( - promoted by mooncat)
In the middle of Alabama, at a county jail, 300 immigrants who have already been ordered removed by judicial process are held indefinitely.  The U.S. government seems to be explicitly using the Etowah County facility to hold immigrants it knows it will not be able to remove quickly, if at all, from the United States--with the full knowledge and expectation they will eventually be released and reunified with family here in the U.S. Under threat of losing some 5 million dollars in revenue, Etowah County officials lobbied federal lawmakers, who were planning to end the contract and only ICE facility in Alabama, and in April 2011 ICE renewed the contract to hold up to 325 immigrants there. Many of the detainees held at this facility cannot be removed from the United States despite orders, as they are victims of torture or persecution, or for lack of an extradition treaty. In 2001, the United States Supreme Court held that indefinite detention of "stateless persons" under the plenary power doctrine was subject to Constitutional limitations. For incarceration to be enforced, the government needs to demonstrate that deportation is imminent. On a visit to the facility, The Women's Refugee Commission interviewed many detainees, some who were told upon entering the facility that they would have to be there for six months to wait out their time (immigration officials knew the government could not send them back to their home country, meaning inevitable release). Many men and women incarcerated at the site have been held for longer than 6 months, but are in no position to leverage their rights - with no access to affordable legal counsel to navigate the incredibly complex immigration enforcement bureaucracy.  On December 3rd Occupy Birmingham is planning an action at the Etowah County Detention Facility. Wat 827 Forrest Ave, Gadsden. We raise our voices in outrage at the treatment of men and women non-citizens who cannot speak for themselves. It is our duty and our privilege to do so. As these practices are largely obscured from public view through information control systems by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, also as response in protest I will hold nightly education sessions on investigating officially obscured government activity. The first will be this evening at 5, at the corner of 20th street and 5th avenue south, in downtown Birmingham. |
