Mothers Launch Hunger Strike at Texas Immigrant Detention Center

AUSTIN, Texas – Dozens of mothers went on a hunger strike this week at the immigrant detention center in Karnes City, Texas, to demand that they and their children be released.

“We have decided to unite and launch a hunger strike to show our desperation,” they said Friday in a message written in Spanish and signed by 78 women, all of whom are being held at the center.

The Karnes City facility, located some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the city of San Antonio, Texas, is one of four detention centers in the United States for families, all operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

The others are located in Dilley, Texas; Artesia, New Mexico, and Leesport, Pennsylvania, which if filled to capacity can hold a total of some 4,000 undocumented immigrants.

Most of the women in detention came from Central America and crossed the border during the last fiscal year, when an enormous wave of undocumented immigrants led the U.S. government to reopen these facilities as a way of discouraging new arrivals.

“You must know that this is just the beginning. We won’t stop until we achieve our goal. This strike will continue until every one of us is freed,” the women, who after crossing the border asked for asylum in the United States because of the violence in their own countries, said in the letter.

They also said in the note that living conditions in the center “are not good” for their children, who “aren’t eating well and are losing weight every day and whose health is deteriorating.”

“During this hunger strike, no mother will work in the detention center, nor will we send our children to the school or use any service of this place,” they said.

Karnes Detention Center, which was opened in August 2014 and is managed by the privately owned GEO Group, has been notorious for several scandals, including several complaints of sexual abuse of female detainees by the guards.

The Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, of which ICE is a division, opened an investigation following the complaints but concluded that no proof could be found to justify them.

For its part, ICE denied finding any evidence of a hunger strike at the Karnes family immigration facility.

Let's Walk Now !

Iran - Mother of 4 kids arrested - " Civil rights activist "

Manizhe Sadeghi Arrested and Transferred to Prison in Sanandaj

Posted on: 1st April, 2015

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HRANA News Agency – Manizheh Sadeghi, civil and workers’ rights activist, was transferred to Central Prison of Sanandaj.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), Manizheh Sadeghi was arrested on Monday 30th of March and transferred to Central Prison of Sanandaj.

One of her close relatives told HRANA: “Manizheh is not affiliated with any party or political organization. She is just a civil activist in the field of women’s and children’s issues in Sanandaj.”

According to this source, Manjzheh Sadeghi, who is a mother of 4 children, after her previous detention, was under treatment due to heart problems, high blood pressure and severe headache and returning to prison is seriously dangerous for her health.

Manizheh Sadeghi had been arrested earlier in December 2011 on charge of disturbing public order and was sentenced to ninety days of imprisonment and was released in the March of the next year.

GOP rips Iran nuclear deal

The Hill - 04/02/15 - Republicans on Thursday ripped the emerging nuclear deal with Iran, and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) demanded that lawmakers be able to review details of the framework before any international sanctions are lifted.




“After visiting with our partners on the ground in the Middle East this week, my concerns about Iran’s efforts to foment unrest, brutal violence and terror have only grown,” Boehner said in a statement after leading a GOP delegation through Israel, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. 

“It would be naïve to suggest the Iranian regime will not continue to use its nuclear program, and any economic relief, to further destabilize the region,” the Speaker said.

Meanwhile, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) vowed to press forward with legislation allowing Congress to put its fingerprints on the Iran deal, saying “the administration first should seek the input of the American people.” 

Defense hawks on Capitol Hill blasted the deal as too weak and warned that it would essentially put nuclear weapons in the hands of the Iranian regime.

“Iran remains the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. Iranian aggression is destabilizing the Middle East. And Iran continues to hold multiple Americans hostage,” said freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who earlier had penned a controversial letter to Iranian leaders in a bid to derail the nuclear talks. 

“I will work with my colleagues in the Senate to protect America from this very dangerous proposal,' he said, 'and to stop a nuclear arms race in the world’s most volatile region.”

Under the emerging deal between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers, international sanctions on Tehran would be lifted in exchange for new restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. Negotiators hope to reach a final deal by a June 30 deadline.


“I believe this is a deal worth supporting, but we must wait to ensure there is no backsliding on any parameters before a final agreement is signed,” said Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), who was on hand for Obama’s White House announcement.

One likely GOP presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), used the nuclear deal to highlight what he sees as Obama’s broader foreign policy failures. The senator called the initial details of the deal “very troubling” because it would allow Tehran to retain thousands of centrifuges and wouldn’t rein in Iran’s ballistic missile program. 

“This attempt to spin diplomatic failure as a success is just the latest example of this administration’s farcical approach to Iran. Under this President’s watch, Iran has expanded its influence in the Middle East, sowing instability throughout the region,” said Rubio, a member of the Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees.

“Iran’s support for terrorism has continued unabated without a serious response from the United States.”.

You got a dollar I can borrow ?

Good Friday Protests Against Dancing Ban in Germany

BERLIN – Several German cities hosted symbolic protests against the ban on dancing that is prevalent in most of the country’s states on Good Friday, the Friday preceding Easter Sunday.

The “ban on dancing,” which generally also includes the suspension of public entertainment or sporting events on the holy day, is regulated by regional or municipal ordinances and local authorities who are responsible for ensuring compliance.

Just as years past, various associations, including the Pirate Party, have called on supporters to gather in squares of cities like Stuttgart, Cologne, Frankfurt, Bochum and Mainz to dance in public as a form of protest against the legislation.

The president of the German Evangelical Church, Bedford Strohm, told the regional broadcaster SWR that he could not understand why an order to stop partying for one of the year’s 365 days was too much to ask.

The goal is merely to devote one day to contemplating and reflecting on the suffering in the world, said Strohm, noting that this ban is “a very important cultural value” that transcends belief and religion.

The Pirate Party said on its Facebook page that everyone should be able to decide how to celebrate different holidays, stressing that religious or governmental regulations that unnecessarily restrict freedom are unacceptable.

Recalling that 40 percent of the German population does not practice Christianity, the party has called on citizens to gather in central squares, listen to music on their headphones, and dance in silence.

One Body Found, 9 Cubans Detained off Puerto Rico’s West Coast

SAN JUAN – U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to Customs and Border Protection on Thursday found a body floating offshore and detained nine Cubans near Mona Island, located in the channel separating Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

CBP announced in a communique that a Dominican citizen was also detained in the operation.

The group of undocumented immigrants consisted of six men, two women and a 3-year-old boy, all of them Cubans, along with the Dominican citizen, all of whom arrived in the vicinity of Mona Island from the Dominican Republic on board a homemade boat.

The body, whose identity was not made public, was taken to the port of Mayagüez, on Puerto Rico’s northwest coast, where the Homicide Division of the island’s police took charge of the investigation.

The migrants will be handed over to the Border Patrol for interviews and other immigration procedures