RAICES Profile picture
19 Feb, 10 tweets, 4 min read
What's happening in Texas is criminal:
Food shortages. Unsafe drinking water. Impassable roads. Flooded homes. A humanitarian crisis like we’ve not seen before.

This is what's going on in immigrant detention centers in the midst of the #TexasFreeze & what you can do to help🧵👇🏾
We have 10 offices across the state and most of our 250+ staff members have been without power for much of the week.

Luckily, we've now been able to communicate with many of our clients & community members both in and out of detention centers.

But things are looking bleak.
Immigrants in detention centers are freezing cold and not able to get the word out about what’s going on inside these prisons.

Take Ubaldo's situation for example 👇🏾
At one of the two family "residential" centers in Dilley, Texas conditions are getting worse by the hour. There are 300+ children, mothers & fathers imprisoned right now without reliable water or power.
Meanwhile, at Karnes family prison the power has turned back on but has been intermittent.

We've been told that their rooms remain very cold and that they only have one blanket per person. One client reported that he was given a jacket but only after asking for one.
While our attorneys have been in contact w/ICE to request folks be given adequate water, blankets, food & translation services...Karnes is privately run by @GEOGroup, so it's up to them to provide these things.
As much as we'd like to send warm clothes, blankets...etc. to families trapped inside these facilities (& we know you would too), ICE does not allow us to give items to the folks we work with & they don't accept any type of donations from the public.

So what can you do to help?
1⃣Get informed about the dangers of family detention.

ICE told us there wouldn't be new intakes or releases this week bc of the roads & airport closures. But the fact of the matter is folks wouldn't be in this position if we weren't holding them hostage.

raicestexas.org/2021/01/28/fam…
2⃣Use this tool 👇🏾 to email @POTUS and ask him to #EndFamilyDetention once and for all bc there is no “safe” way to detain a child.

raicestexas.org/ask-president-…
3⃣Don't forget that family separations happen in different forms and it is very much alive!

#FreeUbaldo is part of the fight to #FreeThemAll 🗣️

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More from @RAICESTEXAS

17 Feb
For 4+ months, Ubaldo Ochoa has been held in an ICE detention center in Pearsall, TX while his son awaits his release.

Today, we received a call from him saying it's freezing inside the jail, yet nothing has been done to alleviate the cold 🥶 #FreeUbaldo remezcla.com/culture/young-…
We're unsure if there have been power outages in the detention center but if their heating is working, it's set very low.

Ubaldo told us they were asking the guards (with no luck) to lower the air from the vents bc it was making them colder.
In lieu of heating, his block hasn't received blankets or any type of warm clothes in order to weather the storm.

And to top things off, our status hearing was cancelled today because of court closures in the state.
Read 8 tweets
17 Feb
4M+ Texans have been left w/o power for nearly 2 full days in the midst of an unprecedented snow storm & single-digit temps.

Who's been hit the hardest?
Marginalized communities a.k.a ppl w/disabilities, BIPOC and immigrants.

Let's dive into this 🧵⬇️
washingtonpost.com/national/texas…
Ppl w/disabilities are 2-4 times more likely to be injured or killed in a natural disaster, according to @disasterstrat yet they're rarely effectively accommodated in the emergency preparedness plans of gov'ts.

Texas is a blatant example.
Folks with disabilities & chronic illnesses need power for assistive devices and heat to prevent severe impairment.

But how is governor @GregAbbott_TX responding to this & more?
By blaming the Green New Deal...🙄
Read 8 tweets
9 Feb
🚨 BREAKING: Thanks to efforts with @MPower_Change, @SAALTweets, and the 2,600+ of you who took action...

‼️ MR. F IS FREE ‼️

It's been a cruel 243 days of his incarceration.

@ICEgov's actions proved yet again that our immigration system was built on Islamophobia. 🧵👇🏽
Let's clarify that ICE has full discretion to release detained folks at ANY time.

Yet, they keep folks imprisoned under false claims, coding their anti-Blackness & Islamophobia into the language of "danger for community" or "threat to national security" like they did w/ Mr. F.
It's inhumane to have incarcerated Mr. F for 243 days. He missed his child's birth, his dietary needs weren't met, and his health was deteriorating.

Prisons, jails, and detention centers are always a public health crisis, but especially when #COVID19 is ravaging through them.
Read 8 tweets
5 Feb
The executive orders have been released, changes are starting to take place but our work continues.

This is what the #BidenAdministration has done in its first few days/weeks in office & what it still needs to act on in order to truly achieve #MigrantJustice

A thread 🧵⬇️ A rectangular navy blue graphic with the number 46 and stars
The 1st batch of immigration centered Executive Orders & memos included things like...

- Halting wall construction
- The Muslim & African Bans rescinded
- DACA restored
- A repealed census order excluding undocumented people
- Restoring deferred enforced departure for Liberians
With the additional new orders announced yesterday that include:

- Creating a task force to reunify families separated under the Trump administration
- Implementing a 3-part plan to improve access to the asylum system
- And an EO reviewing the existing legal immigration system
Read 9 tweets
3 Feb
Today, as the Biden admin announced its family reunification taskforce, Ubaldo Ochoa-Lopez sat in an ICE prison - in danger of being deported.

He & his son, Fernando came to the US seeking asylum from Guatemala. What awaited them here was a cruel & stunning reality. #FreeUbaldo A bright pastel green rectangle divided in half with a photo
They were both separated during Trump's Zero Tolerance period in 2018 and remained away from each other for two months.

Fernando was only 6 years old when this painful and traumatic experience happened.
Now, @ICEgov has separated them again.

Ubaldo has been detained at Pearsall Detention Center since October - 4 months - and is in danger of being deported back to Guatemala, leaving his son behind.
Read 10 tweets
11 Jan
The wall was a sham. This visit is too.

Trump is using his tried & tested formula of attacking immigrants in an effort to rally his army of xenophobic white supremacists.

And we're not here for it. Neither should you.

(A thread 🧵 👇🏾)
thedailybeast.com/trump-to-visit…
The attack on Congress last week established that walls don't work, yet the half built one on the U.S. - Mexico border remains a symbol of all the hate Trump has spewed & generated during the last 4 years.

As Texans, we will not sit idly by and let Trump use Texas and his racist border wall as a backdrop for his hate-filled platform.

We demand Senator @JohnCornyn publicly denounce Trump’s visit to Alamo and support the calls for his removal from Office immediately.
Read 9 tweets

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