9 yr Old Boy and Parents Have Been Released
Put forth on March 23, 2007 by XicanoPwr
Posted in Concentration Camp, Deportation, Immigration, Xenophobia
The 9 yr old boy, Kevin Yourdkhani who has been held at the T. Don Hutto immigration prison in Taylor, TX, since Feb. 4, along with his father Majid and mother Masomeh Alibegi are finally coming home! (hat tip to liberal catnip and Annamarie at Verbena-19). It is not surprising that they were housed at the Williamson County’s T. Don Hutto Correctional Residential Center.
Background of this episode (via Amy Goodman):
A nine-year-old Canadian boy has been released along with his parents from an immigration jail in Texas where they were detained for six weeks. Kevin Yourdkhani and his Iranian-born parents arrived in Toronto last night. They had been held in a controversial privately-owned jail in Texas where the U.S. government is holding up to 200 immigrant children. They were detained after their flight to Canada was forced to make an emergency landing in Puerto Rico. The family was fleeing political repression in Iran and were trying to seek refugee status in Canada where their son had been born.
It seems that the Yourdkhani family had some assistance from a fellow Texan (just goes to show not all Texans are Bush, Perry et al-like assholes). The Yourdkhani family has received assistance from Ralph Eisenberg, a Dallas property manager, who decided to cover the $1,000 required for travel permits and has also agreed to pay the legal fees of the family’s Canadian attorneys.
Annamaria points to an article in the Toronto Star that provides more details on Mr. Eisenberg. According to the Star:
Ralph Isenberg, 55, who said he has suffered his own immigration nightmare over the status of his Chinese wife, has vowed to get all the kids out of the T. Don Hutto detention facility and force officials to shut it down.
“The conditions are atrocious,” Isenberg told Canadian Press from Dallas. “When I see an injustice where I can do something, I step right in. I’m not afraid of these bastards. To hell with ‘em.”
Isenberg got involved after reading about Kevin Yourdkhani’s plight and covered the $1,000 (U.S.) needed for travel permits while also offering to pay the legal fees of the family’s Canadian lawyers.
He says the U.S. Immigration Control Enforcement is out of control. “They need to be put out of business.
“(They’re) creating terrorists of the future by jailing kids 9 or 10 or 15 years old.”
A colourful, blunt-speaking individual, Isenberg tears up when discussing how detainees are treated by authorities.
“I’ve seen the faces of the children who’ve been in there. Those kids are damaged goods,” he said.
“I may not have been in prison, but I certainly know what this government is capable of doing to anyone and everyone.
“If we do this to foreign nationals, it’s going to be us next.”
If there were more people like Mr. Isenberg here in Texas, we wouldn’t be in this mess. However, the fight is nowhere close to being done; we still need to help Suzi Hazahza and the Hazahza family. To get more information on what is being done, please visit Greg Moses at his site Texas Civil Rights Review and see how you can help Jay J. Johnson-Castro.
To Johnson-Castro - if you are reading this, I did receive your message, sorry for not getting back to sooner or posting about your protest walk you did last week, things have been crazy on this end.
Technorati Tags: Kevin Yourdkhani, T. Don Hutto, Ralph Eisenberg
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This is the blog of Edmundo "XicanoPwr" Rocha, a social worker, an activist, freelance writer and founder and editor of The Sanctuary. My interests include: immigration reform, critical race theory and it's interaction with equality/inequality and freedom/oppression as they relate to the experiences of people of color in the Americas.
Para Justicia y Libertad is a Latino-centered political blog focusing on the humanistic perspective of politics, history, and society as they relate to the Latina/o community throughout Texas and the United States.
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4 Responses to “9 yr Old Boy and Parents Have Been Released”
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Thank you for linking to my post about Ralph Eisenberg great assistance to the Yourdkhani family. Mr. Eisenberg has vowed to do his utmost to free ALL children from the Hutto, according to the Toronto Star article you have linked above (and which I’ve also linked on my post.)
I willbe putting your site on my blogroll, so that I can visit regularly. I am a human rights activist and a ‘freedom fighter’. Perhaps you may consider blogrolling me too.
keep up the good work!
in solidarity,
Annamarie
wow, heartening story - but unfortunately a band-aid. Ice & HS are so out-of-control at this point . . .
Heartening, and more than a band aid! Whenever someone stands up like this, publicly and with a growl, it is an amazing thing. Attention is drawn to the topic. People start looking within themselves to find that same flicker of humanity burning, and start searching for ways they too, can help.
Thank you for this post. It inspired a post on my blog. Some of what I said is this, I work with kids who are living in safe and comfortable shelter and see first-hand the negative effects it has on them, so I can only imagine what is going on in the minds of children who are being held with their families in a place they cannot leave. Children need to be empowered in order to grow up with the ability to succeed and influence the world for good. When they are forced to live for weeks, months, or even years in places where their power has been taken, they will try to find ways to get that power back for the rest of their lives. And their methods may be destructive.
I am determined to do what I can to keep this from happening. Thank you again. Keep up the good work!
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