Back in April, Texas became home of Americas concentration camp when Williamson County’s T. Don Hutto Correctional Residential Center, a private detention facility in Taylor, Texas, became the newest facility for Homeland Security that would house “immigrants not from Mexico, but caught in Texas.” It was reported that around Christmas time, that T. Don Hutto Residential Center was housing 400 immigrants, and out those, 200 of them are children.
Fellow Houstonian and documentarian, Jesse Salmeron, has provided the a video on YouTube of Jay J. Johnson-Castro’s Christmas Eve vigil outside the Texas’ Williamson County’s T. Don Hutto Correctional…ummm….Residential Center…..Concentration Camp. (hat tip to Latina Lista, video at the bottom of diary)
According to Latina Lista also posted that Jay who did a protest walk from Laredo to Brownsville to protest the building of the Border Wall is planning to do another walk. However, this will be a historical event. There have been marches organized going from one city to city, but the march is planning to do, to my knowledge and research, has never never been done. Jay plans to do a historic 5,000 mile march in mid-February from San Diego, CA to the Hutto facility in Taylor, TX. He is also calling volunteers to join to protest the travesty that is occurring here in the Land of Free.
(1) opposed to the border wall, (2) if you are interested in putting and end to incarcerating women and children in prison camps on American soil?(3) if you?re interested in preventing the death toll that is as a result of failed immigration policies in this country?(4) some of, or (5) all of the above.
I will try to get in contact with Jay and post any information about this important and historic march.
Greg Moses of the Texas Civil Rights Review posted an email he received a couple of days ago on the current conditions at Hutto.
Many of you have probably heard that since the protests held in December, the Williamson County Commissioners toured the T. Don Hutto Facility and certified as humane and decent. What you probably haven’t heard is that, probably as a result of the protests and related media attention, the conditions in the facility have changed. We know that the education, in particular, has received a major overhaul, and children are now receiving four hours of education a day, instead of just one hour. We also know that at least some of the detainees are reporting that the food has improved, at least a little bit.
The facility is planning a media tour in the not so distant future. If you have any media contacts who would be interested in this information, please make sure they inquire. We can anticipate the facility putting its best foot forward for the visit and it’s unlikely any of the reporters will be permitted to talk to detainees during their tour.
It just seems the far right conservatives can’t even muster up any type of human empathy to even be burdened with the cruelty many immigrants must endure by Homeland Security and ICE. That is the part that makes me sad. There are even days, I ask myself why even bother to write about here or continue my blog because lately my heart has been aching in ways that are beyond words when I see the plight of our own who are easily targeted by our relentless play-or-die, rule-or-be-ruled society.
We must not let Jay’s march be forgotten and have it fall into America’s memory hole. It is people like Jay who have the dedication, the heart, and the desire to make things happen.
As we look ahead, we need to examine ourselves. How can we just sit back and wash our hands of any personal responsibility for the conditions which oppress the masses – the working poor and the unemployed – and favors the rich and powerful.
What has happened to the right of all people to live in minimally decent surroundings, with enough food to keep from starving, enough clothing to stay warm?
What has happened to the right of people everywhere to have adequate health care-the right not to have to suffer or die from relatively minor care which those with money overcome with the snap of a finger?
Let’s make history together. Let’s join Jay in his historical march to end this nightmare.
