The Least of These

This was passed onto me by my Immigration and Justice professor, and is highly recommended.

The Least of These
Film Screening and Discussion
Thur, Sept 17, 7:00 pm
Languages & Literature Bldg LL 2
Presented by the ACLU of Arizona

Moderated by

Paul Espinosa, Professor, ASU Transborder Chicana/o & Latina/o Studies


Panelists:

Victoria Lopez, ACLU-Arizona Immigrant Rights Advocate

Lindsay Marshall, Esq., Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project

Evelyn Cruz, Professor, ASU, Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law



The Least of These, a new documentary film, explores one of the most controversial aspects of American immigration policy - family detention.


As part of the Bush administration policy to end what they termed the “catch and release’” of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. government opened the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in May 2006. The facility is a former medium-security prison in central Texas operated by CCA, the largest private prison operator in the country. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings.


The facility was initially activated with little media attention or public knowledge.  Soon, however, immigration attorney Barbara Hines was contacted by detainees seeking representation, and she became increasingly concerned about the troubling conditions there.  She joined forces with Vanita Gupta of the ACLU and Michelle Brané of the Women’s Refugee Commission to investigate conditions and seek changes.  Their efforts were initially hampered by a lack of openness and oversight within the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) organization.  Undeterred, the three attorneys attempted to bring about changes in both policy and conditions, by making their findings public, encouraging involvement by activists and the media, and ultimately by filing a historic lawsuit.


As these events unfold, the film explores the government rationale for family detention, conditions at the facility, collateral damage, and the role - and limits - of community activism in bringing change.  The film leads viewers to consider how core American rights and values – presumption of innocence, the protection of children, upholding the family structure as the basic unit of civil society, and America as a refuge of last resort – should apply to immigrants, particularly children.


Paul Espinosa
Professor and Filmmaker
Arizona State University
Dept of Transborder Chicana/o & Latina/o Studies
P.O. Box 873502
Tempe, AZ  85287-3502
Tel: 480-965-3635
Fax: 480-965-3421

Paul.Espinosa@asu.edu

www.EspinosaProductions.com

Children’s March for Family Unity: Arrest Sheriff Joe

From Stephen Lemons' blog The Feathered Bastard in the Phoenix New Times. Follow this link to see the video and original article.
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Monday, August 10, 2009 - Stephen Lemons

Above is Phoenix pro-immigration activist Dennis Gilman's video of this past Friday's successful Children's Walk for Family Unity, organized by Sal Reza's organization Puente. Despite the fake outrage over the demonstration from radio lunkheads like Mac and Gaydos on local wing-nut station KTAR 92.3 FM, I think you can tell from the video that the kids all seemed to enjoy the march and seemed to understand what they were marching for.

After all, it's not difficult to comprehend who the bad guys are when your parents have been robbed from you during some anti-immigration sweep or raid by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. In the video are several children whose parents have been torn from them, including Katherine Figueroa, the 9-year-old whose parents were arrested during the MCSO's raid on Lindstrom Family Auto Wash in June. Thanks to Arpaio's misguided immigration policies, Figueroa (who is a U.S. citizen, BTW) got to watch her father being arrested on the TV news.

Arrested for what? Oh, you know, the usual: Busting his back washing cars for a living in order to feed his family. So for all you nativist whiners out there with all this free time on your hands to kvetch about illegals taking jobs that you don't really want -- and I mean you, United for a Sovereign America members -- get thy lazy, ofay selves down to Lindstrom's and grab a rag. Otherwise, zip-it, patty-kickers.

The best part of this video has to be when Gilman does his Allen Funt/Bob Saget impersonation after the event and asks the tykes what they want to do when they grow up. A couple, including Katherine, say they want to be lawyers -- to "help people" caught up in raids like those by Arpaio's goons. The most amusing answers come from the kids who say they want to be police officers.

Why do they want to be cops? "So we can arrest Arpaio," says one little boy.

A little girl raises her hand, and says she wants to be a cop, too, so she can, "close that building." With a jerk of her head, she indicates the Wells Fargo Tower, where the MCSO keeps two pricey floors of executive suites paid for by county taxpayers.

Now that's funny. And telling. When he was asked about the march by the local media, Arpaio lamented that it wasn't right to teach kids not to respect cops. Thing is, they respect real cops, Joe. They just don't respect you, or the thugs that do your bidding.

(photo also from Phoenix New Times)

Tears of Lives

This is going to be my jail journal soon, I guess, so hey all. Wake up, now. Pay attention if I stop writing. You know where to find me. If I need bail I'll figure out what to do - I just want someone to look for me in case I don't surface.

They'll probably nab my computer. Someone else will have to keep blogging. Just throw up a new site and start keeping the community posted - people will find it. Or put AZ Indymedia to work. Go to court hearings and actions and cover stuff the paper isn't. Show everyone that the resistance is still alive.

I don't really think anyone would want to hang on to me for long, actually - that would just give me more to write about once I was free. They'd have to keep me forever...which I guess they could, if they wanted to.

Or fry my brain. That's really the greater concern. I'm being rehabilitated from a semi-vegetative state already: they could still pull the plug on me at any time. This state budget could be it. There's so much blood on the legislative floor; I don't know how some of those people sleep at night. Remember: They're reconvening Tuesday, August 4th at 2pm. Focus on the governor now.

Here's what's promising to be an awesome upcoming event. Let's see if I can get all the technical difficulties worked out:

A new play by James E. Garcia

directed by Luis Avila

A world premiere production

This show is appropriate for general audiences.

When: Aug. 14-16, 2009 (Evening performances at 7:30.

Matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.)

Where: Playhouse on the Park, 1150 N. Central Ave.

(In the Viad Bldg. at Palm and Central Ave.) Free parking.

Information at 602-460-1374 or by emailing info@centromacehualli.org.

This show is produced by New Carpa Theater Co. (newcarpa.org) as a special fund-raiser for the Macehualli Capital Campaign organized by the Tonatierra Community Development Institute to preserve and develop the Macehualli Community Campus Facility in Phoenix

Tickets $20 general admission and $10 for students. (You also may donate as much as you wish.) To buy tickets for these performances or to contribute to the Macehualli Capital Campaign, visit centromacehualli.org.

THE PLAY: Regino Ortega, an undocumented immigrant, has been living in the United States for 21 years when he’s arrested by ICE agents and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputies. His three young children are left behind and forced to fend for themselves. “The Tears of Lives” is a drama torn from today’s headlines that recounts the tragedy of families ripped apart as a consequence of the nation’s latest, wide-scale crackdown on immigrants.