Thread by @CatYuracka

1 year ago today, Witnesses outside the #Tornillo #ConcentrationCamp for kidnapped refugee children gathered for #CarolingInTornillo #AGiftTheyCantBlock Singer/songwriters serenaded captive children so they would know they were not forgotten #ShutItDown 1/15

We had stood witness outside the prison walls for months. We put out the call for activists to join us & stand Witness to the child torture being perpetrated in our name. We begged the media & politicians to come & see for themselves...& they did.2/15

@actdottv was there. So was @MSNBC & @CNN & @NBCUTelemundo & the local El Paso news. Many activists groups joined together to lend their voices, art & personal power to make certain the country knew we would not tolerate concentration camps on American soil. 3/15

And when they all went home, Witnesses stayed. We stayed until the last child left on 1/11/19. When they left, it looked like it had never happened. But we knew it happened. We were there. We documented it all @TornilloWitness & on FB at Witness Tornillo.4/15

2 months later we gathered again in #Homestead FL, a #concentrationcamp run by for-profit #Caliburn with the aid of #JohnKelly, author of #KidsInCages & #FamilySeparation policies. At capacity of 3300 kids, they made $2.4 MILLION/DAY in no-bid contracts given to cronies. 5/15

Again we put out the call - “We need boots on the ground!” Warriors came from as far away as Alaska & New Hampshire. We kept two vigils and we kept watch-1 by the front gate...6/15

...& 1 on the ladders where we could wave & throw kisses to captive kids inside.Their captors told them we were trying to get them deported, that we were protesting because we wanted them sent back. They were warned interacting with us would add 30 days to their detainment 7/15

But the kids knew the truth. They knew there was no other reason we would be standing on those ladders, day in & day out, in the brutal heat, holding signs & hearts & blowing kisses but that we cared. We cared about them & we wanted them to know.8/15

#Caliburn didn’t want to let let go; neither did we. We had protests, Alessandra Momdolfi did projector art & made banners that the kids could see over the fence. @LetiGarzaATX traveled from Austin to give a Mother’s Day concert in the back of a truck so the could see her.9/15

And we told everybody and anybody who would listen-this is a concentration camp & we will #ShutItDown! When the Dems came to Miami, we shamed them onto the ladders & this time we were neck deep in press @MSNBC @CNN @ABC @CBSNews @NBCUTelemundo @MiamiHerald @NewTimesStreet 10/15

By 08/19 the last kids were gone. #Caliburn wouldn’t tell us how many were released 2 family & how many transferred to other facilities. Neither would @HHSGov or ORR. All we knew was that 3,300 kids we had loved on from across the fence for 6 months were no longer there.11/15

We faced off against #BCFS at #Tornillo-the camp closed. We faced off against #Caliburn at #Homestead-the camp closed. Now we’re facing off against Trump & his racist “Remain in Mexico” policy known as MPP. And we’re gonna need your help. vimeo.com/371487505 12/15

“If you ask me about reforming the immigration system, I’d say, that’s a pretty big job...” Well, when you shut down 2 federal prisons, you get to thinking with a little help, you can do damn near anything. Folks are dying. And worse. 13/15 #IfNotNowWhen? npr.org/2019/11/27/783…

Join us-we need your help! Because we won’t leave until the deed is done. @TornilloWitness #TargetMPP #Jan12 #BrownsvilleTx And if you can’t travel yourself, please donate so that Witnesses with the time but no $ can stand in your place gofundme.com/f/witness-torn… 14/15

This is your gift for making it all the way to the end - @LetiGarzaATX singing her composition La Esperanza. May the Spirit of the Christ Child bless you & yours...& keep you safe from the horrors of this world. 15/15 eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%…