Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20141008

And the lilith fund, which provides grants to texans who need abortions but cannot afford them. Then, for profit family detention. Beta private prison corporations uping millions by locking refugee families. I noticed her left arm, the movement was very limited and her feet were falling asleep. Wehought that was because were in a small space and she wasnt getting out. I could see she was very stressed about being locked in their. She was crying every night. She would ask, why are we here . When are we going to get out . I saw her suffer a lot. We will look at the center, new family prison just south of san antonio, where more than 500 immigrant women and their children are being held as they we deportation. Allegations of Sexual Misconduct among guards has already rocked the facility. All of that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. We are broadcasting from san antonio, texas. Im amy goodman. The Islamic State to be on the verge of capturing kobani along the turkish border. Isis has taken major parts of kobani after weeks of heavy attacks. Speaking in geneva, he was special envoy to syria urged International Intervention to prevent kobanis paul. The world has seen with his own eyes the images of what happens when city in syria or in iraq, is overtaken by the Tourist Group called isis. Massacres, humanitarian tragedies, rapes, horrific violence. The city of kobani on the northern border of syria close to turkey has been under siege now for three weeks. They are fighting with normal weapons, whereas the isis has tanks and mortars. The International Community needs to defend them. The International Community cannot sustain another city falling under isis. And neighboring turkey, at least 12 people have died in kurdish led protests calling for turkish intervention to prevent kobanis fall. Thousands of demonstrators clashed with police and the predominant kurdish areas of the east as well as in the capital. Around 200,000 people have fled the Islamic State attack on kobani, most of them kurds. The United Nations has issued a new warning over what it calls the grave conditions of internally displaced people inside iraq. On tuesday, kevin kennedy, the deputy u. N. Humanitarian coordinator, said iraqs 1. 8 million internally displaced face a new crisis as winter looms. With are in a grave crisis iraq, particularly at meeting the needs of the 1. 8 million internally displaced persons [indiscernible] violence in the conflict in iraq continues unabated. The displaced iraqis can be found throughout all of iraq, particularly in the kurdistan region. What is currently a very difficult and grave humanitarian challenge will transform itself into a deadly, lifethreatening situation for many. Canada has become the latest member of the u. S. Led coalition after its parliament voted to join the airstrikes in iraq. The first ebola patient condition atthe u. S. Remains in a dallas hospital here in texas. Thomas duncan is receiving an external drug come on dialysis and a five for his life. In a visit to support dockets extended family, the reverend Jesse Jackson expressed concerns about his treatment. Of eric duncan, the concern here is that we see him as a patient and not as a liberia and he was in with a great reputation. He assisted a woman who was pregnant to get health care. She died. No one knew she had the ebola. She came he came to america to mar without feeling any symptoms of sicknessry. He came in with straight home to be with his family. If you had knowledge of this disease, he would not have done that. Nothomas eric duncan has health insurance. You was initially sent home from a dallas hospital despite telling a nurse he had been to liberia. He was readmitted by ambulance four days later. Four of his relatives have in quarantine. Dozens others whom he may have come in contact with are being monitored. An american journalist being treated in nebraska after contracting ebola in liberia is receiving the same experiment drug as duncan. , hejournalist, ashoka mukpo said to be in stable condition. The cdc says it is preparing to roll out tougher ebola screening measures at airports later this week. The new requirements would take effect in the u. S. And overseas. On tuesday, the cdc director tom frieden said the global Ebola Response should not stigmatize were demonized people or communities. I think we have to keep a couple of things in mind. The first dues, globally, this is going to be a long, hard, fight. The first is that we can never forget that the enemy here is a virus. The enemy is ebola, not people, not countries, not communities, but a virus. It is a virus that does not spread through the air can we do know how to control. We do know how to stop it. By isolating patients, doing contact tracing, and breaking the chains of transmission. Studentng kong, protesters have begun talks with government officials front after more than a week of prodemocracy demonstrations. Tens of thousands have flooded the streets in opposition to chinas plan to select candidates for hong kongs 2017 elections. The protest have wound down in recent days, but student leader buster shum said they could resume if talks fail. Urge themerely hope to space this directly in the political dialogue on friday. If hong kong official still insist they will not respond or they will not try to solve the problem, we may consider the protests mark hong kongs biggest political unrest in decades and one of chinas biggest political challenges since the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989. Back in the United States police , and officials are reportedly preparing for riots in missouri should a grand jury choose not to decide Police Officer Darren Wilson for the killing of unarmed teenager michael brown. The grand jurys decision is expected next month after weeks of deliberations. According to reuters, missouri authorities have drawn up contingency plans in case violent breaks out in response to a nonindictment. The meetings have been held two or three times a week, with the involvement of several agencies including the fbi. Local officials have also sought intelligence from other Police Departments nationwide on outofstate agitators. After attending the meetings, ferguson mayor James Knowles told reuters that the concern is the unrest is going to be far beyond the city of ferguson. According to one local gun store owner, weapons sales have been up 50 since browns killing, mostly among whites. An africanamerican man and his partner have a filed a lawsuit accusing Indiana Police of Excessive Force in an incident caught on video. Jamal jones was in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by his partner, lisa mahone, whose two children were in the back. The family was on their way to visit mahones dying mother in a hospital when police pulled them over because mahone was not wearing her seat belt. The officers ordered jones, who was not driving, to exit the vehicle. But he says he refused out of fear the officers would harm him. Police responded by breaking the cars window and tasering jones in his seat. Mahones son captured the incident on video from the backseat. Im not the operator in this vehicle. Are you going open the door . [screaming] get on the ground. [crying] that was horrible. Police say jones refused to follow their orders and that officers feared for their safety after seeing him reach for the backseats. On tuesday, jamal jones and lisa mahone spoke out after filing their suit. I felt like my civil rights were thrown out the window along with my body. Officer,explain to the the first thing i said to him, my kids are in the car. My mom is passing, can you please into this as quick as possible . Can we go to the hospital . He threw that out the window. Felt black again. At the end when it was over with, i looked at the officers and i said, do you know i said, i do not feel like i have Police Officers in my presence right now. It felt like i was it felt like it was nothing but thing makers around me. According to their complaint, two of the officers involved were named in four previous federal lawsuits involving the use of Excessive Force against citizens and arresting citizens without probable cause. In new york city, the family of an africanamerican man who died in a Police Chokehold has notified the city it plans to seek 75 million in damages. A father of six, garner died after police wrestled him to the ground and pinned him down. He was accused of selling loose cigarettes. His death fueled the National Debate about police use of Excessive Force and the new York City Police Department Policy of cracking down on lowlevel offenses. Garners family filed the notice of claim ahead of a planned lawsuit over his death. A georgia grand jury has elected not to bring charges against a Police Swat Team for a raid that left a toddler critically wounded. Bounkham phonesavah spent weeks in a burn unit after a swat team threw a flashbang grenade into his playpen while he was sleeping. Authorities had raided the home where he was sleeping in the early hours while searching for an alleged drug dealer who was not there at the time. The u. S. Attorney for the Northern District of georgia, Sally Quillian yates, says she will now review the case for potential federal charges. A string of marriageequality victories continues with bans struck down in two more states. On tuesday, the ninth Circuit Court of appeals overturned lgbt marriage bans in idaho and nevada. The decision comes one day after the Supreme Court rejected appeals from five states whose Marriage Equality bans had previously been struck down. After tuesday, lgbt marriage is now legal in 32 states up from 19 just last week. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Were broadcasting from san antonio, which is now the last outpost for legal abortion in south texas. There are three known facilities providing abortions here in the city, but none remain south or west of here. The Rio Grande Valley, the southernmost part of texas, which is roughly the size of connecticut, has no abortion providers. Nearly one million women of reproductive age must now travel 300 miles roundtrip to access abortion care. Thats because of a sweeping antichoice law which passed last summer. Known as hb2, the bill was initially blocked by a peoples filibuster and an 11hour stand by texas state senator wendy davis. But Texas Governor rick perry called a second session of the state legislature and the bill was passed. It has since gone into effect in stages, with the number of clinics dropping over time. Last week the fifth Circuit Court of appeals allowed a provision of the law requiring abortion clinics to meet the standards of hospitalstyle Surgery Centers to come into immediate effect. The ruling gutted Abortion Access overnight, shuttering 13 clinics and leaving just eigh, in a state which previously had more than 40. All of the remaining clinics are in four metropolitan areas. On monday, a number of abortion providers filed an emergency application with the u. S. Supreme court to block the provision. Well, for more, were joined now by two guests here in san antonio, texas. Lindsay rodriguez is the president of the lilith fund, which provides grants to texans who need abortions but cannot afford them. And jeffrey hons is president and ceo of planned parenthood south texas, which is building a new facility here in san antonio that meets the new regulations. For now planned parenthood is providing abortions in a rented ambulatory surgical center. Lindsay rodriguez and jeffrey hons, welcome to democracy now the significance of this law and just what happened this week in the were another 13 of the original of about 40 clinics have been shut down, leaving just 8. The legal backandforth between the federal court in the Appeals Court has gone several times. Another fifth circuit, once again, has said texas may enforce this terrible new abortion law. Whenever that law goes into effect, there are a lot of people, a lot of providers who were helping women who are unable to because the law stops them. Explain what is happening here, the significance of your facility and what youre doing to upgrade it. Were going to comply with this law, even though we dont agree with it. As you said, we are the southernmost and westernmost place we can find an abortion in texas and there is a whole lot of texas that is south and west of us. The southern border of texas is a 5 hour drive away going 65 to 70 miles per hour. The western border of texas, el paso, is 10 hours away by car. There are large swaths of texas. I think the supporters of this terrible bill, they keep talking about how there are so few people in these vast areas of texas, to their relatively unpopulated. When you talk to the people who live there, you are reminded, these are United States and texas citizens also. Their lives are just as important as people in urban areas. And because they live in remote areas and may be there more economically disadvantaged and dont have the kind of access that others might have, that doesnt make their lives their decisions, their better future, less important. Talks describe the current restrictions. The most important one now about the Surgery Center requirement, there is no medical reason to have a Surgery Center for first trimester abortion care. Whenever someone is in one of these farflung areas and is trying to find a Surgery Center, the distance she must travel, the immigration check points that she and her partner will go through and maybe they are or are not documented and fear driving through these immigration checkpoints these are real burdens. The psychological burden of knowing, i have to leave my home, my family, my town, my world behind to search for this very private, very intimate health care after very difficult decision making, now do so in a place where my support no work is not around me. Lindsay rodriguez, talk about the hours that people must travel and who will be most affected by this, especially in the Rio Grande Valley. The lilith fund as a hotline were people call when they need an abortion and cannot afford it. We hear stories all the time about people that are having to travel from these areas like the Rio Grande Valley to san antonio to try and get care. Overwhelmingly, the people that thesest disadvantaged by laws are going to be people of lower economic means. They might be people that are dealing with immigration issues. They might be people that for any number of reasons have more barriers to Health Care Access in general, not just abortion care. So people that might be dealing with language issues, with sometimes disability, often time just less stable working conditions. So maybe less money. Jeffrey just talked about the checkpoints. Can you explain for a lot of people who are watching relisting right now, they might not know what were talking about. If youre coming from the Rio Grande Valley, which is on the border of texas and mexico, theres a large percentage of people that live there that they may be here without documentation or maybe have documentation that allows them to work but not leave a certain radius around the city there working. Youre not talking about just crossing the border. Im not. To come from the Rio Grande Valley to san antonio, there is an immigration checkpoint about 200 miles in from the border. The texas a mexico border and san antonio, theres a separate immigration check point that people have to crossover. Even if people are here with documentation, they may not be allowed to go through that check point. If there here without legal documentation, they definitely are not allowed to go to the check point. Theyre taking into account the safety of their families, possibly splitting up families, of having to deal with possibly becoming deported if they cross through this checkpoint to try and get access to the legal, human right to abortion. Wendyant to turn to davis. She recently revealed in a new campaign memoir that she had terminated two pregnancies for medical reasons in the 1990s, including one where the fetus had developed a severe brain abnormality. This is when you davis speaking on abc news about her decision. Had a severe brain abnormality. If she did survive to term, she likely would not survive delivery. And if she did survive delivery, she likely would be in a vegetative state. We knew the most loving thing we could do for our daughter was to say goodbye. That was wendy davis, who is running for governor now in texas. The significance of her personal revelations, Jeffrey Thomas coming out in her memoir and now discussing them. I always find it interesting and unfortunate poignant tension that on one had a woman should be allowed all of the privacy to have this health care and not have to reveal it to everyone, then at the same time, on the other hand, it is as though when a women will have courage to share the story that it humanizes it and it makes everyone realize these decisions are very complicated, very personal, very difficult, and theres just something about abortion and pregnancy, these decisions, you dont know what you would do unless youre walking in their shoes. Of the planned parenthood clinic in south texas here in san antonio. What kind of pressure is this putting on your clinic . From 40 portion of clinics down to 8. We feel the pressure in a lot of ways. That thettle concerned dramatic rise in phone calls that i think is still going to going tostarted come, hasnt started. That makes me worry that women in these situations are feeling paralyzed, that they dont have anything to do. The local news youre recently ran an and religiously prepared story erroneously appeared story that we were closed. And we are not. I worry that people think that abortion is not accessible. We have women who call us and her sickly asking, so is abortion still legal in texas . When you think of all of the News Coverage and lawsuits, and starts to create a sense of doubt that maybe the care isnt there at all. That me turn to a heated Womens Health Panel Last Month at the Texas Tribune festival. During the panel, molly white, a republican who is running unopposed for a seat in the texas house, asserted women who have undergone abortion are prone to drug abuse, alcoholism, and suicide. White said she spoke from personal experience, having had two abortions herself. Democratic state rep. Dawnna dukes challenged whites allegations and unexpectedly revealed she, too, had had an abortion. This is part of their exchange, beginning with rep. Dukes. And i know for a fact that one who has an abortion does not have alcohol and drugrelated issues. That is a personality type that should have got some psychological treatment. [applause] i would definitely like to respond to that. Unless youve had your own abortion, you cannot tell a woman what she feels. Well, you know what . If it is a personality disorder hold on, i am speaking. Ok, fine. To the world, i had an abortion and im not a drug addict or an alcoholic. , if you coulds tell us the scene here and who these women are. One of the women, dawnna thes, she is a member of house of representatives in texas, the texas house. The other woman, miss white, is running for a seat in that same legislative body. I think it goes to the same point were talking about before, here is one person is saying, using her expenses with abortion to Say Something negative and disparaging about women who make this decision. And then there is representative dawnna dukes who will stand up and say, but not me. I admire her courage and i think it is great. At the same time, i wish women could have the complete privacy that they deserve for this health care. Lindsay rodriguez, can you talk about how people are fighting back right now, what are the prospects for this egislation to continue . I can definitely say since we have seen the showdown in the capital last summer, ive seen more activism and organization than i have ever seen in my history here in texas. ,rganizations working together formed a lot of coalitions to share information, share stories, share resources. The unfortunate thing is, whoever gets put into office in this particular election and i would definitely say we would like people that support Abortion Access, but it is one of take a while for these laws to be able to fall away impressed to rebuild the support network that has been chipped away from decades of just cutting at the support network that we have here in texas. Is this going to mean more later term abortions . Absolutely. That is the part that makes me so upset. If a woman is going to make this decision, why should she have access to care the earliest possible time . By reducing the number of facilities, making it more expensive, creating these hurdles, all that will happen as women are going to seek abortion care later and later in pregnancy. Then we think about how many resources are not going to have to go toward abortion care that otherwise could have been spent providing a Family Planning, the birth control, that people want and need to avoid becoming pregnant at the times they do not want to be. This makes no sense. It is bad policy and bad medicine. Midland is five hours . And that is where you have to come to san antonio to have an abortion . Yes. Is at their 24 hour waiting period . Justs not like shes going to come and have an abortion and go home. She has to come for an abortion with the 24 hour advance preoperative visit where she is going to have to have a legislatively mandated vaginal probe ultrasound. Shes going to have to care for nation American Congress about stick tricks and gynecology is disagreed with. She will have to this into a recount. Then she comes back 20 for hours later for the procedure. Then she comes back 14 days later for a followup. Because of this new law, all of those visits have to be by the exact same position, not the same medical group, but if we were three doctors were physician into Nurse Practitioners and a medical practice, you could not delegate to us the followup visit. He would have to do each of those visits yourself. That means multiple trips, multiple dollars, in a very difficult scheduling system to make sure women from faraway places that have these long commutes, that all of this is going to work for them. Can i tell you a story about a woman who came here shortly after the offer started going into effect last fall . With a woman who came from san angelo, texas, about a 4 hour drive. She called and made an appointment of our facility. Everything set up. The day of her procedure, we get a call from the bus station in downtown san antonio. She did not know how to get to our facility because she had run out of money. She came from a small town and she did not know how much the bus fare was going to be. She did not understand what cap fear could cause from downtown san antonio to where we were. She was out of money. So we sent someone to pick her up. This is the kind of help that will fund and other places are bringing to women. The lilith fund and other places are bringing to women. I am dumbfounded when i look at our lawmakers who hear the stories and it evokes no compassion in them for the situation of that woman. Talks what kind of effect does this have on other access to Family Planning . The very kind of planning that could prevent abortions before the legislation passed this bill, they spent the last two sessions gutting the states Family Planning resources. First, the state Family Planning contract and then a Medicaid Expansion for Family Planning coverage. Both of those took huge legislative hits. After getting prevention, than they started attacking abortion when the on thing that is going to happen is abortion will go up whenever there is an prevention. It is as though systematically, from the standpoint that says we care nothing about women and their health care, were going to go after it again and again. I think because it gets them votes, they can raise money around it in a political world and electoral cycles, and it fuels the rightwing push. Lindsay rodriguez, are you giving out more funds for abortions . And where do you get the money . We are primarily run by individual donors, oftentimes very small donors who give on a monthly basis. Overve out last are 80,000 in direct assistance and were on track this year to give in direct 150,000 assistance, which is wonderful, but we are also only able to find about one third of the people that call our hotline because the need in texas is so great. Are giving out larger and a nasa money the last two because of the fact that barriers have increased so much that people are having to pay a lot more to get to an abortion. Theyre having to generally wait a little bit longer because of the time it takes to get the logistics together. And the real issue when you look at a pregnancy going longer is that generally, the abortion starts costing more, the farther along you get into it. Oftentimes, people having a difficult time getting a very early abortion money together are then having a difficult time as a gets more expensive going on. So we are seeing we are giving out more money. But Supreme Court appeal . , theat is what the group plaintiffs for this most recent lawsuit, have asked, a petition to the Supreme Court for review. I dont know what it is going to happen. There have been to me surprises in the litigation around this. Im not willing to speculate what is going to happen. We are going to leave it there. Thank you for being with us, jeffrey hons, president and ceo of planned parenthood south texas, the last outpost for legal abortion before the Rio Grande Valley. And esperanza peace and Justice Center and lindsay rodriguez. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Tiger broadcasting from tv a Trinity University in san antonio, texas. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now democracy now. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Were broadcasting from san antonio, texas, where a controversial new Family Detention Center has opened about an hour south of the city. The Karnes County Residential Center began holding more than 500 immigrant women and children in august. Many of them came to the United States seeking asylum from violence in their home countries of honduras, guatemala and el salvador. But the but Obama Administration says it is detaining them in order to discourage more migrants from coming. Only a handful of detainees have been released. One of them spoke to democracy now about her ordeal. Sara aida beltran rodriguez fled here from el salvador with her 7yearold daugther nayely, who was suffering from brain cancer. In this interview she describes what happened after she and nayely were apprehended at the u. S. Mexico border. Then we hear from their lawyer who helped secure their release. Across the river and ended up at the Detention Center in mcallen. Video and the men that interviewed me did ask me, and all i thought to say was about the situation was my daughter. Had anformed me i deportation and that they werent going to be able to help me. Arrived, i was told to tell them everything at an interview at and i told them about my daughters case. I told a whole story after they encouraged me and they did examine her to see how she was. Just like they do all the children, just a normal physical examination. I thought there were going to help me by having a specialist examine her, but they were not able to because i think maybe it was really costly. I kept asking for that and expecting some sort of help in that area, but i did not get any. I did notice her left arm, the movement was very limited in her feet were falling asleep. I thought it was because we were in a small space and she wasnt getting out. I could see she was very stressed about being locked in there. She was crying every night. She would ask, when are we leaving release. When are we going to get out . Im an immigration lawyer and im representing sarah and nayely. I was contacted by the ut immigration clinic about midway through august this year, regarding their case. They had discovered that sara and nayely were detained and nayely had a malignant brain tumor was not receiving treatment. The ut clinic sent left immigration asking for nayelys release and had not received a response. They passed the case onto me to take over. Get them maybe i could out. The first thing i did was have an mri report translated. Sarah had won it was two years old. We discovered her situation was very dark. She not only had a growing militant brain tumor, but she also had a shunt installed in her brain that was to drain fluid. It could have malfunctioned at any time. We were not sure how i was operating. If it did not function, she could have severe brain damage or not survive. It was very, very distressing when i learned that was the situation in that nayely was not receiving care. When i did not receive any ice after my inquiries, we decided to do a Media Campaign so i partnered with grassroots leadership. We issued a press release and grassroots leadership mobilized icer base to start calling and making inquiries. About two days after that campaign, i got a call from the deportation officer that sarah and nayely were going to be released under parole. As far as i know, this is the only case out of karnes april has been. That was immigration attorney kate lincoln goldfinch and her client sarah aida rodriguez. Along with her little daughter nayely. Nayely is now undergoing evaluation at the Dell Childrens Medical Center of Central Texas in austin. This comes as other immigrant women imprisoned at the karnes facility have accused guards of sexual he assaulting them. A special things to rene feltz for that report. A federal complaint filed last week says guards are promising women help with their immigration cases in return for sexual favors. Meanwhile immigration officials have announced plans for a new 24hundred bed Family Detention Center in dilley, texas, another town not far from san antonio. For more were joined by two guests. Javier maldonado is an immigration and civil rights attorney based in san antonio. His law firm joined the Mexican American Legal Defense and education fund, the university of texas school of law, and human rights first in filing the complaint last week with the department of Homeland Security over serious allegations of substantial, ongoing sexual abuse at the Karnes County facility. Theyve also filed a complaint over poor conditions there. And Cristina Parker is immigration projects coordinator for grassroots leadership, and coauthor of their new report, for profit family detention meet the private prison corporations making millions by locking up refugee families. Welcome both of you to democracy now discuss the report we just heard about this mother and her daughter, her daughter who she brought into the United States to deal with brain cancer. But this latest allegations, why dont we start there, the complaint you filed. A group of attorneys and myself started visiting the facility to render pro bono assistance to the families they are, the moms and we began to hear complaints of women being taken out in the middle of the night, that women have been offered money, that they had helpoffered promises of with their immigration cases, and that many of these women were seen either being fondled or kissing with the guards. These are particularly Vulnerable Women who have traveled a long journey escaping violence and domestic violence, in many cases, their home countries. They were subjected to these sorts of sexual coercion and sexual abuse. And their fear if they dont get in . They dont give in and they have very little in that facility. The other complaint was about conditions. Their not being enough food for the families and children. If you are being promised a little bit of money, if youre being promised access to kitchen, if youre being promised extra, that is a terrible condition for families to be living in. Talk about the conditions at the prison. We are also interviewing the families and learning, for example, toddlers who need to crawl were being restricted from crawling. That there were not toys or books for the children in their sales. Lets be honest, regardless of what the sign says on the outside that it is a Residential Center, it is a jail. There are bars. It is surrounded by barbed wire. These women are not getting out. These children are not getting out. In the hot texas sun, their very few places to play. When we were visiting them in august and september, the saddest thing was that was the only opportunity for the children to come into the visiting area and play with the toys come is when are moms were meeting with attorneys. This is not a place where families should be held. This is not a place where kids should be held. Can you tell us more about nayely . Represent her. My friend kate represented her. She is a very serious medical condition. Is notility at karnes equipped to handle the source of medical problems. She is seven years old. It took a Media Campaign and pleadings from the community to finally force or persuade Homeland Security to release this mom and child. It should not take a Media Campaign to get medical attention. Wasly is one person that released from the facility there are other children suffering from asthma you represented other children. Yes, yes. Children who are suffering posttraumatic stress disorder because they were threatened him and they were beaten, women who were raped in their home country. This is not a facility that is affording or providing the care these families need. How old is your dentist client . Two years old. He was just released on friday. How long was he held the facility . Approximately eight weeks. With his mother. With his mother and his fiveyearold brother. What is the alternative . Alternative is what was done in the past, which is the families were given an immigration hearing to come and report. If the government leaves that is insufficient, it is it guarantees the families will show up. There are other alternatives. There is electronic monitoring, requiring the family to report on a weekly basis, either in person or by phone. There are other things this administration could have done short of putting but essential to behind bars. Were also joined by Cristina Parker, and has a new report out called, forprofit family detention meet the private prison corporations making millions by locking up refugee families. Talk about who runs karnes. The geo group is the private Prison Company that is contracted to run the Karnes County Family Detention Center. Theyve a long track record of abuse and a great neglect. It should be no surprise to anyone that sexual abuse and development will treatment have an honest soon as the facility was opened. Talks can you give more examples of what you have found . Sure. One of the things we see, the conduct is persistent. Juvenilelnut grove center in mississippi, for example, guards frequently used beatings and violence and Sexual Assault against the boys who are held there. They also retaliated a lot against people when they complain. The boys would complain about their treatment, and it would be put into solitary confinement. If you look many miles away in a facility and pecos, texas, the same thing happened. A man who suffered from epilepsy complained of his lack of medical treatment and he was put into solitary confinement. He spent a month there before he died of applications of a seizure. It actually caused a riot in the prison. How are these facilities placed . How are they planned . Desert Community Input . Their place in a remote area and there is the Community Input. Is a little bit away from where we are, but there is one planned further south in dilley, texas. Were talking 2400 beds . Yes, it is shocking. It cannot be overstated how big it is going to be. Karnes is holding 532 people. It is rumored they want to expand it to maybe double. Dwards it. Dilly this is where the going to hold women and children. Will this be run by the same group . No, it is rumored to be run by cca, the Corrections Corporation of america. It thing that is so shocking that we are seeing the exact same things be repeated. We heard reports elsewhere of guards threatening children for being children, for playing, and being loud with separation from their parents. That is the same thing we heard that we went to karnes recently. It is a persistent problem. Another problem is women and children are losing weight. Imagine an infant losing weight because the food is so poor. That is what we heard elsewhere under cca and that is what were hearing under karnes at karnes under geo. What about his private corporations coming in to run these prisons . It is to make money. The government pays them on a per day basis whether it is filled or not. The longer they keep people there, the more money they make. Why do they place them where they do at karnes or dilley . Because there are no attorneys there. No one can get to them. It is in remote places where nobody will see them. We dont have to think about them. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson nina pruneda said in a statement that ice remains committed to ensuring all individuals in our custody are held and treated in a safe, secure and humane manner. Accusations of alleged unlawful conduct are investigated thoroughly and if substantiated, appropriate action is taken. While she would not would not comment on the specific complaints about Sexual Misconduct at karnes city Family Detention Center, pruneda it has zerotolerance policy against Sexual Assault in accordance with federal regulations. Cristina parker, your response . The responses, they dont seem the learn their lesson. Weve seen this over and over with family detention. It is no surprise to any of us. I dont know why they would keep going back to these companies. Ask your organizing a protest on saturday . We are. We will be outside the karnes Detention Center this saturday at noon. We invite people to come and fight against this inhumane practice. Do you think theres a possibility the dilley contract, the 2400 bed facility, might be stopped . Idyllic believe that. I think we can top it. Happened before and were going to do it again. The Obama Administration, h is been called the to porter in chief by the mainstream organizations of immigrants rights groups. More deportations under the Obama Administration and we have ever seen under a president , where it is over, what, 2 million . We think at least 300,000 each year. Deportations. What advice do you ever president obama . What do you think needs to be done right now . I dont think whether it is him or his officials, i dont think they appreciate the seriousness of the problem and what theyre causing the injuries there causing to families and children. How many deportations a day . From karnes . Overall. 300,000 a year, that is at least 10,000 a month. The figures are pretty large. Appreciatenk they the seriousness of the problems of detaining mothers and children. We can understand why dont men would be detained or waive an adult women might be detained come up a detaining mother central and has crossed a line between what is appropriate immigration policies and just plain punitive policies. I want to thank you both for being with us and we will link to all reports, Javier Maldonado , immigration civil rights attorney here in san antonio. Cristina parker with grassroots leadership. We will into that report forprofit family detention meet the private prison corporations making millions by locking up refugee families. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are broadcasting from Trinity University in san antonio from tiger tv. When we come back, we will talk more about what is happening here in san antonio, particularly, the issue of fracking. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are broadcasting from san antonio, texas, from the studios of tiger tv at Trinity University with an entire student crew which we thank profusely. We end todays show with graciela sanchez, director of the esperanza peace and Justice Center, which is going on its 28th year of being a Community Gathering space in san antonio. They recently hosted an exhibit on fracking called frackaso portraits of extraction in eagle ford and beyond, that included a series of workshops with nina waste wilson, idle no more cofounder, and others. The Eagle Ford Shale is a massive fracking project and the flares burning off excess natural gas can be seen by satellite at night. Graciela sanchez joins us to discuss this and other developments here in san antonio. Esperanza, which means hope. It was created 27 years ago. We will get to 28 in january. It was our desire for some of these women of color who gone away to school and come back and said, we want to live here in san antonio and we want to make livedhat our lives are with peace and justice. We live in a city that is a military town. We have an colonized for over 300 years with five military stations called the missions back in the 1700s alamo lastto the night. And five military stations in the 20th century. Even of the rest of the country has demilitarized, san antonio has an. We have continued to grow in different ways. We wanted to work for a culture of peace and justice rather than violence. What does fracking have to do with it . Again, it is the violence for our mother earth. Our land, our water, and our air quality. For our local leaders, it is always about jobs, jobs, jobs. And they are not caring about how it is affecting those who live in the community, south texas, the panhandle area or explain what eagle ford is in the fracking. It is an area that has shale. You have all of these machines that come in and roll down into the earth. The way they drill the shell they need for this natural gas intorough pumping water the land. And it is extracting it is are ready happening. There is major growth in the community. Smaller, rural committees like Karnes County, that have no form of other develop meant development of having these jobs. It is affecting the quality of life. Isnt this dilley Detention Center that is being built, the 2400 bed facility, an old amp for people c who are fracking . Yes. They dont care if it is hurting communities. Mean . T does frackaso it is a play on words. It is like everything is broken and falling apart. It is extreme. We wanted to pull together Community Voices to portray fracking. We did World History of people in south texas. Just south of san antonio, we have calamine, a refinery. The last five or six months, weve seen those flares, but re have been few spillage fuel spillage. Last week there was a fire in calumet. The residence writer in san antonio, none of them were made aware of the fire or the spillage. Down to the san antonio river. This is a river that has just been fixed up with a lot of develop an the south part of the river. People have been playing in that river. People have been fishing in this river. How are not even being told calumet is destroying that neighborhood. Graciela sanchez, thank you for being with us. We were showing images of the Esperanza Center during the break and people can go to democracynow. Org. Esperanza center going into its 28th year as a Community Gathering space. Graciela sanchez, thank you so much. On thursday, i will be speaking at the university of michigan at 6 00 p. M. On friday, santa fe, new mexico at the Performing Arts Center at 7 00 p. M. Democracynow. Org for more details. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ] joanne one of my favorite things to do is to teach technique, and one of my favorite techniques is to teach mayonnaise. And i love mayonnaise because its really a classic sauce that everyone should learn. And with my student reggie were going to make a homemade mayonnaise and well use that mayonnaise in a cabbage and grapefruit slaw and to go with that were going to have some grilled ahi burgers with wasabi aioli. That will be so delicious. So dont go anywhere, youre going to love todays show and youre going to learn how to make mayonnaise. [ music ]