Isaac and Jonathan Released from Detention Center

buckminsterfullerene · 11-24-2011, 01:33 PM

http://www.dreamactivist.org/blog/20...ented-youth-2/

Quote:

Happy Thanksgiving, however you may celebrate it. So we have one piece of good news for the day, Jonathan and Isaac were released very early in the morning today. They spent a total of 10 days in the Basile immigration detention center, the first five days they were in a New Orleans prison.
The action they took part in was an intentional action to get involved with immigration authorities. We know many of you think it’s crazy but why not? Immigration thinks it has some power over our communities, they think they can hold us hostage with the threat of detention. So why not take the power away from them and let them know we can go to detention on our own terms. If we take the fear card away from them then what do they have to hold over us? What would it look like the next time a bill like HB56 were proposed and the community was actually willing to stand up to the racist legislators? That is a future we want to see. We eliminate the fear. We empower the community to stand up for themselves. We then demand change, our own change.
If you organize you are safe.
So far we’ve been able to show you that if you are undocumented and organized you are safe from deportation. Obama memo or not, if you are a part of a larger community then you are safe from deportation. What immigration authorities are banking on is your fear, you need to be afraid of them therefore they can rule your life. Are you really going to play into their hands? By not coming out you are playing into their hand. They are banking on the fact that you will be afraid of them.
If you challenge the system it will fall apart.
The power of civil disobedience is that we go against the norm, we change the power dynamics and show that we are the ones to dictate our futures. We are the ones in control. It isn’t that the cops are arresting us, we are allowing for the cops to arrest us and on our own terms. It isn’t that ICE has the option to detain us, we are dictating whether we allow for them to detain us or not. We are the ones in control, regardless of what the authorities think. Once we take the power back from them then we can start to win. That is what we do with civil disobedience.
We can organize inside and out.
Once inside detention Jonathan and Isaac were able to continue to organize. They spent the last week gathering stories of those in detention, finding other folks who everyone says we aren’t deporting. They pulled together mini know your rights workshops and helped educate those inside. Going to detention isn’t fun for anyone, it sucks. It is boring. It is depressing. It is a degrading, dehumanizing and unsettling experience. But if it is going to happen regardless why not let it be on your own terms, why not organize while you are inside the center so that we can show how effective we can be inside or outside. Let’s flip the power on those who think they are in charge.
Many in this movement would like to fool you into believing change will come if you register enough voters or sign enough petitions. The reality is that, like the civil rights movements of the past, real change will only come when we empower ourselves to demand nothing less than to be treated as human beings. We have rights, why not demand them?
To those opposed to us all you need to know is that we are no longer afraid of you. We are coming after you and will not settle until we have all of the rights we deserve. To translate, yes we have the audacity to demand rights. Get over it

I tend to disagree somewhat with the idea that registering voters is a fool's errand, it is also important and we have been able to change elections in Illinois through that tactic, but we have also been speaking in public spaces and talking to communities of people, while this might not be something that everyone will be able to do, there is a lot of power involved when coming out as groups, however, this may also not be for everyone.

Signing petitions on the other hand, they are pretty easy to ignore and provide a good excuse to people to say they did something meaningful while not really having much effect, but that is my personal opinion.

But, this action does demonstrate that through being organized, and being part of a larger community, it is possible to accomplish a lot.

Smooth · 11-24-2011, 04:19 PM

I wonder how an immigration judge would react to this explanation: "I had no other option to put myself in this position to try to get a work permit. I have not connections to my country of origin. In the US, I can't work, sustain myself, pay for my bills. . . .How am I going to survive? I had to do this."

buckminsterfullerene · 11-24-2011, 05:34 PM

This was not done to get a work authorization... Just wanted to make that clear. Isaac and Jonathan are organizers and did this with a lot of support, there was no knowledge about what could have taken place but they were in constant contact with media while inside.

No one should try to get caught with the idea that you will get work authorization and not be deported, because you will get deported, that was the point of the action, it was to demonstrate that they would put dream act eligible youth in deportation proceedings despite what has been implied by the Morton memo and the Obama executive order announcement. Right now neither is being enforced.

carnivore · 11-24-2011, 08:53 PM

So did they get a work permit or what?

Smooth · 11-24-2011, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckminsterfullerene

This was not done to get a work authorization... Just wanted to make that clear. Isaac and Jonathan are organizers and did this with a lot of support, there was no knowledge about what could have taken place but they were in constant contact with media while inside.

No one should try to get caught with the idea that you will get work authorization and not be deported, because you will get deported, that was the point of the action, it was to demonstrate that they would put dream act eligible youth in deportation proceedings despite what has been implied by the Morton memo and the Obama executive order announcement. Right now neither is being enforced.

Oh I know they didn't do what they did for a work permit.

I was just throwing the question out there.

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Isaac and Jonathan Released from Detention Center