Thread: TX - Palestinian Family 'Locked Up' For Immigration Violatio

http://newsbusters.org/node/10561

TV Report: Palestinian Family 'Locked Up' For Immigration Violations
Posted by Warner Todd Huston on February 1, 2007 - 22:45.

WFAA TV in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas market has been touting a story that they obviously think is some sort of tragedy. So bad, in fact, that the first words of their story are, "'Inhumanity' and 'atrocity' are just two words being used to describe news..."

One would think that the world was ending, wouldn't one?

The TV station is wracked up in high dudgeon over a family of Palestinians who are in the country illegally and were scooped up by Immigration officials and remanded to a rather posh housing center to await the outcome of the machinations of government officials trying to determine their fate.

Federal agents swept down on the Richardson apartment of Salaheddin Ibrahim, arresting him and five members of his family for immigration violations.

Salaheddin was taken to a federal immigration prison in Haskell, Texas.
His wife Hanan and four of their children: Hamza (15), Rodina (14), Maryam ( and Fatin(5), were all bused hundreds of miles away to the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas.

Unfortunately, because of the 14th amendment "born here, stay here" concept the family was split up with a three-year-old "baby of the family" left with legal relatives in Dallas. The child’s dilemma is certainly a regrettable aspect of this story, to be sure.

The WFAA report conveniently forgets to mention that the Ibrahim family had come here on Jordanian visas that had expired and that they were here illegally but it does briefly mention that US immigration officials were stymied in their deportation because their home country refused to take them back.

In fact, the entire WFAA report is filled with emotional pleas to allow this family to thumb their collective noses at our immigration laws. It is also filled with absurd rhetoric utilized to make the reader feel that this family is somehow being tortured.

An activist is quoted as saying, “It's so un-democratic, it's so un-Christian, that we would treat children as prisoners in America." That appeal, of course, that emotional appeal, is one that belies the truth. The family is here illegally and is being held until their situation is cleared up. Children are not being "treated as prisoners".

But, even if they were, it is the parent's fault for flouting our laws and NOT the official's fault for following duly constituted law.

This is certainly a messy situation, grated. But the simple matter of fact here is that these people have no real fear of being tortured or killed if returned to their country and they ARE here illegally, breaking our laws.

But, we are seeing a large network of anti-immigration law activists gearing up to raise money to thwart our laws and force the government to free this illegal family from the system. Those of us interested in upholding the laws should not just stand aside and allow these people to tear down our laws.

Again, the fact is that this family is here illegally. They broke our laws and now imagine themselves higher than those laws. The three-year-old's supposed citizenship notwithstanding this family should be deported. Period.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/w ... 71bea.html

Should immigrant children be imprisoned?
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Questions over Palestinian family locked up for 3 months

03:20 PM CST on Thursday, February 1, 2007

By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV


"Inhumanity" and "atrocity" are just two words being used to describe news of four Palestinian children and their mother being imprisoned by federal immigration officials for nearly three months now.

The story began November 2nd during a pre-dawn raid.

Federal agents swept down on the Richardson apartment of Salaheddin Ibrahim, arresting him and five members of his family for immigration violations.

Salaheddin was taken to a federal immigration prison in Haskell, Texas.

His wife Hanan and four of their children: Hamza (15), Rodina (14), Maryam ( and Fatin(5), were all bused hundreds of miles away to the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas.

Today, their apartment is a time capsule.

The appearance of family possessions scattered about, toys on the floor, Halloween candy spread out on the dining table, all appear to reflect, the chaotic moment of the arrests, frozen in time.

All the family's belongings left behind.

Also left behind was the baby of the family, three-year-old Zahra.

Since Zahra was born in America, Department of Homeland Security officials are allowing her to live with her Uncle Ahmed Ibrahim in Dallas.

Ibrahim says his brother's family came to America legally five years ago, trying to escape an outbreak of violence in their native land, the occupied territory of Palestine.

He says no one could have imagined they would end up behind bars in the country where they sought asylum. "It's the most unfair thing, un-American thing, inhumane thing, illegal thing that has happened to this family," said Ibrahim.

Since November 3rd, the mother and four children have been kept at a former state corrections center in Taylor, Texas, outside of Austin.

The Department of Homeland Security opened it last May as a facility for illegal immigrants awaiting deportation. It is primarily populated with immigrants from countries other than Mexico.

The facility is billed as a residential center, complete with family living areas, free-roaming access to the library, gymnasium and outdoor play areas. But some familiar with this unit say do not be fooled by the flowery description - that it is, above all else, nothing less, than a prison.

"So what I'm saying is, this is a retrofitted prison, this is a prison," said University of Texas law professor Barbara Hines.

Hines knows first hand. She and her students provide legal assistance to immigrants appealing deportation. What she has not seen for herself, she hears from her clients. Video of the inside of the center taken last year before the prison was converted into a residential center shows what appears to be a standard prison set-up.

Small cells open into a larger dayroom with pre-fab tables and stools. The floors are polished concrete and each cell is appointed with beds attached to the walls.

A small window adorns each cell, as does a combination sink and toilet.

Hines says children and their parents are kept locked inside the prison walls and sleep in the eight-by-eight foot cells.

"And so if even what the government says is they take the locks off one door, it's locked to get in, there's barbed wire around it and these are bunk beds, the bathroom is inside,” said Hines. “It's what would be in a jail cell."

“It's so un-democratic, it's so un-Christian, that we would treat children as prisoners in America," says immigration activist Jay Johnson-Castro.

In the three months since the Ibrahims have been locked inside, word has spread about their plight and the purpose of the facility. Johnson has helped organize three protests held just outside the prison walls.

Attorney John Wheat Gibson of Dallas, who represents the Ibrahim family, says he also detests the family’s treatment. "It's there in front of our eyes, but we don't want to believe it, we refuse to believe it, we really don't believe it.”

Gibson admits the family had lost its appeal for asylum and was jailed pending their deportation. But since no country has agreed to accept them, they remain behind bars.

According to Gibson, "they characterize these people as absconders, immigration violators and criminals and they are none of those."

Now the children and their mother are among an estimated 400, mostly women and children, behind double layers of razor wire.

And while Immigration officials assure everyone's recreational, health and educational needs are being met, some are saying that not the case.

"Initially they had one hour of education, after a lot of press they may have increased slightly the number,” said Professor Hines. “One hour of recreation a day is not sufficient for children."

What her uncle says is also not being addressed are the needs of 3-year Zahra, who has not seen her mother in three months. "She needs her mother, I mean it's simple as that, she needs her family,” said Ibrahim. “She needs her father and her mother and her sisters."

For now, all Zahra believes is that her mother is at the hospital.

News Eight has, over the past two and a half weeks, made repeated requests to Department of Homeland Security officials for not only answers to all of our questions but for access to the Ibrahim family. All of those requests have been denied.

Carl Rusnock with Immigration Customer Enforcement said the children are now receiving six hours of education each day.

E-mail bshipp@wfaa.com.

"She needs her mother, I mean it's simple as that, she needs her family,” said Ibrahim. “She needs her father and her mother and her sisters."

It's NOT as simple as that unless you are a simpleton! It IS however as simple as 'immigration violations'!!! What at laws for if not to have punishment for breaking them. For gosh sakes, the whole world has gone mad with foolish rhetoric!

"She needs her mother, I mean it's simple as that, she needs her family,” said Ibrahim. “She needs her father and her mother and her sisters."

I absolutely agree and if I were in charge I'd probably make the mistake of putting the 3 year old in with the mother and siblings. However, I'd probably be hung for doing so, then they'd be a big stink about how un-American, un-democratic, inhumane and what an atrocity it is to have a 3 year old American sitting in that prison. Can't win for losing in a case like that.