to increase its profits by decreasing the medical services to detainees,” said Jawetz. Read More...

CONNECTIONS

CCA plays the game of politics like a pro. After all forty percent of its revenue comes from federal contracts. The company backs key politicians who support an immigration crackdown, and has intensified its lobbying in order to influence those still on the fence.

Washington, D.C. - CCA plays the game of politics like a pro. After all forty percent of its revenue comes from federal contracts.

The company backs key politicians who support an immigration crackdown, and has intensified its lobbying in order to influence those still on the fence. For good measure, it hires former prison and immigration officials to coordinate its federal relations.

When Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on comprehensive immigration reform, CCA backed lawmakers who found common ground on the issue of funding detention. 2007 was the first year CCA’s Political Action Committee, otherwise staunchly Republican, donated $15,000 to the Democratic Congressional and Senatorial Committees, according the Federal Election Commission. However, the company gave twice this amount to the GOP.

The rest of CCA’s political giving went directly to lawmakers who determine detention funding through their positions on the appropriations committee in the House and Senate. In 2008, the committees approved a $2.3 billion budget for ICE detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants, including funds for an additional 4,870 new beds.

More than half the senators backed by CCA’s PAC are on the appropriations committee, and four of them are on the subcommittee on Homeland Security. The company was most generous with the minority ranking member, donating $5,000 each to Thad Cochran (R-MS), and the Senate Minority leader, Mitch McConnell.

In 2006, it gave $1,000 to committee member, Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), who nonetheless remains critical of mass detention based.

“In Orange County, we’ve had electronic monitoring devices and more supervision when we’ve let people out of detention centers, its been a most cost effective way to deal with a certain portion of the population, especially women with children, the elderly, and the ill,” said Sanchez. “I think there are ways we could use appropriate alternatives to keep the costs down and still monitor where people are.”

One CCA-backed appropriations committee member deserves special mention. Former Tennessee governor, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) received $31,200 from 2003-2008 from the Nashville-based company and its employees, spouses and their subsidiaries, according to Federal Election Commission documents. Alexander’s history of supporting CCA includes endorsing its failed bid in 1985 to take over the Tennessee prison system. Read More...

Sheriff Joe to March Chained Immigrant Detainees Through Town to New Tent City

The hate and ego in this man knows no bounds, words fail to describe him, to call him an animal would be an insult to animals.
Doesn't this act fall under the category of 'cruel and inhuman treatment?' this humiliation to the detainees is clearly an attempt to punish, isn't he overstepping his authority?
If he goes through and carries out his plans, the least we can do is to file a complain with the United Nation's Human Rights Commission for this clear violation of Universal Human Rights.
Aurora

SOURCE: Candela A.

FROM: LA FRONTERA TIMES

Arpaio humiliates undocumented detainees
Published by Alfredo Gutierrez - 03/02/2009

& MIGRA MATTERS Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Sheriff Joe to March Immigrant Detainees Through Town to New Tent City

posted by Duke1676

Tomorrow afternoon, Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to parade 220 chained immigrant detainees, carrying their own bedding, through the streets of Phoenix from the county jail to their new home in a newly expanded area in Arpaio's infamous "Tent City"

Having expanded his tent facility to house 2500 of the 10,000 inmates currently incarcerated in the county jail with a newly authorized $1.6 million dollar grant from the state, Arpaio vows to fill it with immigrant detainees.

Surrounded by an electrified fence that Joe jokes will be one that immigrants "won't want to scale," the tent facility will eventually become the new home for those caught in Arpaio's racial profiling roundups.

As usual, Arpaio has invited the press to document the hour long march in order fuel his colossal ego and need for constant media attention.

PRESS RELEASE

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
Deputy Lindsey Smith
Media Relations – M.C.S.O.
Spokeswoman
Office: 602-876-1802
L_Smith@MCSO.Maricopa.Gov

ARPAIO ORDERS MOVE OF HUNDREDS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS TO THEIR OWN TENT CITY

Electric Fence to Minimize Escape Risk

(PHOENIX, AZ.) At 1:00 PM tomorrow, Wednesday, February 4, 2009, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will order of approximately 200 illegal aliens to be chained and marched into a separate area of Tent City, their new place of incarceration until their sentences are served and the illegal aliens are deported to their home countries.

The move to Tent City frees up much needed space in the Sheriff's hard facilities serving as a management tool for potential jail overcrowding, Arpaio says.

More importantly, the move is a financially responsible alternative to taxpayers already over burdened by the economic drain imposed by a growing number of illegal aliens on social services like education and healthcare.

The move also facilitates security and transportation issues as well as provides easier and quicker access for foreign government visits to these inmates, the Sheriff says.

The move to Tent City also makes room for the future. Now that the Arizona state government has given Arpaio back his $1.6 million dollars slated for fighting illegal immigration, more arrests by the Sheriff's human smuggling unit and crime suppression operations are anticipated.

"We have expanded the tents to be able to house as many as 2500 inmates out of the 10,000 currently incarcerated in the jails," Arpaio says. "As we planned the expansion, I decided to have a special area to house this particular population of inmate more effectively and safely. Starting tomorrow, Tent City will be their new address," Arpaio says.

Tent City is Arpaio's canvas incarceration compound which he opened in August of 1993. Since then, it has been a safe and cost effective way of housing inmates and has gained worldwide attention as a model jail program. The consolidation of a large number of illegal aliens into Tent City, Arpaio says, should pose no substantial security problems as the area where they will be housed is protected by an electric fence.

"This is a population of criminals more adept perhaps at escape," the Sheriff says. "But this is a fence they won't want to scale because they risk receiving quite a shock - literally."

Tomorrow's move is expected to take about an hour as the illegal aliens make their way from the Durango Jail complex to Tent City on Gibson Road. Traffic will be rerouted during the transfer, Arpaio says.

The inmates will enter Tent City through the west gate and pick up their bedding before making their way to their section of the tents.

They will be treated like all other inmates incarcerated here with two exceptions. Arpaio wants them to be instructed in American immigration laws, as a way to help them understand that the violation of these laws has serious consequences not only to them but to society as a whole. And anyone found to violate jail rules, may end up on a chain gang. This chain gang will work to clean the areas of the valley, which have been impacted by human trafficking trade.

The inmate march begins at 1:00 PM on Wednesday beginning at the entrance gate of Durango Jail on Gibson Street. The 220 inmates will march east to Tent City. Interested media are asked to park on the access road west of Estrella Jail at 2939 West Durango. SEE MAP ATTACHED. Sheriff Arpaio will answer questions at 1:30 PM from inside Tent City. Call the on call Media Relations person for more information.

How much longer is this racist clown going to be allowed to humiliate and degrade working men and women whose only real crime was to seek a better life.

Why not give Joe a call, or drop him an e-mail to let him know just how much you appreciate the fine work he's doing out there in Maricopa Co

Get the facts of Sheriff Joe

Learn about the costs of Sheriff Joe's antics

Sign a petition demanding a Justice Department investigation into Joe's tactics

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Own Records Raise Serious Questions About Inmate Juan Mendoza Farias' Violent Death

By John Dickerson

Published on November 18, 2008 at 4:41pm

Juan Mendoza Farias was handcuffed and alone in a jail cell when guards opened the hatch on his cell door and fired more than a dozen paintball-like pepper balls at him. Then they fired Taser electrical stun guns — more than a dozen times, by one guard's account — into Farias. Next came "the Devastator," a fire extinguisher-like mace sprayer, then an electronic crowd-control "stun" shield and more Tasers.

• courtesy of the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner An autopsy photo of Juan Mendoza Farias
• courtesy of the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner An autopsy photo of Juan Mendoza Farias

Subject(s):
Juan Mendoza Farias,
Lower Buckeye Jail,
jail deaths under Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Two hours later, during a separate altercation with 11 other guards, Farias stopped breathing and then died.

Those details come from Maricopa County Sheriff's detectives' investigation of the incident. On November 14, the Sheriff's Office released nearly 5,000 pages of jail records — four months after New Times requested them, wrote a story about the sheriff's stonewalling, and filed a lawsuit to secure them.

The lawsuit was filed in October. Without a court order or ruling, sheriff's attorney Michelle Iafrate volunteered to release most of the records — about one week after Arpaio won re-election.

New Times first reported on Farias' death in September ("Dead Again," September 11). At that time, the sheriff refused to hand over a single public record regarding Farias. New Times based its story on photos of Farias' beaten body, as well as an autopsy and jail guard reports, secured through a public-records request made to the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner.

The limited records secured in September revealed that Farias stopped breathing on December 5, 2007, when 11 guards pinned him face-down on a concrete "bed" in the Lower Buckeye Jail. When the guards pulled a "spit mask" off Farias' face, they noticed blood coming from his mouth.

The release of additional records reveals a fuller and even more disturbing scene. According to eyewitness reports from guards and inmates inside the jail, guards violently subdued Farias three different times. Jail guards say that Farias was violent, but testimony from inmates contradicts that. It's difficult to even see what Farias is doing in video footage because so many guards piled on him and the video has no sound. The altercations included two different groups of guards on different shifts.

The altercations lasted from approximately 8:30 p.m. to 11:10 p.m., when Farias urinated, stopped breathing, and began bleeding from his mouth and nose. By that time, Farias — naked, with his legs shackled — had been moved through three different isolation cells. Doctors at St. Joseph's Hospital pronounced him dead early the next morning.

The new records contain a sheriff's "criminal investigation" into Farias' death, including detective interviews of more than 50 jail guards and inmates. The detectives produced an investigation summary for the county attorney. The records stop short of naming which guards the investigators thought played a role in Farias' death. The county attorney also issued a grand jury subpoena, the records indicate.

The records do not reveal the ultimate outcome of the criminal investigation or the grand jury proceedings.

In the sheriff's interviews, inmates say that guards "high-fived" and congratulated each other after the first of three brawls with Farias.

The guards repeatedly told detectives that they didn't use excessive force, nor did they see other guards doing so. The second-shift guards also say that they weren't aware how harshly Farias had been handled when they came on shift.

The records also include video, which offers 29 different camera angles of Farias in the jail. The videos are in color and show Farias in focus. That is, until the time when guard reports say that Farias stopped breathing under their weight. At that time — and for the next 40 minutes of CPR — the sheriff's attorney claims no camera angle captured what happened.

The biggest holes in the records are the missing camera footage — of the first Taser and pepper-ball attack and the final dog pile, when Farias stopped breathing. The reports also fail to give a clear conclusion of the detectives' findings.

---

What follows here is an overview of new information about Farias and the guards who handled him, revealed in the 4,978 pages of documentation compiled by the sheriff's homicide detectives.

Farias, 40, was a legal U.S. resident with a legitimate Social Security number. He spoke Spanish only and was a self-professed alcoholic. Glendale Police arrested him on December 2, 2007 — on an outstanding warrant for violating probation from a DUI.

About 15 minutes before doctors declared Farias dead, the MCSO ordered an immigration specialist to triple-check his immigration status, the records show.

"On 12/06/07 . . . at 7 a.m. I was assigned the task of verifying the immigration status of Juan Mendoza. Even though Mendoza's booking record for this incident states he had been interviewed and no ICE holds were required . . . I was told that Mendoza was legally in the United States, with Legal Permanent Resident status," investigator T. Sullivan wrote.

Farias had been in Arpaio's jail for only two days when he died. But it was evident that Farias needed medical attention from the time he was booked. According to the sheriff's reports, Farias experienced a number of seizures when he first entered the jail and was taken to the jail infirmary.

At least two of the guards told detectives that Farias should not have been released back into the general population.

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