SWU RGV: Rama Carty, Free to fight for Justice out of the confines of Detention. + TX Observer: Rama Carty Finally Free of ICE

Southwest Workers’ Union RGV

April 26, 2010

Rama Carty, Free to fight for Justice out of the confines of Detention.

No one is free as long as racist bills like SB1070 are put into practice.

[Rio Grande Valley, Texas] The decision to dimiss the charges against Rama Carty were long over due and should never have been filed. But it was his punishment for publicly defending his rights and the rights of others.

It is a victory for immigrants and families who have been retaliated against by ICE at detention facilities for hunger striking and denouncing and reporting abuses, the violation of human rights and civil liberties. Although some will say we do not have human or civil rights if we are immigrants, we will always find a way to have our rights recognized through awareness, change and building a community based social movement that empowers us to break the cycle of hate against marginalized sectors such as workers, immigrants, women, children, and all low wealth and people of color, etc.

Rama Carty is a human rights/immigrant rights activist who was extremely vocal and was key to documenting various human rights abuse at the Port Isabel Detention Center for Immigrants. As a result he was targeted for retaliation and a quick deportation to Haiti (a country that does not claim him as a citizen) in the midst of a 2 day Amnesty International visit where detainees were interviewed.

Rama Carty never wavered in his pursuit of justice and his struggle to denounce the abuse he and many others have faced by a system that has used its authority to discriminate, break and disappear people, separating them from their families and loved ones. As we look toward the state of hate in Arizona and the continued discrimination and militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border we know we are far from being free and that the struggle continues. Rama Carty was one of many immigrants who have carried on a hunger strike at the Port Isabel Detention Center and there are many others that continue that struggle who remain nameless.

It is time for the violence against our communities to end. No more militarization, no more discrimination, no more retaliation. We want to live in peace.

Yet, the violence of impunity and laws that seek to sanction that violence continue with the institutionalization of hate in Arizona and its common every day practice in Texas as well. We face raids in our neighborhoods, raids at the workplace and raids in the prisons. Our community has been criminalized and demonized in the media. We have been colonized for many years on the border and institutionalized hatred here should not be tolerated, here nor in any country where humanity sets for us a higher standard of conduct and determination of the law.

What does an immigrant look like? Look in the mirror and take a long look. We are living in a global society, functioning in a global economy; we are international workers, women, children and men who deserve the right to be free. Humanity has no borders. Somos migrantes unidos sin fronteras.

-- Anayanse Garza

Southwest Workers’ Union RGV

415 W. Mahl St.

Edinburg, TX 78539

cell. 956.207.2571

tel./fx. 956.316.0089

anayanse@gmail.com

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Texas Observer

http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/rama-carty-finally-free-of-ice-detention

Rama Carty Finally Free of ICE

by Melissa del Bosque

Published on: Friday, April 23, 2010

Rama Carty’s long journey through ICE’s broken detention system was documented in our March 19th issue. When the story came out, things were still looking bleak for Carty a legal resident of the United States.

He was out of immigrant detention, after 20 months, but he was still wearing an ankle monitor and living under restrictive parole conditions. He was also stuck in a Brownsville hotel room for a month while he fought to clear his name in federal court.

Read rest of article at:

http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/rama-carty-finally-free-of-ice-detention