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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2014)
Street roots June 6, 2014 El dia de la madre, remembering those behind bars BY BY PAT RUMER not allowed to enter. We are outside but we sing out for justice; s of this writing, today, May 10, is we hope that our voices, words and Mother’s Day in Mexico and Central presence can penetrate the walls so that the America. I am standing on a smàll people inside know that we are outside . piece of land outside the Detention Center supporting them. There are flowers for the of ICE in Tacoma, Wash. We are here to women who arrive to visit a husband or remember the mothers who are brother or sister. The visitors carry our incarcerated in this special jail built for voices, prayers and speeches inside where persons without documents. we cannqt go. I am here to remember the mothers and This detention center, is owned by GEO to be in solidarity with everyone fighting to Corporation. They earned $115 million from change the laws of my government that separate children from their parents. These incarcerated mothers have to leave their children with family Pat Rumer is a members or neighbors, or in the worse case, Portland activist they are put into foster on Latin care. I speak with American and another vigil international participant, Vicki, who issues, tells me that her sister specifically was detained two years involved with ago for a month. She immigration has four children; Vicki justice. and others in her family took care of them. But they did not understand why their mother was taken away and they missed her a great deal. Vicki attends this vigil each year to remember her sister. I am also here to resist these laws and show support for all the people in the Detention Center. It is not a lot to'give one day each year to travel to Tacoma and participate in the Mother’s Day Vigil organized by the Interfaiith Movement for their detention center operations nationally. Immigrant Justice(Portland) and the The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Washington New Sanctuary Movement agency, la migra, h asa Congressionàl We chant: Parar los Detenciones - Parar mandate to detain people without los Detentaciones - Mantenga las familias docum ents® the United States. ICE then Juntas. How many more years will we have Contracts with GEO and another private?-' gg to hold this vigil? This is the seventh year corporation to provide 34,000 beds at a people have gathered to say loudly. No Mas daily cost of $119 per person: It’s a lot of Deportaciones. The crowd of a hundred money. There is a profit to be made in this people waves signs saying “Free them Now,” business. This is my tax dollars at work. I “Stop the Detentions,” “Bring Them Home.” am angry. I don’t want my government to I came to this, vigil for the first time in use my money to warehouse people. It is ; 2009.1 was surprised to find the center not right. It is inhuman. located in the heart of the industrial area of We hear testimonyy from women who Tacoma near the train station. It looks like a have lost their husbands to deporttion. big warehouse of a corporation, that makes They are undocumented as well and cannot computers, but this warehouse is owned by find work. One woman shares with us — my a private corporation that has round the three-year-old son stopped speaking after his clock guards and barbed wire fence. We are C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T ■ father’s deportation. He is being seen by speech therapists and the entire family is receiving some therapy through the schools. How can we treat people this way? Towards the end of the program, a woman pastor leads us in a service of remembrance for the 60 people who' have died in detention this past year. She. asks us to pick UP a small stone by the side of the railroad tracks, put it in our hands, move forward silently during the reading of the names and to place the stones in a circle on on my phone telling me the news, and I •began to cry, thinking of all the people I knew in Guatemala and what this decision had meant for them. Are we in the United States really different than Guatemala? What are our crimes against humanity? What crimes have undocumented people committed? Why are there no laws protecting their right to due process when they are detained, transported to Tacoma and then deported to their country of origin? ? The female lead singer of the group, Bajo Salario, shares her story. My church, St. Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church in Portland, raised the funds for bail for her husband. Then they helped them get legal papers so that her husband was not deported. That is real support - an act of justice. / What a struggle it is. Yes, it 4s good to . save a few lives, one by one, but where is justice? Where are members of the U. S. Congress to understand that we are all human beings and that immigration reform needs to happen now so that we no longer treat people like this? More people have been deported by > President Obama in the last five years, a total of 2 million, than during the entire eight years uf George Bush. We yell and Chant with the hope that someone hears - . 2Vo more deported persons! No more! No more! At the end of the vigil we sing in Spanish the movement song, We shall not be moved. P H O T O B Y A M N É S T Y IN T E R N A T IO N A L Unidos en la lucha, no nos moverán Como un árbol firme junto al rio ; No nos moverán! the ground. Various people read the names We walk with paper plates inscribed with and countries of origin of the people who messages: We hunger for immigrant justice; have died. We thirst for justice for immigrant families. During the reading of the second group We tie these plates to the wall surrounding of names, all four are from Guatemala. the detentionicenter with the hope that the Tears inm y eyesrmy body moves forward. Without thinking I put my stone in the circle detainees will see them. The plates are simple symbols, but I hope they mean in memory of Guatemalan brothers whom I something for the people separated from do not know but who are compañeros in my their families and communities. heart. When I climb back into the car for the I think of this country, Guatemala, so beautiful, so poor. I feel a great sadness that return to Portland, I ask myself, What are you going to do, Pat? “What can you do? I am they died so far from home and their unsure, but I do know that I will join with families. Suddenly, I realize that on this day one year ago, Mother’s Day, the Guatemalan other people to speak the truth so that these crimes against humanity are not Court found General Rios Montt guilty of invisible. crimes against humanity and genocide. My Nosotros venceremos. daughter Deborah had left a voice message \ We shall overcome. . CENTRAL CITY Ending homelessness and achieving se sufficiency - now roasting and distributing craft coffee. y tf& ita b le ffin jy ^ h a s é à f:' Follow Street Roots on Facebook and Twitter! New Seasons Market Green Zebra Grocery Food Front Cooperative Grocery Chuck's Produce f Guài ris io? o ffic e co ffe e accounts! 503-7 84-9263 e TlieTait Home R esid en tial C a re C om m unitij Where senior and disabled adults receive the care and respect they deserve. Call us for more information CENTRAL CITY (503)223-2144 COFFEE 1337 S.W. Washington, Portland, OR 97205 www.centr<àicltycoixern.of$ - iacetoGfccom/OentralCMyGOiiee ■. 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