Tag Archives: human-rights

“Here have been several suicide attempts, many mental breakdowns.”

July 01, 2018

To whom it may concern:

This is a cry out for help from the people (or aliens, as we are called) at Northwest Detention Center, Tacoma, WA, spending the dark days of our lives.

The prison is run a la modern slavery. The officers, who mainly are retired military people, are getting overpaid to watch us. All other work is done by the prisoners. We work at the barbershop, we paint, we cook, we do buffing, we clean dishes, we do laundry, and we clean the entire building inside and outside, and we clean our units.

Depending on the job, it is a working day from 1 to 6 hours. For this we get paid $1 a day. The facility is built to house 600 people for 4 weeks. Yet here are over 1,500 people, some are here many months, and even years. It is totally overcrowded. We live about 100 people in each unit. The unit is one big room, around 300 square meters. But the bunks and tables take most of the space.

In this room we eat, sleep, shower, use toilets and waste our lives. In this room we are locked up for 23 hours a day, with far less space per individual than slaughter cattle have in Europe. For 1 hour we are allowed to come out in a rec yard. With one small soccer field, if 4 play on each team it is overcrowded. There is one basketball court and a few iron exercise machines. All this is fenced with a razor sharp curl of wire. After this there is another fence 15–18 feet high, with 7 (seven) razor sharp curls of wire, similar to Auschwitz! Totally overdoing it for a so-called detention center.

On the other side of the second fence officers are patrolling with cars, and walking officers with guns. We do not understand the guns. We come as immigrants to live in America, not to escape.

In the facility there are waiting cells for everything we do. If we go to the dentist, to medical, court, attorney visit, regular visit, or if we talk to our ICE officer. These cells are identical with a prison’s, with a stone bench inside and a toilet. That’s it. This bench is almost impossible to use because it saps all the heat from the body immediately due to the cold temperature in the room.

When people are deported, they are taken out of the unit at 10:30 p.m., then placed in a holding cell to around 10:00 a.m. Before, they are cuffed on both hands and feet, with a chain around the waist, hands placed in front.

We are counted 5 times a day. This means we must go to our 20 inch wide iron beds with a 1–2 inch mattress, depending on its age. The officers take this very seriously, screaming at us to be quiet. It takes about 1 hour to count us, every time.

We are forced to wear uniforms. The clothes we wear and the blankets we use for sleep are washed in the laundry at the facility. In the laundry they use chemicals in our clothes and blankets (to calm us down) so we don’t fight, due to the extreme stress it is being here.

These chemicals result in many getting exams (red marks on several places on the body, and red eyes as well as dizzyness, also problems with the throat and airways.) Just to add a note!! The reason for writing the human rights act back in the late 1940s was with the interest that no one ever again should be exposed to gas or chemical attacks.

Of course we can go to the medical department, and get medicine for the symptoms. Never have so many young people needed so much medicine as people here.

We are given 3 very nutrition poor meals a day. There is never enough for a grown up. On the weekends, we get one small sandwich and one orange for lunch. That is not even a snack for an American. We have the possibility to order from the commissary twice a week, overpriced.

The facility is a for profit business. It gets paid a huge amount daily for each detainee. Because of that, they always keep the detainees for weeks and months after the final court hearing before they are deported to squeeze the last money out of them. The facility also earns on the medicine they give us, on communications, commissary, and money saved for not having employed staff beside the officers. It is truly a dirty business, instead of what it is supposed to be, immigration for humanity. The people who come here are mainly victims of persecution, torture, etc., who all seek protections from harm. What we get is far from America-worthy!

Here have been several suicide attempts, many mental breakdowns. And way too many are traumatized from this horrible way human beings treat non criminal fellow human beings. Many grown ups are crying on a daily basis, not understanding or comprehending the treatment which we are being given, nor the way way our lives are being wasted, for the sake of money!!

We are treated unrespectfully, are humiliated, our human rights are repeatedly violated, and we are living like and feeling like animals in a cage.

The immigration law as it is, is destroying families, marking them for life. Sending them into limbo financially, due to far too long a time in prison, unable to pay bills. Therefore we cry out for help to be set free, and be reunited with our loved ones. To be treated as what we are, human beings (and not aliens or prisoners). To be trusted till otherwise proved. Are we not innocent? We implore and beg for an investigation and a reconsidering of the immigration law.

Kind regards from the prisoners without any crimes,

(names withheld by request)

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“Here have been several suicide attempts, many mental breakdowns.” was originally published in IMM Print on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Navajo Councilman Wants Half Million Dollars for Attorney to Keep Dirty Coal Power Plant Operating

WTF Monday!

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Navajo Councilman Wants Half Million Dollars for Attorney to Keep Dirty Coal Power Plant Operating

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

Navajo Councilman LoRenzo Bates wants the Navajo Nation to spend a half million dollars to keep a dirty coal fired power plant operating. The proposed $500,000 would be for a contract attorney to negotiate a new owner for the power plant. Navajo

US puts new limits on foreign aid funded through the UN

The move comes as Trump’s administration is cutting UN funding in Iraq to redirect it to Christians and other minorities, and as it announces a new religious freedom initiative. Green has been directed by US Vice-President Mike Pence to prioritise earmarking for such causes. 611174.jpg?8mMg1zwcJMkFce6MPJ8Igkf6sUGZF
A bureaucratic manoeuvre at USAID is set to choke funding for UN agencies, while other Trump policies favour Christian causes

Neonazis a la caza de pañuelos verdes

In the video looks to three men from a neo-Nazi group hitting a group of teenagers, and feminist activists wearing green scarves in the plaza Santa Fe may 25. Images circulated on networks and came to the media. Since that day, the girls received threats through the…

The post neo-Nazis hunting for green scarves appeared first on harvest red.

En el video se ve a tres hombres de una agrupación neonazi pegándole a un grupo de adolescentes y activistas feministas que llevaban pañuelos verdes en la plaza 25 de Mayo de Santa Fe. Las imágenes circularon en redes y llegaron a los medios. Desde ese día las chicas recibieron amenazas a través de las…

The post Neonazis a la caza de pañuelos verdes appeared first on Cosecha Roja.

Larry Commodore Now in Israeli prison: ‘A Mission of Indigenous Solidarity’

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My grandnephew, my good friend and me at the south end of Chilliwack Lake on the Upper Chilliwack River. Photo by Gary Haggquist. (Larry on right.)

Larry Commodore Sailing on Al Awda, ‘The Return’

SOS – Release Larry NOW#SOSjustfuture4PalestineBy Larry Commodore

Censored News

Watch video of why Larry went on Freedom Flotilla

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwYqPXJ8LoALarry Commodore

Palestinians in the UK speak out for the right to freedom of speech | Letters

Leading figures, including Prof Karma Nabulsi, Prof Kamel Hawwash, and Dr Garda Kharmi, put their community’s point of view

The fundamental right to free expression, guaranteed by article 10 of the Human Rights Act, is first and foremost the right to “receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority”. We write to provide news of our existence, in the face of current attempts to negate it.

As British Palestinians, some citizens, others still stateless refugees, we remain bound by our common history, when previous generations of Palestinians were violently denied the right to self-determination by the British colonial power ruling Palestine from 1918. Deprived of our sovereign rights to our land, we were dispossessed of it by force in the establishment of the state of Israel, which the British colonial occupation oversaw through 1947 to 1948. There exist vast bodies of publicly available records, scholarly evidence and official testimonies to affirm these facts.

Continue reading…

“We haven’t told our kids he’s in jail.”

Eleven months ago Alexey Kharis went to DHS in San Francisco to receive the verdict on his appeal for political asylum. Then he was arrested and thrown into detention. This is his wife Anna’s story. (Part 2 of 2)

I met my Alexey in 2007 when I was in my home city, Vladivostok, for summer break. It was love at first sight. The next year, when I was studying in London, we hung out on Skype every night. We married in 2009 and had five years of complete happiness. Our son was born and then our daughter.

Alexey Kharis and his children

I was taking care of the kids and opened a small grocery shop. Alexey was a co-owner and CEO of a large construction and real estate development company and worked 10–12 hours a day, which I wasn’t happy about, of course.

But I was at peace with it seeing how passionate he was about his business, how proud he was about the achievements and significant projects of his company. And he was always a loving and sensitive husband and caring father. Quite often, he’d spend the night rocking the cradle and then head off for his business early in the morning. And we always were together on weekends. We had quite a happy family life.

And then came dreadful 2014. Before that Alexey didn’t share his business troubles but was always eager to share his success and achievements. At the beginning of 2014, I got to know that some officials from Moscow were persecuting my husband and his business partner as vengeance for exposing an official’s corruption, and that he ordered a criminal investigation against their company. Alexey was sure that there was no wrong-doing on their side and the investigation would come to a conclusion of no fault. But several months of endless interrogations and raids and searches followed. And a troubling expression was more common than a smile on his face. Then in summer, the storm seemed to subside. I proposed to spend some time abroad because he was exhausted (and I had my reasons too). For several weeks we enjoyed a rest, our kids and each other. But then Alexey’s lawyer informed him that he had been indicted for fraud and arrested in absentia. That meant that if he went back to Russia he would go straight to jail. There are no words to describe the terror of this news. Our lawyer said they needed time to understand the situation and we decided to stay in the U.S. for some time.

Going to jail in Russia was out of the question. Once Alexey got there, they would extort any confession from him. And we still hoped that the situation could be resolved.

We both knew about the grand abuse of law and justice in Russia but could not believe that a crime could be simply concocted and someone could be prosecuted for something that never happened at all.

Alexey with his wife, Anna, and family in happier times

We chose California as our temporary residence. Our kids went to a public school, I got a student visa and studied digital marketing and then found a job. Alexey attended evening courses at Stanford, preparing himself for its Graduate School of Business (he’d dreamt of an MBA for a long time) and he also spent time with the kids. Meanwhile, Alexey’s business in Russia was ruined (and my grocery shop too) but we still hoped for a new start. We made new friends here and explored beautiful California around us on weekends. And then it got worse and worse and worse. Russia put Alexey on Interpol’s Red Notice list, and my visa was revoked, and though he was admitted to Stanford, he had to withdraw.

Our last hope was to ask for asylum in the U.S. We had the asylum interview in May 2017, after which the case was referred to the court. Alexey was arrested in San Francisco on August16, 2017, the day he was informed of the decision. Many tears and sleepless nights followed. He was denied bond and has been in detention for 11 months now.

We haven’t told our kids he’s in jail. We said he went on a business trip. He calls every night to tell them that everything is ok.

But we are thinking of telling them the truth but do not know how to do it because they wait for him every day and ask when he will be coming back home. All our savings are gone, but the good thing is that I have my job and we support and cheer up each other and try hard not to think about the possibility of deportation. We know that in Russia he will be forced to plead guilty and the judge will be unjust and dependent on his Moscow bosses’ opinion. And there will be a long and undeserved imprisonment, and we may never see each other again. We know all this, but we try hard not to think of it and to keep hope and faith and to do whatever we can.

During these long, eleven months, I’ve met a lot of open-hearted and compassionate people. Total strangers listened to me and offered to help. And Alexey tells me that in detention he has met a lot of good people too, even among the guards. This gives us hope that even if we can’t find justice in the governments of Russia or the U.S., there is still justice and compassion in people’s hearts.

Editor’s note: Please consider a contribution to Alexey’s GoFundMe campaign: www.gofundme.com/free-alexey

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“We haven’t told our kids he’s in jail.” was originally published in IMM Print on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.