A letter from the Elizabeth (NJ) Immigrant Detention Center

To Whom It May Concern.

This letter is on behalf of all the inmates at the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. This “prison” or “detention center” is run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). We have written this letter because of the mistreatment treatment from CCA Officers and the problems that this center has. First of all, the CCA officers here have chosen a career working with the public. They have an option to work here or not, and we are sure that there is no job requirement that states that they must treat people like animals as they do. Many of the officer are obnoxious and rude. They constantly curse at inmates and put them down. We already have very low self-esteem because of being in custody for immigration issues, why make us feel even worse? These officers are misusing their power. Since we are in custody and not working, our families are having difficulty putting money in our accounts for phone cards, writing material and most importantly snacks. The officers who are working and receiving a paycheck come to us and ask us for chocolate bars, coffee and other snacks. Some officers also bring their personal life to work and take their frustrations out on us. They constantly give us and our family who come to visit us attitudes. They sometimes abuse their power and don’t allow us to practice our religion. Numerous times, inmates had to stop praying because an officer ordered them too. In the middle of the night, the officers congregate in dorms, talk loud and constantly slam doors making it very uncomfortable to sleep. They have no decency.

Another issue here is commissary. Everything is overpriced to the fullest extent. For example, a radio which costs $2-$3 costs us $26 to purchase from commissary. We are not working and our families are suffering and being torn apart because the CCA is trying to make even more money off of us! As for the snacks, most of them are expired or soon to be expired. Not only are we being charged more for items, but they are also expired items! Sixty to seventy percent of the soda, chips and other snacks are already expired before we get them. In many instances, bird droppings have been found on soup boxes and bags of chips. They ban us from having many things, even pencils. Those who are in criminal jails are allowed to have more things than us and WE are not criminals! According to ICE policy for detainees, it states that the facility is required to give us writing material at no cost. It seems that the CCA does not want to follow that rule. They charge us for pens, paper and envelopes. Pens cost $0.30 each, a stamped envelope costs $0.51 and a notepad costs $0.90. What happened to writing material at no cost?

The phones here are a serious issue too. They calls are too expensive and the lines have very poor quality. There are only 2 phones for every 44 people. A lot of us need to call lawyers to discuss our cases and we cannot do so because it is to expensive to make phone calls. Local calls are so expensive, imagine how much they are charging us for international calls! We are paying at least $20 a week just to be able to speak to our relatives or lawyers for only 10 minutes.

As for the food here, the issues vary from day to day. The food is usually overcooked. The trays that we are served in are not clean. The portions are too small. If you are still hungry, they DO NOT ALLOW you to take an extra tray. They would rather throw out all the food than allow us to have a little more to fill us up. If we are in visitation or religious services during meal time, they do not save any hot lunch for us, they just throw it out. We are lucky if we are allowed to get a cold lunch when we come back from visitation.The food has no flavor and they do not give us salt and pepper. It seems that they want us to starve.

According to immigration laws, they can hold people for 90 – 180 days, but for some reason some people have been here for years. Some people in this facility have been here over a year. This facility was not made to accommodate people for over a year. There are no exercise rooms or recreational activities administered here. An hour in a room with 3 holes in the ceiling should not count as outdoor rec. The room is dirty and dusty. Why are we not allowed to have fresh air? Why are we not allowed to see the sun? The air-conditioning system always leaks water on our beds. We have complained many times but they never do anything about it. Some dorms have mold growing which is not healthy for us to breath in. Again, complaints have been made but no one does anything about it. There have also been instances where insects were found. We are the ones who are required to clean our dorms. They make us clean the bathroom, shower area, toilets, mop and dust.

Whenever inspectors, investors, or government officials come to see the facility, they make us clean more so that the rooms can be spotless. They also treat us better in front of these people. Little do they know, it is all a show so that their facility can pass inspection or so that they gain another investor! There have also been times where they have shut down water in dorms for long hours. During this time, we have no water to drink, or to wash up. Some days there is no soap for us to wash our hands or shower with. The bathroom or dorm has no ventilation. The bathroom is also open into the dorm. Imagine how the room smells when people go to the bathroom! Disgusting! We don’t know how they clean our clothing either. There have been many times when they return our laundry with more stains on it, stains that weren’t there when we gave them our dirty laundry. The razors that they give us seem to be old and reused. They tell us that they are new but there are times where we have found hair in them before we even use them, this is hazardous to our health. The dorms are always cold. Now that the weather is cooler, they have not turned down the AC. The officers walk around with jackets but as for us, we are not given that. We are always cold, especially at night. They do not allow us to have extra blankets to keep warm.

A major issue here is medical care. The response time is very poor. It take 4 – 5 days to be admitted for medical care. The medical facility is less than 100 feet away from the dorms, why does it take so long to get help? The nurses have attitudes and make judgments on our health without even checking us. It also seems that the nurses or medical staff are not trained. They hand out the wrong medicine. Technically this is considered malpractice which is a serious offense, but i guess that rule does not apply to us. No matter what problem you are having, they always give you aspirin. It seems that is the easiest way to get rid of us. There is also no way to get dental care here at this facility. If you have a toothache, they resort to giving us pain killers or the option of pulling out the tooth! There was a case where a woman had so much pain from a toothache that she was constantly crying out loud and requesting help. Instead of getting a dentist to help her, the CCA officers put her in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) which is supposed to be used for people with mental health problems or it is used as punishment for those with poor behavior. Was she supposed to be punished for having a toothache?

We are not criminals and we do not pose any harm to anyone. When we are taken out of the facility to go to our country’s embassy, they handcuff our hands and feet when leaving the vehicle. This is very embarrassing for us when people look at us while we are walking from the vehicle to the building. We are escorted through airports also wearing hand and foot cuffs, portraying us as terrorists in front of people at the airport. People get scared when they see us and this also makes us psychologically weak and is very emotional for us. As for being deported, there have been times where inmates have missed their flights because of CCA officers. Detainees are kept in caged vehicles with no food or access to restrooms for 8 or 9 hours until another flight is available.

Here at the facility, there is one television per dorm which houses 44 people. We are not allowed to control the TV. The CCA officers are the only ones that can change the channel. They always keep it on spanish TV which is unfair to many of us who speak english and are not of spanish descent. They restrict us to having only 3 books or magazines. This is ridiculous. They barely give us recreational time, what do they expect us to do during count time for 30 – 45 minutes when we must stay by our beds. How many times can we possibly read the same 3 books or magazines?

Sometimes they allow us to work in the facility. They pay us $1.00 a day if we work. We can work for hours but they still only pay $1.00 a day. Are we not even allowed to get minimum wage? We can’t even buy a plastic cup or a safety soon with $1.00.

What about our families who come to visit us. The visitation area only has 12 booths for the male detainees and 6 booths for female. There are 300 detainees here, many of which are male, are 12 booths enough for them for visitation? Sometimes there are so many people waiting outside on line to come to see us and they cannot because there is no room in visitation. On those days, we are not given a chance to see our loved ones. In criminal jails, they allow conjugal visits, but as for us, we pose no harm to the public, instead of granting us conjugal visits, they make us talk to our relatives through glass windows and telephones.

The biggest issue here is Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). People wait for months before they are told the real reasons why they are detained here. Sometimes, deportation officers don’t show up for months to answer some of the detainee’s questions. When we do ask questions, we are given vague answers like “YOUR CASE IS PENDING” or “BE PATIENT”. ICE officers run away when we have questions pertaining to why were housed there, when or if we will be able to go home, or why we aren’t being given custody reviews after our 90 day period has passed. As for information to help us, there are documents posted on walls with phone numbers and addresses to our embassies. Many of this information has not been updated, most of the address and phone numbers are incorrect, making it impossible to get in touch with our native countries embassy.

We are suffering here and no one wants to listen to us. No one wants to hear what we have to say. We cannot complain to ICE or the CCA because if we do, they treat us even worse. The United States should be ashamed at the way they are treating us humans. THANK YOU FOR READING TO WHAT WE HAVE TO SAY.

Voice of Detainees

The immigration legislation, the STRIVE Act (The Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act, HR 1645, also known as the Gutierrez-Flake bill), that is now being debated in Congress that was introduced last month by Congressmen Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) will force lawmakers to make a moral decision. The bi-partisan bill is being compared to last years Senate bill senators Ted Kennedy and John McCain introduced that advocated for a large-scale guestworker program. The bill that would bring back the old Bracero Program witch doesn’t even come close to meeting the human rights standards set forth by the international community.

Last week, President Bush unveils his own immigration proposal that is very comparable to the Gutierrez-Flake bill. While both advocate for providing a “pathway” to citizenship it would require them to return to home and pay hefty fines to become legal US residents, they would also need to go though a very a tough background check by the government. Background checks not even the ordinary American could pass. As for the “lucky” ones who do qualify for this “pathway to citizenship” – it will be extremely long, expensive and hazardous. It will cost thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars in fees and fines, and it will take years – most likely much longer, considering that close to 200,000 immigrants, who applied under the last “reform” 20 years ago, are still waiting.

It is funny how Congress played everybody for a fool. It is not coincidental that the debates ended abruptly last year. This is not some conspiracy plot it was strategic move. It was to ensure that the seething cauldron that is filled with hate and violence would eventually reach a boiling point and explode into a frenzy of the almost suppressed rage much of this country feel towards Latinos and immigrants. It is not surprising that these bills are being introduced again. A year has passed by, and not a peep has been made about this so-called “new civil rights movement.” However, the anti-immigrant forces have stepped up their policies of repression and aggression against the hard-working people. The difference between this year and the last, we have new bosses in Congress, and they are proving to be the same as the old bosses. So intent are Democratic leaders on avoiding of being perceived as “the party of Blacks and Latinos,” they become very undependable allies. Make no mistake; the “immigration problem” is their “go to” issue when the halls of Congress have come to impasse. The truth is, it is a political fight between Democrats and the Republicans in a fight for quen es el mas chignon.

Race is a very convenient one when you want to seize someone else’s property, or kill them, or enslave them. It is this construct that animates the American debate domestic policy – or even foreign policy – when it comes to “aliens” of one kind or another. It not only swarms the country, it consumes cities. Under Operation Reservation Guaranteed, over 18,000 immigrants have already been picked up in the last five months has already flown “detainees” to wherever in the country a bed is available. I cite that number because that is actually the number of beds funded by the Department of Homeland Security. Funny, how their figures repeatedly exclude detention bed space funded by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and Health and Human Services (HHS). The truth is, according to the Office of Inspector General’s report, “Detention and Removal of Illegal Aliens,” there are over 230,000 people a year – more than triple the number of people in detention just nine years ago. Those who are being held include the sick and elderly, pregnant women, families, green card holders, and people escaping torture abroad.

Lies come in different forms and colors. It is no surprise that people are having a difficult time recognizing the essential truth in the ongoing immigration debate; we are constantly assaulted by nondescript facts. This country’s leadership is determined not to frame this debate in racial terms; therefore, the argument will constantly be framed in a comparison between those who have entered the country “the right way” versus “those who have chosen to break the law.” Last year, Migra Matters linked to a leaked Republican document, “Respect for the Law & Economic Fairness: Illegal Immigration Prevention,” which is the cheat-sheet for the immigration issue. Those talking points are nothing more but force-fed shadows on the wall of Plato’s Cave – a fabricated collective illusion generated by official rhetoric and amplified by mass media.

It comes as no epiphany that the whole “immigration crisis” is for the most part a fabrication of the right intended to distract the American electorate from their growing disenchantment with Republican and conservative policy. Luntz’s polling shows that thus far the campaign has been quite effective in misdirecting the American people’s wrath. According to Luntz, “While a majority of Americans believe it is the economic consequences of illegal immigration that is doing the most damage, it’s the “principle of prevention” that the public sees as the most important solution.” But if we look at exactly what the “economic consequences of illegal immigration” are, we see a series of failures of conservative policy.

The only reality we know are the shadows we are allowed to see, if the reality is unknown, or what you perceive is supposed to be the truth; then what is there to question or worry about? As one of the characters in the movie The Matrix said, “ignorance is bliss.”

Entering the Morass
Distinguishing between better or worse perceptions of realities is an extraordinarily difficult. In today’s society, questioning the status quo carries the threat of ostracism, possibly persecution. While the status quo exists, those who are doing well under the existing system will fight to protect it, for them there is no reason for discovering the truth. The reasons for continued migration go beyond “blaming the victim.” It is an understanding of the economic and social situations between Mexico and the United States. To grasp this relationship, we must develop a firm historical perspective on events that have occurred a long time ago. Although many would regard to believe this is a non-issue, we simply cannot do this because the consequences of such actions are with us every day. You can’t move forward as friends if you were enemies in the past and you do nothing about past situations.

The driving force behind Western imperialism has always been the pursuit of economic gain. The rhetoric of empire involving wars, however, has always been about other things – the White Man’s Burden, bringing true religion to the heathens, Manifest Destiny, defeating the Yellow Peril or the Hun, seeking lebensraum, or making the world safe for democracy. As long as the collective consciousness shuts its eyes to truth, any fabricated motivation for war or empire would do.

A report published in 1975, the Report of the Trilateral Task Force on Governability of Democracies, provides a glimpse into the thinking of elite circles. In this report Harvard professor Samuel P. Huntington, author of The Hispanic Challenge, contributed an essay to that report entitled, “The Crisis of Democracy.” In this essay, Huntington clearly states that democratic societies “cannot work” unless the citizenry is “passive.” Huntington wrote:

In addition to increased campaign activity, there was “a marked upswing in other forms of citizen participation, in the form of marches, demonstrations, protest movements, and ’cause’ organizations…” (61). There were “markedly higher levels of self-consciousness on the part of blacks, Indians, Chicanos, white ethnic groups, students, and women,” all seeking “their appropriate share of the action and of the rewards” (61).

“Al Smith once remarked that ‘the only cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.’ Our analysis suggests that applying that cure at the present time could well be adding fuel to the flames. Instead, some of the problems of the governance in the United States today stem from an excess of democracy – an ‘excess of democracy’ in much the same sense in which David Donald used the term to refer to the consequences of the Jacksonian revolution which helped to precipitate the Civil War. Needed instead is a greater degree of moderation in democracy” (113).

“Second, the effective operation of a democratic political system usually requires some measure of apathy and noninvolvement on the part of some individuals and groups. In the past, every democratic society has had a marginal population, of greater or lesser size, which has not actively participated in politics. In itself, this marginality on the part of some groups is inherently undemocratic, but it has also been one of the factors which has enabled democracy to function effectively.” Now, with the marginal groups participating more, “the danger of overloading the political system with demands which extend its functions and undermine its authority still remains. Less marginality on the part of some groups thus needs to be replaced by more self-restraint on the part of all groups” (114).

Huntington clearly spells the agenda how America will be run, and the kind of people who will be included within the elite planning community. So it should not come as a shock when Huntington wrote that “the cultural division between Hispanics and Anglos will replace the racial division between blacks and whites as the most serious cleavage in American society.”

The Illusion of Us vs Them
After the 2006 November elections, the Democrats has been asserting itself but not to the extent human rights activists, true progressives, and minorities would have wanted. One expected it to be more articulate and more critical of the existing Administration, particularly concerning the security forces. It is still a political party licking its wounds and often giving the impression that it does not want to be viewed with the image being “too radical,” “boat rockers” with the Administration. In other words, they are evoking hope among those who find themselves helpless by repeating the same lies Dudya said during the 2000 Presidential campaign – “I’m a uniter, not a divider;” “A reformer with results.” The fact is, the Democratic Party is either too timid or too divided. Either way, it is harming its status and stature. At times, it appears to be riding two horses at the same time.

Sadly, a group you will never hear much about, the Hispanic Caucus continues to enter its own morass. Instead of saving itself from embarrassment, the Coconut Caucus continues to not weighing in on the forms of social stratification that continues to plague this country. Although the overt caste systems the Spanish established that rule is gone, that does not mean that social prejudices and economic exploitation are not present. The problem is the way “social race” is defined today’s American societies. When it comes to “social race” in today’s societies, groups are defined socially much more than biologically. Meaning, a person in one society will be classified differently in another. Each of these social systems produces a very different structural situation and have different consequences for race relations – in one society they may be classifications based on real or imaginary physical characteristics, in another they may refer more to criteria of social status such as education, wealth, language and custom, or in yet another society they may show near or distant ancestry.

The problem here in the US, is the continued presence of the self-perpetuating caste-like social races provides a situation conducive to continued competition and conflict. True, caste is not race but the fallout from our caste-like system is more discriminating and divesting. It is also true, that an argument can be made that there is no common interest that unities native-born Latinos from foreign born Latinos except for our historical background of [tag]colonization[/tag]. The argument being made, why would an eighth-generation New Mexican, who considers himself a Spaniard, have anything in common with the white Republican Cuban. Or a third-generation Mexican-American with the black Puerto-Rican or with newly arrived Latino immigrant who has just arrived yesterday? They are worlds apart. The fact is, some Latinos speak Spanish. Some do not. Some are Catholic. Some are white. Some are brown. Some are black. We truly are la raza cosmica!

For the past couple of weeks I have been very troubled by this argument. How could this reality exist? However to do really answer that question, I would have to look at my own faults. I do admit, America seduced me, enchanted by the ideas of “making it” if I worked hard. I will also admit how much of a neophyte I was during the Olympics or how my first job after graduate which provided me my middle class income allowed me feel I was different, yet, there was ache in my heart that told me it was not true. The more I thought about it, more I saw past the shadows and the Matrix of illusions.

Once we see past these illusions, the common thread that truly unites us all – we are all [tag]Americanos[/tag] – [tag]Latinoamericanos[/tag]. No matter how much we try to set ourselves apart from them, we will always be seen as being impure. Because my skin is brown, to people like Samuel Huntington, my brownness will always be seen as an impurity. The only adjective that attaches to the Mexican more easily, more frequently, in the American lexicon is “dirty” – dirty Mexican. So image being born in Texas, required to learn Texas history, and being told that the only reason the Mexicans were so easy to defeat in battle is because we had diluted the strength of being either pure Indian or pure Conquistador, pure Spaniard, by mixing. As I too fight the struggles of racism, discrimination and the status quo these are the struggles many immigrants face.

Do [tag]immigrants[/tag] not go through the same humiliation, the same harassment and the same horrors of living we do? Do immigrants not concern themselves with concerned with wages and working conditions, health care, education and other issues as we do? Borrowing words from Shakespeare, they can say: If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

No democratic system should be ashamed of discussing at any forum its practices, which disable its own people. A free society owes it existence to the tenets of freedom. The people of color have never had a breath of freedom in this suffocating society.

On May 1, 2007, we will once against strike fear in the hearts of our common neo-colonial oppressor.

Quoting from last line from The Matrix – “I know that you’re afraid… you’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin.”

¡Ahorra Actuamos y Manana Votamos!

Endgame is a term used in chess; it is the last stage of the game after a series of moves and are ready to use your remaining primary pieces to take advantage of the weaknesses that you created in your opponent’s defense. The new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that are paralyzing immigrant communities of color across the US are part of Operation Endgame, the massive immigration enforcement operation launched by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003. The obvious question, what does chess have to do with immigration? The appropriate response to this question, a lot.

Image making is one of the new weapons of modern warfare; it used to construct the governments rationalization for their military practices. Since the first Gulf War, major US operations have been nicknamed with an eye toward shaping domestic and international perceptions about the copious undertakings they describe. When it comes to the game of chess, there is more to mere game than meets the eye. For those who do not play chess, it may seem like a standard game; pieces moving back and forth on a square checkered chessboard with the aim to checkmate the opponent’s king; but to the strategist it is all about intimidating their opponent by toying with fears and illusions that eerily mirrors the outside world of the human condition. In chess, the pieces are limited in their movement on the board. Worse, as in the real world, the white pieces have the upper hand because it always has the first opening moves of a game, in essence, the goal is to create a dynamic imbalance between the two sides by continuing and increasing the advantage conferred by moving first. And like the real world, there are times when the black pieces has an opportunity to be in control, however, the white pieces will eventually have no other alternative but to respond to the situation.

If major US operations are nicknamed to reveal the logic behind their strategic goals, then it safe to assume that the current named operations being used under Endgame was meant to dehumanize and criminalize undocumented migrants working in the US. The table below is short a list of immigration raids conducted by ICE since Endgame began, however, I also included two significant raids that were conducted by the old Immigration and Naturalization Services (Pre-ICE) that were conducted right after 9/11.

The ongoing Operation “Return to Sender” does nothing but dehumanize them, so it can remove their likeness to us, our ability of identify with them. As history repeats itself, there are now instances in this country where the majority are now desensitized, void of humanity, and are now using derogatory words towards minority groups to perpetuate the belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance (“coons,” “wetbacks,” “ragheads,” “chinks”). And like George Orwell’s Oceania, new words are created to debase or dehumanize the enemy (“gooks,” “japs,” “krauts,” “pinkos”) enabling a speedy transition to bypass the instinctive moral apprehension to do harm against another. This is a comment left here by one of today’s compassionate patriotic American.

Proud Anglo | angloandproudofit@hotmail.com | Nov 25, 8:54 PM

Spanish yet ANOTHER reason to hate the Beaners

Patriotic Americans can rattle off any number of reasons to demonstrate how our Spic! oh sorry, “Latino” infestation is the worst plague our country’s had since AIDS. Here’s another one! Beaners have truly the worst, stupidest, lamest, laziest, most incompetent, ugliest, most useless f***ed-up language ever made. Spanish is a cultural abbomination that only the Spics could love.

And in Spanish, what do the Beaners have to match up to English? They’ve got, oh, uh, lemme see here! oh yeah, that’s right, Julio Iglesias. Since they have such a brilliant-o great-o singer like Julio, this clearly goes to show the great artistic heights of Spanish and Spic culture. NOT.

I can think of nothing better than to dedicate myslef to eradicating this verbal diarrhea known as Spanish from the US, as should any patriotic Gringo. The sooner we can rid ourselves of Hispanic stench in all its forms, the better off we’ll all be. Have a nice day and don’t choke on your tacos, Beaners.

Funny how such terms to describe foreigners have not evolved so much over the years. Part of the reason has to do with our mainstream media. Journalists know how imagery plays a crucial role in what deeply affect people’s emotions and subsequent actions/reactions (just ask CNN, MTV, psychiatrists, etc.). In today’s “age of imagery,” Latinas ARE dehumanized as they are defined in to two categories: the virginal señorita or the hot tempered and oversexed unhinged Latina spitfire; while Latinos are often portrayed as “Latin lovers” or your typical janitor, drug lord and gang banger. It’s incredulous that people like Lou Dobbs are unaware of such nuances and effect that their words they use to “editorialize” their “immigration news.”

At this time Operation “Return to Sender” has resulted in the indiscriminate roundup of over 18,000 immigrants, which over one-third of them were not even the people being targeted. According to the figures reported by a Lawton, OK news station, KSWO, since the time ICE’s “Operation Return to Sender” began in May 06, roughly “37% of the cases were ‘collateral’ captives – people who happened to be present when agents arrived.”

Couched in pro-worker terms, Endgame is just a piece that is part of a neo-liberal strategy to exploit mainly millions of Mexican and Central American laborers as transient servants through a national guest worker program. Endgame began in 2003 and is scheduled for completion by 2012. Their is an ongoing debate to pass legislation for a national guest worker program. The project clearly establishes proof of the developing the strategy to exploit Latin American labor. Endgame is an expanded version of “Operation Wetback.” The economic goals of both operations is the same – exploit the desirable workers in servitude and mass removal of undocumented Latin American migrants from the US. The scope of Endgame, however, includes the short-term deportation project of 1954:

The DRO strategic plan sets in motion a cohesive enforcement program with a ten-year time horizon that will build the capacity to “remove all removable aliens,” eliminate the backlog of unexecuted final order removal cases, and realize its vision.

DRO VISION
“Within ten years, the Detention and Removal Program will be able to meet all of our commitments to and mandates from the President, Congress, and the American people.”

The Detention and Removal Operation (DRO) facilities operated by ICE under DHS is the infrastructure needed to monitor and enforce the national guest worker program in the US will eventually be the largest mass deportation in world history. To strategy behind the “remove all removable aliens” logic is designed to locate, arrest, detain, and deport an excess of twelve million people. The expansion of these facilities that will be needed to detain and remove tens of millions of undocumented migrants is already in place or under development. In short, Endgame is the widespread assault on established communities of undocumented migrants already living and working in the US.

One of the arguments sycophant nativists accuses undocumented workers of doing is crossing the border and stealing jobs from hard-working Americans. However, the order of events is demonstrably the reverse. Politics by definition is about compromises and tactical alliances, and one such alliance involves Corporate America. Something is clearly not right when unions, progressives, and liberals are in bed with Corporate America.

At a time of growing concern about the economic, environmental, and social costs of immigration, as well as new concerns about threats to national security, their arguments is that is that immigrants are good for the economy because they expand the domestic consumer market, increase business productivity, and keep the US economy competitive in the worldwide market. The relentless demand for cheap labor by transnational corporations is the root of our problem. The innocuous term, “guest worker,” obscures the true nature of transient servitude because the term suggests the person is here for a limited time, but this labor program will offer no kindness or generosity to workers caught in the trap.

According to Richard D. Vogel, the program will be conducted primarily by private corporations that are only interested in the bottom line of profits for their stockholders and huge salaries and bonuses for their managers and executives, and it will be enforced by the unprecedented power of the US government.

However, more troubling is when we have our own “leaders” urging us, begging us, to entrust the very people who are exploiting the millions of Mexican and Central American laborers. Arguing for a National “guest worker” program will not eliminate the “immigration problem,” it will only further undercut the value of all labor in the US. By failing to distinguish the difference between immigration reform motivated by a desire for cheap labor and immigration reform advocated to attain a just society does not help our cause.

The Gutierrez-Flake bill being proposed is similar to the old Bracero Program. The Bracero Program was an indentured servitude program which allowed for the temporary migration of Mexican agricultural workers to the United States from 1942 to 1964. is important because of its impact on the lives of millions of Mexican workers.

The bracero contracts were controlled by independent farmers associations and the “Farm Bureau.” The contracts were in English and the braceros would sign them without understanding their full rights and the conditions of employment. When the contracts expired, the braceros were required to turn in their permits and return to Mexico. The braceros could return to their native lands in case of an emergency, only with written permission from their boss.

Ultimately, over 4.6 million Mexican citizens entered the United States under the Bracero Agreement, providing an abundant supply of cheap workers for US agriculture as long as it was needed. Though the program provided desperately needed jobs to Mexican workers, the bracero experience was characterized by poverty wages, substandard working conditions, social discrimination, and lack of even the most basic social services for braceros and their families. Calling the Bracero Program by another name – Gutierrez-Flake bill – does not make it different.

That reality is, we are living in a post-industrial society where our corporate and government leaders have abandoned US-based production in field after field, including civilian shipbuilding, railways, computers, and other capital goods, as well as apparel, consumer electronics, and myriad other consumer goods. The expectant quest for “opportunity” has retreated to an angry claim to “entitlement.” America has become the Land of Entitlement. Now that we have fallen on hard economic times and looking to see the root cause of this problem. It is not surprising to find most Americans who selfishly believe that they have the right to maintain living in a lifestyle rich in material comforts, and to do so, many want to displace other families not just for their pursuit of happiness, but its guarantee to continue in their illusion.

We are living in one of the most ideological epochs in the history of humankind. Few people in America genuinely believe, despite the astute observations of millions of individuals around the world, is that we are living in an empire, and we are no longer living in a democracy. Every last semblance of democracy in our country that, in our desperate denial, we leave our claw marks on, is vanishing with each tick of the clock. Despite the clamor in Congress from both conservatives and liberals for a national guest worker program, it is a reactionary policy with catastrophic economic, social, and political ramifications.

Deporting all those without residency papers and walling the US in just to retain the present standard of living would only isolate us from the rest of the world by creating a Fortress America. Doing this would create an ironic consequence, the economy would not only crash by turn itself into type of third world country that is so despised by the nativists.

In Texas, there is an expression we like to say, “everything is big in [tag]Texas[/tag].” Within the continental United States, Texas is the biggest state by area, and the second biggest among the 50 states, only Alaska is bigger. The people of this state take pride in their bigness, from number of big oil companies to our prison system. Texas has the largest number of “immigration prisons” in the US to house the undocumented immigrants once they have been rounded up (here, here, and here); and Texas can proudly claim to the largest concentration camp in the US federal system’s archipelago of immigration prisons.

In June 2006, [tag]Willacy County[/tag] commissioners entered into a two-year contract with the US Department of [tag]Homeland Security[/tag] to build a futuristic cluster of tent-like domes in the Rio Grande Valley. Like a thief in the night, the prisons were quietly built in the rural town of [tag]Raymondville[/tag]. The Willacy County [tag]Detention Center[/tag] is one of a host of new or expanded prisons, both public and private, that [tag]ICE[/tag] has commissioned for an expected rush of illegal immigrant detainees. According to the Washington Post, about 2,000 undocumented immigrants are housed within the 10 giant tent city home for weeks, months and perhaps years before they are deported back to their home countries.

As the government invokes national security to sweep up and jail an unprecedented number of immigrants, the private-prison industry is booming. The $65 million camp build by Utah-based [tag]Management and Training Corporation[/tag] (MTC), is a sprawling squat of inflatable domes plopped down on top of massive concrete slabs. The facility was quietly built last summer between a federal prison and a county jail where,

…illegal immigrants are confined 23 hours a day in windowless tents made of a Kevlar-like material, often with insufficient food, clothing, medical care and access to telephones. Many are transferred from the East Coast, 1,500 miles from relatives and lawyers, virtually cutting off access to counsel.

Marc J. Moore, field officer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Detention and Removal Operation, told the Brownsville Herald that the Willacy County Detention Center will be set up with 10 huge circus-like tents, surrounded by “14-foot-tall razor wire fences stand around each dome” with “two rows of razor wire fences” surrounding the 200,000-square foot prison site. The new prisons are made out of Tedlar, a “nylon material,” which they are stretched over “metal studs,” comparable to the structures that are used by the US military in Baghdad and made by Sprung Instant Structures, a company with offices in Utah. The Sprung’s structures will house about 200 beds in each tent and each tent will be divided into four 3,700-foot sections. It’s no surprise that “similar temporary buildings were used for troop recreational facilities in Iraq,” the article points out. According to OMB Watch’s searchable database of federal government spending, Strung has already won $16,864,710 in military contracts since 2000.

With an increase in stricter immigration laws and Washington’s push for tighter enforcement, these are signs to come of rural American sprawl of inflatable detentions. As Eric Schlosser mentions in his 1998 article, “The Prison-Industrial Complex” in The Atlantic Monthly:

The prison-industrial complex is not a conspiracy, guiding the nation’s criminal-justice policy behind closed doors. It is a confluence of special interests that has given prison construction in the United States a seemingly unstoppable momentum. It is composed of politicians, both liberal and conservative, who have used the fear of crime to gain votes; impoverished rural areas where prisons have become a cornerstone of economic development; private companies that regard the roughly $35 billion spent each year on corrections not as a burden on American taxpayers but as a lucrative market; and government officials whose fiefdoms have expanded along with the inmate population.

This contemporary push to privatize corrections takes place against a socioeconomic background of serious and seemingly difficult crisis. By the fall of 2007, the administration expects that about 27,500 immigrants will be in detention each night, a gain of 6,700 over the current number in custody, according to a 2006 New York Times article. Who is going to cash in on this, and who is ultimately going to pay the price? Under the push of Bushes social Darwinism, with its “toughness” on “illegals” as its battle cry, the war profiteers in this home front is the [tag]Corrections Corporation of America[/tag] ([tag]CCA[/tag]), the [tag]Geo Group[/tag] (formerly the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation) – the two biggest prison operators – and now [tag]Kellogg, Brown and Root[/tag], a subsidiary of [tag]Halliburton[/tag] (the makers of Guantanamo Bay Detention Center) are enjoying the spoils of war. Analysts state, profit margins are higher at detention centers than prisons. According the NY Times article mentioned above:

… the Correction Corp.’s revenue from holding immigrants jumped 21 percent, to $95 million from $70 million in 2004. Geo, the second largest prison operator, received $30.6 million last year, about the same as the year before. … Wall Street analysts said that detention centers produce profit margins of more than 20 percent.

Just recently, Williamson County’s T. Don Hutto Correctional Residential Center, come under review when people found out they were housing 200 children. Hutto is operated for the government by the CCA and according to the New York Times, is “under a $2.8-million-a-month contract with Williamson County.” The Hutto Residential Center is one of two family detention centers in this country; the other is the Berks Family Shelter Care Facility in Leesport, PA.

Ever since the [tag]Hutto facility[/tag] has under intense scrutiny for having a reputation as a prison that locks up children, officials invited the media to tour the place (video of tour).

In a 72-page report, “Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families,” released last month by two refugee advocacy organizations, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), concluded that the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center and the Berks Family Shelter Care Facility were modeled on the criminal justice system “where residents are deprived of the right to live as a family unit, denied adequate medical and mental health care, and face overly harsh disciplinary tactics.” It went to say

“Every woman we talked to in these facilities cried,” said Michelle Brané, Director, Detention and Asylum at the Women’s Commission. “Many of the children were clearly sad and depressed. Some feared separation from their parents, a common threat used to ensure that children behaved according to facility rules. Alternatives exist that are not punitive and that keep families together while also addressing the enforcement concerns of the government.”

But this is not surprising, last month, NPR reported on the findings of a new study from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security. According to NPR

Some non-U.S. citizens detained by the government for violating immigration laws are kept in rat-infested, cramped detention centers, fed noxious food and denied basic hygiene items such as clean socks and underpants.

Investigators found that two jails were infested with rats and roaches. The supposedly hot meals at one detention center were served cold. Detainees got food poisoning. The ventilation system didn’t work.

Some detention centers were so crowded that detainees were stacked up high, on triple bunk beds. They had to clamber up and down without ladders, because the jails refused to buy them. The inspector general reported that some detainees were injured because they fell off those bunks. And some facilities didn’t provide immigrants with clean socks and underpants, the way they are supposed to.

Don’t be misled into thinking this will end any time soon? Just recently, more than 300 immigrants were seized in a Massachusetts immigration raid. Federal immigration authorities carried out a massive raid on a New Bedford, Massachusetts, plant Tuesday morning, detaining 300 to 350 immigrant workers and charging the company’s owner and three managers with knowingly hiring undocumented workers.

Everything is going as planned with Bush’s Endgame, where jackbooted thugs of America’s ruthlessly capturing and hauling off 400,000 Latinos “absconders” to immigration prisons. History continues repeating itself, while the capital elites enjoy the spoils of a trumped up war. Yet we continue to be a society of sleepwalkers, not wanting to care or get involved. People have to remember that violence is prompted by those who oppress, who exploit, who fail to recognize others as individuals and not by those who are oppressed, exploited, and unrecognized. It is not the helpless, subject to terror, who initiate terror, but the violent, who with their power create the concrete situation which begets the “rejects of life.” How do people come to such a pass that they can commit such atrocities against each other? Where has our empathy and kindness gone? If we cannot even show an ounce of care for them, then what has become of our humanity? So look at that little girl who is currently in the Hutto facility who is forced to wear prison garb and who will only receive one hour of fun a day and tell her that she resigned to a life of life of humiliation and wretchedness. Tell her that she is less than human and will be doomed of a life of misery, while some shut their surrounding just to continue living in their comfortable place. Tell her you would rather see her dead because her parents came her looking for a better life, if you makes you happy.

We are living in a very fractionalized and disjointed America due to the policies of our administration, but in reality we have families being broken up. I am saddened because there are children crying because they have lost their parents; there are people suffering from nativist that are hell bent on making their idea of what America should be. How many more atrocities must be committed before any of this madness is brought to an end? More importantly: How can we see another’s woe and not be in sorrow too? How can we see another’s grief and not seek ease their pain? How can we see a falling tear, and not feel for their sorrow?