Toy Drive for the kids at Hutto Detention Center
December 6th. 6-9pm.
1401 E 34th Street (on the corner of Lafayette and 34th)
Come as you are and bring an unwrapped toy, book, art supply (everything in its original packaging) or a $5-$10 cash donation. There will be adult beverages and sodas, and some yummy snacks. ALL proceeds from this party will be used to buy toys, books, and art supplies for the children imprisoned in the Hutto facility.
December 6th. 6-9pm.
1401 E 34th Street (on the corner of Lafayette and 34th)
Come as you are and bring an unwrapped toy, book, art supply (everything in its original packaging) or a $5-$10 cash donation. There will be adult beverages and sodas, and some yummy snacks. ALL proceeds from this party will be used to buy toys, books, and art supplies for the children imprisoned in the Hutto facility.
Questions should be directed to Bren at 512.296.0147 or cynthia.bren[at]gmail.com
**If you are unable to attend the toy drive reception, but want to contribute any dollar amount to the toy/book/art supply fund (one dollar is not too small), please give any donations to ProCo's donation collectors: Laura Martin, Maritza Kelley, Caroline O'Connor, or Bren Gorman when you see them in class or in the halls. Also, you can leave donations in a marked envelope in Box 235. All cash donations will go to purchase additional items, and fill in the holes from what we don't collect at the toy drive. We will use the money to purchase educational toys, books, and art supplies to be given to the kids at Hutto for Christmas.
Thank you in advance for your generosity and Happy Holidays!
(Follow link for info on toy recalls this holiday season)
This LBJ event is co-sponsored by the Progressive Collective, the ACLU, and spearheaded by LBJ's own Bren Gorman, an active member of both organizations.
Also, a reminder: UT Law School Immigration Clinic has done a great job in their toy drive (they just delivered 450 toys and 150 books for the children at T. Don Hutto on Dec. 8th). It might be nice to also remember the adults who are also spending a Christmas in detention. Additional items allowed under the Settlement Agreement include donations of appropriate clothing, music and listening equipment, and funds for the commissary. Let's make sure that all family members receive something. A collection site will be available at the Vigil.
8 comments:
you are doing important work here and I'm proud to add you to my blogroll. Looking forward to supporting your efforts. paz
Thank you so much for doing this! We all have to do what we can to expose this nightmare.
Just want to remind those that come on the 16th that since UT Law School Immigration Clinic has done a great job in thier toy drive (they just delivered 450 toys and 150 books for the children at T. Don Hutto on Dec. 8th), it might be nice not to forget the adults who are also spending a Christmas in Detention. Additional items allowed under the Settlement Agreement include donations of appropriate clothing, music and listening equipment, and funds for the commissary. If you would like to make sure that all family members recieve something a collection site will be available at the Vigil so all family members receive something.
You all DO realize that T. Don Hutto currently houses well under 150 people, men, women, and children? And that they're housed in a place that is managed by a corporation that has untold millions to invest in toys. Last christmas, CCA bought so much stuff for those kids. Those big high quality teddy bears that you've seen kids carrying around in videos after they're releaed, for instance, were bought by CCA last christmas and they're still handed out to all children.
By my math, the UT law clinic toy drive alone would give at least 6 items to every child in that facility. Or more than 3 items each to every man, woman, and child. And you want to donate even more? Why are you donating to a private organization? Who is going to be responsible for deciding who gets what? And you can't seriously be planning on donating money to put on people's commissary accounts? Who decides where THAT goes?
Since you want to reference that settlement, you'd also notice that the settlement stipulates that no one stays there for longer than 30 days, barring extraordinary circumstances.
While their parents dragged them across a desert for 3 days to get captured by ICE for illegal entry, then held at a family daycamp for 3 weeks or so before being deported... if they time it right, they can end up with prizes that look like they won on a game show.
People who donate all this crap to these toy drives accomplish a lot, most of it isn't good. You're taking very simple, unassuming, and kind people (although they don't respect US immigration law) and giving them the type of consumer-driven and materialistic attitude that Americans should hate about themselves. More than that, you're allowing them and their families to benefit materially from their crimes.
The title of this article/event shows that the only people who really win are the donators. "How the ICE stole christmas"? Really? ICE didn't invite them to illegally enter the US, did they? But if you donate a bunch of stuff, you can feel like a badass, like you stuck it to the man... like you showered goodness on people that the big mean ICE wants to do nothing but torture, and you rubbed it right in ICE's face.
The irony, if we consider material quantity to be success, is that those kids at T. Don Hutto will end up with a MUCH better christmas than any of your kids, as well as the children of any of the staff members of that facility. And something tells me that can't be good for the long run. Oh well, at least it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
To Anonymous. You seem to have an "inside" point of view at T. Don Hutto. An inside and polluted point of view at that. Hey budddy - it's a Christmas Toy Drive - not some evil, subversive plot to indoctrinate these asylum seekers (most by the way arrived here on planes, cars and buses NOT on foot) into the crass materalistic America. CCA is not a benevolent corporation showering the detainees with gifts and toys. In fact, the toys that were available to the childen were old, abused and missing parts. So that sell that CCA Illusion here ... we didn't drink the Kool-Aid.
Congrats to the UT law students on pulling this together. Fore more information on the UT Immigration Law Clinic's programs, please see this article on the UT website - http://www.utexas.edu/features/2007/immigration/
Jojo, my inside view comes from the fact that almost anyone can get an inside view of the facility. Just show up and tell them someone's name thats staying there and they'll walk you back and let you hang out. If you ask ahead of time you can schedule a tour and look around. You haven't been in there, lots of other people have. Budddddy, that line about the toys all being old and broken and missing parts was lifted from a law school student who was in an attorney meeting room and didn't exactly have FAO Schwartz-level toys to hand to a child. She had not been to the living area either. That's like judging the inside of your house based on what you keep sitting around the chairs on your porch.
So do yourself a favor, educate yourself first-hand about what's really going on, because to get sarcastic with someone about drinking kool-aid because they don't believe that being detained for a few weeks in a free movement residential center with no locks while enjoying snacks, toys, playstations, field trips, and recreational activities is all that bad, then maybe you should ask yourself what kind of kool-aid you're drinking when every tiny bit of information you've gotten has come from people that consider shutting the facility down at all costs to be a more noble effort than simply stating the truth and letting the public decide for themselves how they feel about the issue... based on honest facts, not hyperbole or propoganda.
Hey Anonymous, it does make me feel good to donate toys to the kids in the 'residential' facility. I don't feel like I'm sticking it to the man (though someone's getting rich off housing those folks), but I do hope that it makes the families in there realize that I--and many others--do not support removing families from their homes to detain them in an old prison. As far as those families being disrespectful lawbreakers, only the most dire circumstances could have compelled people to leave everything they know to come over here. Such circumstances do not lend themselves to waiting 'in line' for YEARS to MAYBE have their visas approved.
And I don't know what you could possibly find to criticize about donating money for people to spend the commissary--it's not like they sell heroin there.
I bet you got a Wii (or really want one) for christmas.
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