Immigrants Held Secretly by Homeland Security -- Tonight (Friday) on PBS Stations at 10 p.m.
I happened to catch a rerun last night of Leonard Lopate's interview with the producers of tonight's investigative report on the thousands of immigrants being held for long periods of time by Homeland Security in various secret locations in the U.S. where they are subjected to the same abuses -- attack dogs, humiliation, inadequate medical care resulting in deaths -- as those tortured at Abu Ghraib.
The first report on this subject to my knowledge was made by our Brooklyn College Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Paul Moses, in Newsday on our own Brooklyn 'gulag' where immigrants were tortured by one of the guards later prosecuted for the same abuses at Abu Ghraib.
These immigrants in many instances are legitimate refugee seekers such as the family of our former student, Neemarie Alam, forced to flee with her family to Canada to avoid deportation to Bangladesh or others with long productive lives in this country who had been charged with a minor violation many decades ago. Before 9/11 I worked with Allan Wernick, our principle CUNY immigration and naturalization lawyer, and witnessed such cases as one of our students with a large American family (oldest daughter also at Brooklyn College) who had been stopped in a speed trap in Virginia and asked by police to allow them to search his (second hand car). The police claimed to have found part of a marijuana cigarette behind the back seat in his car and obliged him to pay a $100.00 fine for this infraction. We were able to clear his record at that time with a good conduct check so that he could complete his citizenship status. However, such a charge now would be grounds for deportation. Apparently many of those held, abused, often deported, were green card holders of long standing in this category.
I strongly urge any interested in doing their research papers in this general area to watch this program, the third in a series of investigative reports on areas otherwise not properly covered by our media. The NY Times finally followed up on Paul Moses' report on our Brooklyn gulag a year or more later -- no major reporting on that case reached the wider attention of most New Yorkers. I gather that the many thousands of imprisoned were scattered around the country, often to county jails in poorer sections of the country which could benefit from a per diem payment for services rendered.
Leonard Lopate is one of our Brooklyn College grads who regularly does excellent interviews M-F on WNYC from Noon to 2 p.m.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
The first report on this subject to my knowledge was made by our Brooklyn College Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Paul Moses, in Newsday on our own Brooklyn 'gulag' where immigrants were tortured by one of the guards later prosecuted for the same abuses at Abu Ghraib.
These immigrants in many instances are legitimate refugee seekers such as the family of our former student, Neemarie Alam, forced to flee with her family to Canada to avoid deportation to Bangladesh or others with long productive lives in this country who had been charged with a minor violation many decades ago. Before 9/11 I worked with Allan Wernick, our principle CUNY immigration and naturalization lawyer, and witnessed such cases as one of our students with a large American family (oldest daughter also at Brooklyn College) who had been stopped in a speed trap in Virginia and asked by police to allow them to search his (second hand car). The police claimed to have found part of a marijuana cigarette behind the back seat in his car and obliged him to pay a $100.00 fine for this infraction. We were able to clear his record at that time with a good conduct check so that he could complete his citizenship status. However, such a charge now would be grounds for deportation. Apparently many of those held, abused, often deported, were green card holders of long standing in this category.
I strongly urge any interested in doing their research papers in this general area to watch this program, the third in a series of investigative reports on areas otherwise not properly covered by our media. The NY Times finally followed up on Paul Moses' report on our Brooklyn gulag a year or more later -- no major reporting on that case reached the wider attention of most New Yorkers. I gather that the many thousands of imprisoned were scattered around the country, often to county jails in poorer sections of the country which could benefit from a per diem payment for services rendered.
Leonard Lopate is one of our Brooklyn College grads who regularly does excellent interviews M-F on WNYC from Noon to 2 p.m.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 9:09 AM
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