Filed under: Social justice and immigration issues
Thursday evening we went to Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, to hear Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas. As you may remember, Dr. Freixas was hired by the United States Department of Justice to come from Florida to the National Cattle Congress grounds in Waterloo, Iowa, to act as a translator at the “trials” following the May 12, 2008 ICE raid at Agri-Processor’s in Postville, Iowa.
It was his essay that first brought to light the travesty of justice and breach of human rights inflicted upon the Guatemalan immigrants shamefully arrested in Postville. In his expose’ he detailed the collusion between the Department of Justice and Homeland Security to force the victims to admit to trumped up charges of felony identity theft, a crime of which they were innocent.
Since the original essay was published on the internet, Dr. Freixas has expanded the scope of his research to include allegations of slavery sanctioned by the US government. He sights several examples in which immigrants to this country have been arrested but forced to stay in this country in prisons/jails enabling their extended families to continue working in this country, often under substandard conditions and short pay. Private prisons being constructed (some by subsidiaries of Halliburton) are filled with people who came to this country only to make a better life for themselves and their family. Dr. Freixas made comparisons between events regarding slavery around Civil War time and similar events that are happening today. His conclusions, although somewhat conspiratorial, are difficult to refute.
It was difficult for both of us to relive the events he spoke about, but it was necessary to enlighten the crowd (approximately 250 people) to the situation as it really occurred in Postville and Waterloo.
(Link to the article by Sister Carol Hoverman, editor of The Witness) – http://www.arch.pvt.k12.ia.us/Witness/PDFs/Interpreter.pdf
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