Crimmigration with Thousands of Legal Residents Locked up Indefinitely, Far from Home, Texas' Immigrant Detention Centers Are Boiling Over

03 19 2010 ERVER PLUS SCHOOLHOUSE CROCK Why is Texas prosecuting adults for dropping out? by Forrest Wilder

Crimmigration With thousands of legal residents locked up indefinitely, far from home, Texas' immigrant detention centers are boiling over. BY MELISSA DEL BOSQUE ON THE COVER Inside the Port Isabel Detention Center PHOTO BY JAZMINE ULLOA

POINT OF NO RETURN by del Bosque With thousands of legal residents locked up indefinitely, far from home, Texas' immigrant detention centers are boiling over.

Non criminal detainees held in the Alpha dorm PHOTO BY JAZMINE ULLOA

II DOWN FOR THE COUNT SCHOOLHOUSE CROCK by Kevin Sieff by Forrest Wilder The profitable game of including immi- Why is Texas prosecuting adults for OBSERVER grants in the census then deporting them. dropping out? ONLINE The Texas Observer is going REGULARS DATELINE: IRON CANVAS URBAN COWGIRL on spring break,

DIALOGUE NECHES RIVER Border wall makeover Twilight of the so there will not Osi POLITICAL An East Texas eco- by Super-Americans be an April 2 INTELLIGENCE system is saved by the by Ruth Pennebaker issue. But you can Oti EDITORIAL courts. Let's go paddling. STATE OF THE MEDIA keep track of the 05 BEN SARGENT'S by Dan Coke. New School Journalism PURPLE STATE latest Texas news LOON STAR STATE by Bill Minutaglio Friendly Fire on our daily Web 19 HIGHTOWER REPORT 22 CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK by Bob Moser site. Also check 23 POETRY A Houston hip-hop duo HUNGRY EYE out immigrant by Jack Myers reunites to slow down Michael Nye's exhibit at 29 EYE ON TEXAS detainee inter- SXSW. the Witte in San Antonio by Karen Rangel views online. by Josh Rosenblatt by Alan Pogue www.texasobserver.org A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES SINCE 1954

All OBSERVER VOLUME 102, NO. 6 1111.0611E FOUNDING EDITOR Ronnie Dugger Casting Stones EDITOR Bob Moser MANAGING EDITOR As an evangelical, fundamentalist, born-again Christian, I want to apologize for Chris Tomlinson

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave Mann those that are using the name of Jesus in such an un-Christian manner ("He Who CULTURE EDITOR Michael May Casts the First Stone," March 5). This Amarillo "church" is behaving in ways that INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER Melissa del Bosque should cause embarassment to all Christians. The Bible and Jesus do not endorse STAFF WRITER Forrest Wilder ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Julia Austin terrorist actions by those that profess to follow their teachings. These people are CIRCULATION/OFFICE MANAGER Candace Carpenter dogmatic theocrats that follow a twisted version of Christianity. If their efforts were ART DIRECTION EmDash LLC put to use for evangelism (bringing people to Christ) instead of trying to terrorize MARKETING ASSISTANT Jaime Kilpatrick "sinners" they would actually accomplish the task that Jesus has sent Christians WEBMASTER Shane Pearson COPY EDITOR Rusty Todd out to do: create disciples. Instead they create enemies with their terrorist activity POETRY EDITOR Naomi Shihab Nye and actually sin themselves. Here's praying that appropriate action is taken against INTERNS Laura Burke, Robert Thomas Pawlenko Green, Lara Haase, Hudson the Repent cult. In Jesus' name, Amen. Lockett, Maddie Pelan, Jen Reel PHOENIX, ARIZ.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Emily DePrang, Lou Dubose, ALTHOUGH THERE MAY BE INCIDENTS WHERE THIS GROUP James K. Galbraith, Steven bidding? Of course there are no Gods. If there were, G. Kellman, Joe R. Lansdale, lets anger control them, overall it sounds like this idiot and his followers would be struck down Robert Leleux, James E. Repent Amarillo is doing a good job at exposing evil for assuming they know the mind of God and speak McWilliams, Char Miller, Bill in their town. Bravo! Arlen Strader for him. Of course, there is no God. Religion and Minutaglio, Ruth Pennebaker, Josh Rosenblatt, Kevin Sieff, COLLEGE STATION churches exist to enslave people. Become a real- Brad Tyer, Andrew Wheat ist and free yourself or burn in the Hell that exists CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS THIS TYPE OF INTOLERANCE IS COMPLETELY UNCALLED only in your mind and was created by your religion. Jana Birchum, Alan Pogue, for! In my opinion, this group is committing a Brett Stampf Steve Satterwhite form of domestic terrorism. Lives are being ruined POSTED AT WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS and, somehow, these people need to be stopped. Michael Krone, Alex Eben Meyer, Ben Sargent Evangelical Christians need to grow up, show respect I'M GLAD TO HEAR THAT LOTS OF AMARILLO RESIDENTS for all living creatures and start being personally aren't kowtowing to this would-be cult leader. It TEXAS DEMOCRACY responsible. Compassion and unconditional love would be nice if the attention it gets as a result of FOUNDATION BOARD Lisa Blue, Carlton Carl, Melissa were the lessons that Jesus Christ tried to teach the this article brings out more locals who support the Jones, Susan Longley, Jim human race. It really is that simple. Stay out of other right of those who don't share one narrow world- Marston, Mary Nell Mathis, people's business. Morgan Ginther view to live free of harassment. E. Moore Gilberto Ocanas, Jesse Oliver, KILLEEN POSTED AT WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG Bernard Rapoport, Geoffrey Rips, Geronimo Rodriguez, Sharron Rush, Kelly White, PERHAPS SOMEONE LOCAL SHOULD START AN AMARILLO WHILE GAYS AND LESBIANS STRUGGLE TO MARRY AND LIVE Ronnie Dugger (emeritus) Taliban site and retaliate in kind. Identify all of decent lives instead of being in the closet, swingers

OUR MISSION the harassers by name and address, and particu- have chosen to commit adultery and pretend it's We will serve no group or larly identify all businesses and organizations normal. I'm no big fan of Repent Amatillo, but I de- party but will hew hard to who participate in Repent Amarillo's intolerance test swingers. The Ten Commandments tell us that the truth as we find it and by firing and blacklisting people for their private adultery is wrong, but they say nothing about gays the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole beliefs and practices. Barry Newton and lesbians or coffee houses. Steve Berthold truth, to human values above ASHTON, MD. RENO, NEV. all interests, to the rights of humankind as the foundation I THOUGHT GOD CREATED US IN HIS IMAGE. WHY IS THIS of democracy. We will take orders from none but our own group persecuting some of God's other creatures? conscience, and never will we While I feel the term "terrorist" is widely misused overlook or misrepresent the currently, I cannot think of a more appropriate ap- truth to serve the interests of Sound Off the powerful or cater to the plication for it. And if there really was an omnipo- ignoble in the human spirit. tent God, would he send these misfits out to do his r)ditorsgtexasobserver.org

MARCH 19, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 1 POLITICAL INTE1.1.113

MAX GREINER AND HIS CROSS PHOTO BY LANCE ROSENFIELD

DEPT. OF SYMBOLISM Kerrville's Cross to Bear IN 2003, EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN SCULPTOR MAX GREINER visible from the highway. had a godly vision of a mammoth cross sitting atop a hill The cross will be the crown of a 21-acre, hillside at the gateway to the Guadalupe River town of Kerrville. Christian-themed sculpture and prayer garden being Now Greiner's vision appears to be coming true. developed with private funds by Greiner's founda- That's thanks to the not-so-divine intervention of tion. Subdivision residents originally filed a lawsuit State District Judge Keith Williams, who on March 1 against the foundation on the grounds that erect- blessed a settlement, ending a legal dispute between ing the cross would violate deed restrictions for the Greiner's The Coming King Foundation and local 37-year-old rural neighborhood (see "A Sign From residents. The settlement means Kerrville residents God?" March 19, 2009). and Interstate 10 travelers soon will be greeted by a "This has been a long, emotional journey for 77-foot steel cross. everyone," Williams said in rendering his judgment. The giant cross was delivered surreptitiously in "Many people in this community didn't understand October—litigation kept it from being erected. It now the true nature of this dispute. This was not a free- lies atop a 400-foot hill in Lot 11 of the Mesa Vista dom of religion or speech issue, but a disagreement READ MORE about The Coming King Foundation at www. subdivision, next to a massive concrete pad that will among the parties about the enforceability of Texas thecomingkingfoundation.org support the 70-ton cross, and a portable toilet, both real estate issues."

2 1 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG THE STATE ENCE OF TEXAS The settlement will allow the foundation to erect laborers aren't arrested and harassed by police merely its cross in exchange for privacy guarantees for resi- for looking for work, and that water and sewage pro- dents. The agreement prohibits public access to Lot viders offer service to the colonias that dot the border 11 and requires the foundation to construct a stone region. or masonry fence across the two-acre tract fronting Reyna joined the nonprofit straight out of law 2009 Mesa Vista Lane, where most of the plaintiffs reside. school in 1980. He's one of the rare advocates who inflation rate for Emma McClure, who owns a lot adjacent to knows how to needle political leaders into action— medical care: the cross site, says she's happy the issue has been then step back and let them take the credit. resolved because the trial outcome might not have "He is not someone that has ever been in the lime- been as favorable. She adds that she was "tired of light or sought the limelight," says Jose "Chito" Vela, HOUSTON having commotion going on all the time." who works in the office of State Rep. Solomon Ortiz, The Coming King Foundation can't say when the a Corpus Christi Democrat. Before joining Ortiz's 4.9% cross will actually go up. "We had to put money into staff, Vela served as the city manager of El Cenizo, a this lawsuit that was originally intended to be poured colonia south of Laredo that was incorporated under DALLAS into the garden," Greiner says. "We're trusting God to Reyna's guidance. Since El Cenizo incorporated, the do what he said he'd do. We have the largest Christian community has levied taxes and now provides resi- 5.1% tour company in the U.S. waiting to book tours, and to dents with some basic services. work with ministries and churches to send people [to Under Reyna, the legal aid group also serves as what TEXAS Kerrville] on buses and on planes." staff attorney Fabiola Flores calls a "baby lawyer fac- AVERAGE The coming pilgrimage of evangelicals and other tory." Reyna recruits law-student interns and entry- "believers" doesn't sit well with some Kerr County level attorneys from across the nation and puts them 5.0% residents who don't want their community to become to work on pro bono cases. He enlists them in the cause, known for a humongous cross that they think might as he puts it, "to get things right. To move mountains ... U.S. AVERAGE send the wrong signal about Kerrville's religious and for little people." spiritual tolerance. Then there's its gargantuan size. He's reluctant to take the credit. "I am the messen- 3.1% "You'll be able to see that damned thing for 100 ger, not the messiah," Reyna says. "The heroes are miles in each direction," says area resident David the clients—the people who stick their necks out and Source: Bureau of Toms. "That's just what we don't need." expose themselves to the risk of litigation." Labor Statistics —ROBERT MCCORKLE Says Vela, "If you're promoting democracy, you can't come in from above and lift up these people—they have to lift themselves. At some point, you're going to go away, TYRANT'S FOE LEARN MORE about and the people are still going to be there. So they have to Texas RioGrande Legal be able to organize and lead and fight for themselves." Aid at www.trla.org Laredo's Modest —ROBERT GREEN Advocate ALONG THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER, HUNDREDS OF THOU- DEPT. OF INJUSTICE sands of people live without running water, sewage service or electricity in unincorporated subdivisions Who Gets Wrongly known as "colonias." Texas has the largest number of colonias—an estimated 400,000 Texans live in more Convicted than 2,200 of them. The average yearly income of ON FEB. 4, FREDDIE PEACOCK WAS CLEARED OF HIS 1977 colonia residents is less than $10,000, and unemploy- conviction for rape in New York State. He's the 250th ment is more than eight times the state average. wrongly convicted person exonerated in the United Texas' political leaders have done little in recent States by DNA testing, according to the New York- READ THE REPORT by years to aid colonias. The "about" page of the Texas based Innocence Project. To mark the occasion, the the Innocence Project at secretary of state's "Colonias Ombudsman Program" Innocence Project released a report that details each www.tx1o.com/250report is blank save for a quote from Gov. Rick Perry. of the 250 cases. The report is a stunning compilation One person who's helped improve conditions in of who gets wrongly convicted and why. colonias is Israel Reyna, though you'll never hear No state has sent more innocent people to jail than him take credit for it. Texas. The Lone Star State accounted for 40 wrong- Reyna runs the Laredo office of Texas RioGrande ful convictions-16 percent of the national total. That Legal Aid, a nonprofit that provides free representa- was nearly double the number of exonerees from New tion to impoverished residents of South Texas. Reyna York and Illinois, the other two most prolific states. and his staff work to ensure that workers receive Sixty percent of the 250 are African-American; workers compensation and overtime pay, that day 29 percent are white. Seventeen were on death row

MARCH 19, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3 when they were exonerated. That's 17 innocent people who would have been executed had DNA testing not cleared them. You have to assume there's been an innocent person somewhere who wasn't lucky enough to have testable DNA and was wrongly executed—possibly in Texas and possibly Cameron Todd J Willingham, executed in 2004 for killing his three children in a house fire. Forensic experts who have since studied the case believe the fire was accidental. There are numerous causes of wrongful convictions, but by far the most common is witnesses pointing out the wrong person. Seventy-six percent of the exonerees were sent to prison, at least in part, by witness misidentification. In 38 percent of the cases, more than one eyewitness wrongly identified an innocent person. (It was witness misidentifica- —Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Saturday before tion that sent a Texas Tech student named Tim Cole the gubernatorial primary. She lost with 30 percent to prison in 1987 for a rape he didn't commit. Cole of the vote. died in prison in 1999 and was exonerated by DNA testing last year. Gov. Rick Perry finally pardoned Cole in early March—which is why he wasn't on the "I am winning." Innocence Project's list a month earlier. It's the first posthumous pardon in Texas history.) — Farouk Shami to the Texas Tribune before the election. Finally, the 250 wrongful convictions allowed the Shami lost the Democratic primary for governor to former actual perpetrators to later commit at least 72 vio- Houston Mayor Bill White by a 75-13 percent margin. lent crimes that could have been prevented. This is a facet that's often overlooked. Wrongful convictions "I absolutely believe that we'll harm many people, not just the person imprisoned. After the Innocence Project report's release in early make the runoff." February, it took just two weeks for the 251st wrong- — Debra Medina, Republican tea-party candidate for ful conviction to pop up. Cole will soon be added to the governor, two weeks before the primary. She lost with list. Many more are surely coming. —DAVE MANN 19 percent. "If I was feeling any better I'd MILITARIZING THE BORDER think it was a frame-up." Predator vs. Aliens THE TEXAS-MEXICO BORDER HAS BECOME SO —Former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle on militarized—what with the wall, the video cameras, the Democratic primary race for lieutenant governor. He the ground sensors, and the soldiers and Border lost to Linda Chavez-Thompson with 35 percent. Patrol agents. Now a Texas congressman is talking about a Predator drone circling overhead. "I think I can win, and I think I Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, is pushing for a drone to patrol the border. These can win in November." A Predator drone are the same unmanned, remote-piloted drones that — Kinky Friedman, to the El Paso Times in February, U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO are bombing Pakistani tribal areas. Under Cuellar's pro- on beating Hank Gilbert in the Democratic primary for posal, the border drone would be for surveillance only Agricultural Commissioner. "The Kinkster" lost. and wouldn't be loaded with missiles—at least not yet.

The San Antonio Express - News reported recently that Cuellar plans to ask officials from Homeland "I would be absolutely shocked Security and the Federal Aviation Administration in if I got anything less than a April to authorize the border drone. Cuellar told the newspaper that drones could help monitor remote majority of the vote." areas that are hard to patrol on the ground. — Marc Katz, speaking to the on primary day. Each drone costs about $4.5 million. They also Observer LEARN MORE Katz finished a distant third in the Democratic primary for about Predator drones at seem to have a propensity for crashing, according to lieutenant governor with 12 percent. www.ga.com/index.php the Congressional Research Service. And the FAA has questioned whether the drones can safely operate in

high-traffic airspace, according to the Express -News. The prospect of drones on the border is great news for the California firm General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., which makes the multi-million dollar Predators, but perhaps not so great for border com- munities and their civil liberties.

FOR THE LATEST political analysis, read Bob Moser's Purple Texas at Where does the militarization end? www.texasobserver.org/purpletexas —MELISSA DEL BOSQUE

4 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG Where's the Outrage?

T'S BEEN ABOUT A MONTH SINCE JOE STACK cial response was to praise the first responders' flew his plane into an Internal Revenue "selfless acts of heroism." Instead of condemn- Leaudi Service office in North Austin. In the media ing Stack, the governor said it was "important to hubbub that followed, bloggers pored over refrain from speculation." Contrast that with his whose rhetoric Stack's anti-tax manifesto, pundits ques- statement after the recent arrests of the East Texas tioned whether his act was terrorism, and church arsonists, who "terrorized not only the scapegoats The New York Times ran a feature explor- respective church congregations, but entire coming the unfairness of the obscure tax law Stack munities." As horrible as the church attacks were, the federal had criticized. With all the jabbering about Stack's no one was injured in the fires. Joe Stack killed motives, one could be forgiven for forgetting that someone. Where's the outrage, governor? government— his act had flesh-and-blood victims. The explosion Here's a clue. On tax day last year, Perry was at killed 68-year-old Vernon Hunter, an IRS worker Austin City Hall riling up the crowd at an early Tea we're talking who did two tours in Vietnam. In Stack's manifesto, Party event. "If Washington continues to thumb their he told the IRS to "take my pound of flesh and sleep nose at the American people, you know, who knows to you, Gov. well." Stack also took Hunter's pound of flesh, the what might come out of that," he told the rabidly flesh of a man who spent years serving his country anti-tax, anti-government crowd. Perry—need and had nothing to do with the tax laws that tor- Perry was certainly not advocating violence, and mented Stack. it's way too simplistic to blame Tea Party rhetoric to speak out In one of the oddest—and saddest—moments in the for Joe Stack's actions. But Stack was surely aware days following Stack's murderous act, Hunter's son of the political trends when he wrote "by not add- forcefully Ken was forced to go on the defensive. He reminded ing my body to the count, I insure [sic] nothing will viewers of CBS News that Stack wasn't the hero. "My change." That's why leaders whose rhetoric scape- when violence dad's a hero," he said, responding to one of Stack's goats the federal government—we're talking to you, daughters, who had defended her father. Gov. Perry—need to speak out forcefully when vio- is committed. Even those who weren't defending Stack refused lence is committed against the real human beings to openly criticize him. Gov. Rick Perry's only offi- who help run our country. El

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MARCH 19, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER' 5 GROUP HOLDING 5 GRUPO POINT DETENICX) 5 OF 1111 11E1111111

With thousands of legal residents locked up Indefinitel far from home, Texas' immigrant detention centers are boiling over.

azmine UHoa s ~?4'~3~r9~r - N MARCH 10, 2008, 39-YEAR-OLD RAMA CARTY, WHO'D LIVED Mexicans) was "catch and release." Under that pol- in the United States since he was a year old, became Alien icy, Carty probably would have been granted a bond #A30117515 in America's booming immigrant deten- and been given an immigration court date to deter- tion system. At the time, Carty never imagined he'd be mine whether he would be deported. But critics of shipped to seven detention facilities around the coun- "catch and release" had long complained that too try. Or that he'd help organize hunger strikes in South many immigrants were skipping out on their court Texas' Port Isabel Detention Center, 2,000 miles from dates. As the 2006 debate over immigration reform his Boston home. Or that he would inspire an Amnesty grew toxic in Congress, the Bush administration International investigation into human rights abuses by announced a new policy designed to placate reform the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. opponents: "catch and detain." Carty was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970. His Haitian- The number of detention beds across the country born parents worked there as middle-school teachers. The following year, they quickly multiplied as the Department of Homeland moved to the United States, where they also taught. Carty's mother became a Security tripled its budget for detention and deporta- U.S. citizen. When he was 16, she petitioned for her son to become a citizen as tion to $1.9 billion in 2007. ICE began detaining and well. The immigration agency, Carty says, did not process his paperwork before deporting more legal residents for misdemeanors and he turned 18. At that point, he needed to start his citizenship claim over as an crimes of "moral turpitude," a growing list of offenses adult. For one reason and another, like many legal residents, he never did. He that runs the gamut from shoplifting to murder. By didn't know how much it might matter someday. 2008, the year ICE deemed Carty a criminal alien, the Like many legal residents, Carty assumed he had agency had become the largest jailer in the nation, the same constitutional rights as a citizen by virtue housing more than 378,000 immigrants in more than of his legal status and longtime residence. When 300 private or federally run facilities. The criminal- he left prison in Maine after serving two years for ization of immigration has become so prevalent that trafficking and conspiracy-to distribute cocaine, he it has its own buzzword: "crimmigration." found out differently. Immigration-reform mea- Like other legal residents swept up in the crack- sures passed in 1996 made Carty subject to manda- down, Carty found that once he landed in the immi- tory detention and deportation by ICE after he had grant detention system, he had no constitutional right served his criminal sentence. to court-appointed counsel. He was herded into a "I figured I could get bond and work to reverse the small courtroom in Maine with five other men for his drug charges," says Carty, who claimed all along he first deportation hearing: a videoconference with a was innocent. "But I couldn't get bond because of the judge that took a few minutes per detainee. "I didn't mandatory detention." have an attorney," he says. "I had no documents on my Before a second stiffening of immigration laws in immigration case history. I'd never been to Haiti in my 2006, the official policy for immigrants (other than life, and Congo didn't recognize me as a citizen." "We have our lives invested here and have equity in this country, but there is no consideration for us at all." -Rama Carty

8 ; THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW. T EXA SOBS ER V ER.ORG So Carty was put in leg irons, with handcuffs Carty remained at Port Isabel for seven months. anchored to his waist, and marched onto a govern- The detainees there, he says, were unusually des- ment-chartered plane with other immigrants—some perate. One man from El Salvador, he says, had been undocumented, some legal residents like himself. detained for eight years while fighting deportation. They were flown to Massachusetts, where Carty was Carty and a few others tried to reach out to local locked up in the second of seven detention facilities attorneys to help such detainees. They attracted he'd experience. some media attention, but nothing changed. Carty's story is hardly unusual: On average, 52 One day, Carty says he was approached by two detain- percent of ICE detainees—whether legal residents ees who wanted to start a hunger strike. "We felt we had or illegal immigrants—are transferred at least once no other recourse," he says. "We were ready to stop eat- before they are released or deported, according to a ing to let people know how serious things were." study by the nonprofit Transactional Records Access Last April, at least 100 men at Port Isabel partici- Clearinghouse. Each time Carty was transferred to pated in that initial hunger strike. Carty didn't eat a new detention center, his fiancee and family were for a week. He relented after officials threatened to unaware of his whereabouts until he gained phone take away his access to the law library. "I would have privileges. Each transfer also meant several addi- crawled to that library to work on my case," he says. tional weeks in detention while he waited for a new After the hunger strike had been broken—with its immigration judge to set a court hearing. "ringleaders" transferred to other detention centers "It was very dehumanizing," says Carty. "We have by ICE—Carty contacted Amnesty International. Michael Watkins, ICE our lives invested here and have equity in this coun- The human rights nonprofit had just released a assistant field office try, but there is no consideration for us at all." report, "Jailed Without Justice," which found, director at the Port Isabel among other problems, that many immigrants and Detention Center IN DECEMBER 2008, Carty was shipped to his fifth legal residents were being held unlawfully in man- detention center: Port Isabel, 24 miles northeast datory detention. Carty persuaded Amnesty to come of Brownsville. That, too, is a common story. About to Port Isabel and investigate. READ AN Amnesty International one-third of the nation's immigrant detainees are On the second day of the Amnesty investiga- report on detention at housed in Texas facilities. Port Isabel and the neigh- tors' visit, Carty was preparing for his interview www.tx1olamnestyrepor boring Willacy County Detention Center, known as with them when two guards told him he was being "Tent City," are two of the state's largest, which can transferred to Louisiana. Carty says he tried to get hold 4,000 ICE detainees combined. to the phone to notify Amnesty, but was beaten by Like Carty, many detainees in Texas have been the guards. "They made an example of me," he says. relocated from urban areas in the Northeast, where "They sent a very clear message that this is what will detention beds are scarcer. This brings them under happen if you do something like setting up a meet- the sway of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ing with Amnesty International." "The long-term which has earned a reputation as the most conserva- Carty was transferred that day. The next month he tive in the nation regarding immigration rulings—a was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of effects of these conveyor-belt to deportation. (See "Pleading With "assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimi- the Fifth," p. 12.) Since most detention facilities dating or interfering with" the two Port Isabel guards detention are in Southern states like Texas, Mississippi and "in the performance of their official duties." Louisiana, ICE is sending an increasing number Carty used his self-taught legal training to peti- policies—no of detainees' cases to the 5th Circuit. When they tion for a writ of habeas corpus and challenge his arrive at these largely rural facilities, far from detention. He argued that because neither Haiti nor one is talking home, they find few immigration lawyers available Congo would accept him as a citizen, he could not be or willing to help. deported. On Dec. 22, after 21 months in the immi- about them." "It seemed like we were being set up," Carty says. grant detention system, Carty was released when a Taking matters into his own hands, Carty started judge granted his claim. studying immigration law in Port Isabel's meager law Carty returned briefly to Boston, where he was library. An official in charge of the library noticed his reunited with his family and fiancee. Now he is back abilities and hired Carty at $1 a day to work there. in South Texas to stand trial for allegedly assaulting He began to help other immigrants with their cases, the Port Isabel guards. The detention center released including a man from Eritrea who'd been denied footage of the incident to Carty's public defender, political asylum and was about to be deported. Paul Hajjar, who says it shows Carty—as he claimed— "I saw his face the day he got the order," Carty being punched by an ICE officer. What it doesn't remembers. "He had the look of imminent death show, Hajjar says, is Carty assaulting the guards. Port on his face. He had been tortured for two years in Isabel officials claim the security camera panned to Eritrea, and he really thought he was going to die." another area of the dorm and didn't record that part Carty helped him challenge the deportation; the man of the incident, Hajjar says. was later released on a parole bond. While awaiting trial in February, Carty joined sev- The more Carty studied immigration law, the more eral Texas nonprofits in launching a "Dignity Not Detention" campaign to raise awareness about man- he realized that many people were stuck in detention READ A Human Rights Watch because they were poor and had no access to a lawyer. datory detention policies, lack of legal representa- report on immigrant detention A recent report by Amnesty International found that tion for detainees, and physical and verbal abuse in www.tx1o/humanrights 84 percent of immigrants in U.S. detention have no ICE facilities. legal representation—either because they can't afford "The long-term effects of these detention policies— a lawyer or because they can't find one in the remote no one is talking about them," Carty says. "People are areas where most detention centers are located. losing family members by the planeload."

MARCH 19, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER : 9 A courtroom used for video WHILE "CATCH AND DETAIN" began during the U.S. resident scheduled for deportation to Haiti. conference hearings at the Port Isabel Detention Center Bush administration, President Barack Obama's The hunger strikes have spread beyond Port Isabel. Homeland Security regime has expanded the policy In early February, The New York Times reported that and pushed it aggressively to local law enforcement. more than 100 detainees refused to eat at the Varick Local police report non-citizens in their jails to ICE Detention Facility in New York City. Immigration and agents, who place a "detainer" on them—meaning Customs Enforcement agents in SWAT-team attire they will be transferred automatically to an ICE used pepper spray to remove the men from their dorm. LEARN MORE about immigration detention at detention facility, where they are held until a judge Some were beaten, the detainees told the Times. The www.txlo/detention decides whether they will be deported or allowed to "instigators," as usual, were transferred. stay in the United States. The most recent large-scale hunger strike at Port Department of Homeland Security Secretary Isabel began a week later. In a recorded telephone Janet Napolitano often touts catch-and-detain pro- interview with the Edinburg-based Southwest grams as "an effective tool to identify and remove Workers' Union, which advocates for immigrant dangerous criminal aliens who pose a threat to pub- rights, detainee Dion Charles said that Port Isabel lic safety." But these programs cast a much wider net officials warned the strikers that it was no use to than Napolitano likes to acknowledge, targeting not launch another protest. Charles said that Michael only the undocumented, but also legal residents with Watkins, ICE assistant field office director of the spouses and children who are U.S. citizens. The vast facility, "said they could get a court order to force- majority of people who land in ICE detention are not feed us. He said there was nothing we could accom- "dangerous" criminals. plish with our hunger strike. No one could help us." An October 2009 report by DHS showed that only Even so, the worker union estimates that 200 men one-sixth of the immigrants held under mandatory participated. (ICE will confirm that only one per- detention had committed violent crimes. "The major- son was, as the agency calls it, "voluntarily fasting.") ity of the population is characterized as low custody, According to Charles, "We'd been on a peaceful hun- or having a low propensity for violence," wrote the ger strike for 48 hours" when ICE agents entered the report's author, Dora Schriro, former director of the Charlie 4 dorm wing, which mostly houses legal resi- Office of Detention Policy and Planning for ICE. dents with prior criminal convictions, to break it up. As the number of immigrant detainees continues Two men refused to leave and were assaulted by ICE to grow, the waits for hearings continue to lengthen, agents, Charles said. "They put handcuffs on them and immigration reform languishes in Congress, the and were kicking and hitting them," he said. Two Meals searved to detainees atmosphere in ICE detention facilities has grown pre- other detainees, speaking to the Observer on condi- dictably volatile. Last October, the Observer reported tion of anonymity, said they'd witnessed the two men on riots that broke out over conditions at a privately being assaulted. run prison housing immigrants in Pecos after a man in Deborah Achim, who oversees Port Isabel and solitary confinement died from epileptic seizures. At four other ICE facilities, offers a different version of Port Isabel, hunger strikes have continued. Last July, events. The men were taken out of their dorm to be ICE had to obtain a court order to force-feed a legal questioned and examined by medical personnel, "but

; THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG two refused to come out." Were they beaten? Achim channels. It's like a human aquarium. would only say that there were "no injuries." Michael Watkins, the facility director for ICE, has After the sweep, 17 strikers were transferred to a worked at Port Isabel for 16 years. During the guided privately run detention center in Karnes City, 56 miles tour, he repeatedly emphasized that the center meets southeast of San Antonio. "They were coercing others or exceeds American Correctional Association stan- and discouraging others from eating and moving freely dards. Leading us through a freshly scrubbed kitchen, around the dorm," says Achim. he pointed out a plastic bowl filled with chicken ten- KuJoe Agyei-Kodie was one of the detainees ders, and macaroni and cheese. This, he said, is what the transferred to Karnes. The 36-year-old from Ghana detainees had for lunch that day. "I'm not mandated to was in the United States on a student visa, working give them more than six ounces of food," Watkins said, on his postdoctoral thesis in electrical engineering "but why not give them eight ounces? It doesn't hurt at Morgan State University, when "things went hor- me to go a little bit over and above." ribly wrong" in 2008, says his friend Hollie Holt of Watkins was not so eager to talk about hunger Philadelphia. A woman from Nigeria whom Agyei- strikes. "Someone might not like their meal that day," Kodie had been dating accused him of aggravated sex- he said. "I don't eat every meal every day. But if some- ual assault, stalking, and telephone intimidation. He one misses a meal, of course it's a concern, and it's denied the charges and was acquitted of all of them incumbent on me to have staff ascertain why people Eighty-four except for phone intimidation, a misdemeanor. are missing meals." "He didn't want to plead guilty to the charge," Holt After the tour, I asked Watkins and Achim whether percent of says. "But we encouraged him to do it and move on they think it's appropriate for immigrants in civil because the D.A. was really gunning for him." proceedings to be held in prisonlike conditions. They immigrants in Within seconds of pleading guilty, Agyei-Kodie was deflected the question. "We know there is going to be whisked away by ICE agents. "I was literally reaching a new approach to detention," Watkins said. "It's com- U.S. detention my hand out in the courtroom to congratulate him, ing, but we don't know the details yet." and they grabbed him and took him away," says Holt. Last August, the Obama administration indi- have no legal Agyei-Kodie and his friend had no idea that the misde- cated it would make changes—including opening meanor to which he'd pleaded guilty was considered a more ICE facilities near larger cities, where there representation. crime of "moral turpitude," a deportable offense. is greater access to courts, medical care and attor- "What happened to KuJoe was like a bad movie," neys. Immigrant rights activists also were encour- says Holt, who along with her husband James had aged by a DHS study that recommended immi- befriended him in Philadelphia. "It's really shaken grants be assessed by risk to determine whether my belief in our judicial system." they should be held in detention awaiting a court Agyei-Kodie has been to three detention facilities. date, or released into alternative community- After eight months, he hasn't received a bond hear- based programs. ing. He has no attorney. He knows that he eventually "There needs to be a risk-assessment model in will be sent back to Ghana. First, he says in a phone place," said Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership, an interview from the Karnes facility, "I want to clear Austin nonprofit that is part of the nationwide "Dignity my name. I work in the high-tech industry. I don't do Not Detention" campaign. "Many people in detention drugs. I live a clean life. I don't want this following me are neither a flight risk nor a security risk." READ LETTERS for the rest of my life." The Detention Watch Network, which advocates from detainees at Port for reform, argues that an alternative system relying Isabel Detention Center at TWO WEEKS AFTER the latest hunger strike at Port on electronic monitoring of immigrants awaiting www.tx1o/detainletter Isabel, reporters were allowed a rare peek inside the deportation hearings would keep families together detention center—with strict instructions to neither and cost just $12 a day per person—far less than speak with detainees nor photograph their faces. the average of $99 a day the government spends to Passing the guard booth on the way into the facility, one hears the sound of gunfire rattling in the distance as local police officers practice at a firing range on the grounds. The center sprawls across some 300 acres, with several World War II Army barracks being used by the immigrant detainees. Rule' Ruin On this day, the facility was housing 687 detainees, International Headquarters short of its capacity of 850. Since September 2009, when a guard was found guilty of sexually abusing female immigrants in one of the dorms here, only it Come Visit us for LUNCH! In addition to our organic men have been housed at Port Isabel. (The female coffee, pizzas, empanadas, pastries and pies, we immigrants were transferred to the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, northeast of Austin.) now prepare made to order sandwiches, salads, As reporters were escorted through the Alpha dorm, and even black bean gazpacho. which houses non-criminal detainees, men dressed in blue uniforms stared at us through large, plateglass windows. Each dorm is called a "pod," with the detainees, all under 24-hour surveillance, housed in circles 3601 S. Congress off E. Alpine around a glassed-in guard booth at the center. Inside Penn Field • under the water tower the booth, two guards sit in front of a console that con- trols everything from the lights to the detainees' TV (512)707-9637 www.rutamaya.net check our site for monthly calendar

MARCH 19, 2010 house detainees in facilities like Port Isabel. despair and frustration. With every day that passes Immigrant advocates acknowledge that changes in detention, KuJoe Agyei-Kodie is among those to the "crimmigration" system would take years to losing hope in a country they once saw as a beacon GET INVOLVED at WWW.tX10/iMMigratiOn implement. And the Obama administration has sig- of justice. naled that it will not de-emphasize detention. "We "There's no reason why I should be in manda- are going to continue to detain people, and we are tory detention at the maximum-security level," he going to continue to detain people on a large scale," says. "If something like this can happen in a coun- ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton declared in a try where the Constitution says all men are created press conference last August. equal, then it's really a bad sign for all of us in other As the number of detainees swells, so does the countries who look up to the United States." LI PLEADING WITH THE FIFTH

OSE ANGEL CARACHURI-ROSENDO WAS tion cases. It also receives more detainee trans- caught with a small amount of mari- fers than any other circuit, and Texas leads all The 5th is the juana in Texas. The consequences could states in transfers received. U.S. Immigration and tear apart his family and end the life he's Customs Enforcement maintains that the trans- only circuit built in the United States. Carachuri- fers simply take advantage of excess prison space in Rosendo was a lawful, permanent resident Texas. Immigration attorneys have long contended court that who immigrated from Mexico to Texas that the government intentionally locates detention when a child. After years working as a carpet installer, centers in remote areas far from legal counsel and will deport he was arrested in Harris County in 2004 for pos- evidence that might secure their release. session of less than 2 ounces of marijuana, a Class B "I think we can prove that ICE has built some of defendants misdemeanor. A year later he pleaded no contest to its largest detention facilities and has intention- possession of a Xanax tablet without a prescription, ally transferred the largest number of detainees to after they a Class A misdemeanor. That was enough to deport remote locations under the 5th Circuit," says Alison him to Mexico despite the fact that his wife and four Parker, deputy director in the U.S. for Human Rights have had their children are all U.S. citizens. Watch, which released a report, "Locked Up Far In most of the country, Carachuri-Rosendo might Away," documenting the transfer pattern. "The end convictions have served his sentence and gone home. But the result is a lot of people who might have had a way to 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers stay in this country have ended up in a place where thrown out on Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, considers low- they are going to get sent away." level drug possession a "drug trafficking crime." Recently, light was shed on how ICE decides substantive That makes it an "aggravated felony," grounds for where to detain immigrants awaiting trial and mandatory deportation. One other appellate court— deportation. During an ACLU lawsuit opposing or procedural The 7th Circuit, which covers Illinois, Wisconsin conditions at ICE's T. Don Hutto Residential Center and Indiana—has made a similar ruling. Later this near Austin, attorney Barbara Hines, a clinical pro- grounds. month the Supreme Court will hear arguments fessor of law at the University of Texas, received an over whether Congress intended the phrase "drug anonymous letter from an ICE whistleblower. The trafficking crime" to mandate deportation of low- letter included an internal memo about the deten- level possession offenders. The fate of thousands of tion center in Hutto, where ICE officials expressed immigrants detained or deported by the 5th Circuit concern about putting the jail in Hutto because of hangs in the balance. its proximity to Austin and its broad base of NGOs "This is an Alice in Wonderland world where the and immigrant advocate groups. The memo sug- government is imposing the most severe conse- gests that ICE does consider the legal environment quences of the immigration law on folks with simple before transferring prisoners. READ BRIEFS submitted in possession offenses," says Manny Vargas, an attor- Immigration lawyers are optimistic that the Carachuri-Rosendo v. Holder at Cl bdo.comicarachuri ney with the Immigrant Defense Project, which Supreme Court will overrule the 5th Circuit on the has filed a brief with the Supreme Court supporting definition of "drug trafficking." The Supreme Court Carachuri-Rosendo. recently ruled on the case of Lopez v. Gonzales, The Carachuri-Rosendo decision has been addressing whether drug possession, considered a particularly damaging to immigrants trans- misdemeanor under the Controlled Substances Act, ferred to detention under the 5th Circuit. (See can be considered a drug-trafficking felony for immi- "Crimmigration," p. 6.) Carachuri-Rosendo's case gration purposes. The court concluded such a ruling exposes one glaring way the court applies it's own would be inconsistent "with any common sense con- immigration law, but there are others. The 5th Circuit ception of drug trafficking." is also the only circuit court that deports defendants A week after that decision, the judge in Carachuri- after their convictions are thrown out. "The 5th says, Rosendo's case denied his appeal and deported him. screw you, as far as we're concerned, it's still a con- But if the Supreme Court finds in his favor, circuit viction," says Lisa Brodyaga, a seasoned immigration courts will immediately have to abide by that deci- attorney in South Texas. sion, giving thousands of people who have already The 5th Circuit is one of 13 circuit courts, but been deported a chance to return. it sees around one-third of the nation's immigra- —AARON NELSEN

THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG The profitable game of including immigrants in the census, then deporting them BY KEVIN SIEFF

ENRY ARROLIGA LIVES IN SOUTH More than funding is at stake: The composition Texas' Port Isabel Detention of legislative districts, county board districts, and Center, one of the nation's city council districts could be skewed by soon-to-be- largest immigration deten- deported prisoners. Census data are used on the state tion facilities. After 17 years and national levels to determine the sizes and shapes of living illegally in the of these districts. The inclusion of detainees in the READ the Census United States, he's bracing count means fewer eligible voters per elected official Bureau report on himself to return to his native in places like Cameron County. It also violates the undercounting texans Nicaragua. Although Arroliga principle of "proportional representation." at tx1o.conv9 could very well be deported within the next month, For decades, the government has included pris- the 2010 U.S. Census will count him as a resident of oners in the census, regardless of their immigration Los Fresnos, in Cameron County. His short stint at status. In the past, the impact of immigrant detain- Port Isabel will pay dividends to the city, county, and ees has been slight. This is the first decennial census state for the next decade. since the re-organization of immigrantion agencies Arroliga is one of more than 30,000 immigrant and the subsequent boom in immigration deten- detainees who will be counted in this year's census. tion. Immigration prisons have expanded from Four hundred billion dollars in federal funding over 7,500 beds in 1995 to more than 30,000 in 2010. the next 10 years will be distributed based on the About one-third of the nation's immigrant detain- count, making detainees worth thousands of dollars ees are held in Texas. to cities, counties, and states where they are briefly That doesn't count undocumented immigrants detained. The government will allocate more than in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service await- $100 million in additional funds to places where ing deportation proceedings—thousands in Texas immigrants are detained. alone. Carl Caulk, the U.S. Marshals assistant

MARCH 19, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 13 PRISONS director for prisoner operations, says that received considerable attention, and while many recent Border Patrol crackdowns like Operation Latino leaders disagree with his approach, he is Streamline have sent the number of immigrants convinced that threatening to withhold the instru- in Marshals' custody through the roof. Operation ments of federal funding is the way to attract politi- Streamline mandated that charges be filed against cians to the table. virtually every person caught crossing the border Within facilities like Port Isabel, detainees likely illegally. Like ICE detainees, these immigrants will won't be able to opt out of the census. According to be counted in the 2010 census. Census Bureau officials, for the last month deten- The Census Bureau's inclusion of immigrant tion center employees have been completing census detainees has received little notice. It comes at a forms on behalf of inmates like Henry Arroliga. "What tense time in the immigration debate, with reform "They're using them to secure federal funding and advocates facing a challenging political climate. This political power, and then they're shipping them out about the year's population count points to an often ignored of the country," Rivera said. "It's an insult." irony: The country's detention facilities are concen- The issue has made Rivera and U.S. Sen. David detainees?" trated in districts represented by some of Congress' Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, unlikely bedfel- most outspoken advocates of reform—including sev- lows. Vitter, along with several other conservatives asked a eral South Texas congressmen who will benefit from in Congress, supported an unsuccessful effort last counting immigrant detainees. fall to exclude noncitizens from apportionment and Raymondville U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, a Corpus Christi Democrat, redistricting counts. "I don't believe noncitizens introduced a comprehensive immigration reform should be counted in congressional reapportion- city council- bill in the House this spring. Yet with about 5,000 ment," Vitter told Congress last fall. "I don't think beds for immigrant detainees, his South Texas dis- states which have particularly large noncitizen man. "Do we trict stands to see millions of additional tax dollars populations should have more say and more clout in allocated on the basis of the census. Congress, and that states like Louisiana that don't get to count In response to questions from the Observer, Ortiz should be penalized." Or, if you follow the logic, that issued a statement reading: "The U.S. Census Bureau states like Texas should be rewarded. them?" is mandated by the United States Constitution to count every resident regardless of citizenship status. IN RAYMONDVILLE, a rural city 100 miles south of I can assure you that it is in everybody's best interest Corpus Christi, the census count is buzzing along. to get as many people as possible counted." The Census Bureau has a booth outside City Hall. Until this census, the count had never identified Local TV stations are advertising the importance of exactly where "group quarters" like prisons are and filling out the forms. People have been hired to dis- how many people occupy them. For the first time, tribute forms, part of a 1.2 million temporary work this census will let states decide whether to count force nationwide that will make up the largest civil- detainees in local populations. By excluding pris- ian mobilization of Americans in history. oners, states would get a more accurate population In Raymondville, the conversation isn't about the count and would ensure that funds are not distrib- scale of the government's undertaking. It's about uted according to locations of large detention cen- the Willacy Detention Center, the country's larg- ters. The amount of federal funding directed to the est detention facility, holding up to 3,000 prisoners. state would not change. When the census came up at the last City Council Counting prisoners—residents or immigrants—is meeting, a councilman asked city secretary Eleazar against Texas state law. "A person who is an inmate Garcia: "What about the detainees? Do we get to READ the U.S. Govern- in a penal institution or who is an involuntary inmate ment Accountability count them?" Office's report on in a hospital or eleemosynary institution does not, If its population exceeds 10,000 in the census, immigration detention at while an inmate, acquire residence at the place where txlo.com/imm Raymondville would be in the running for a panoply the institution is located," reads Texas Election Code of state grants. The only way that could happen is if Section 1.015. Nevertheless, the census counts them the city's immigrant detainees are included in the as residents. count. "Overall, we would benefit if we could hit that "There's a clear discrepancy between state law and mark," Garcia said. the Census Bureau's methodology," said Peter Wagner So would La Villa, just north of McAllen. The of the Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts-based 2000 census found its population to be 1,305. Just a research group. year later, the Louisiana-based private prison com- Congressman Ortiz had no comment on how pany LCS Corrections Services Inc. opened the East detainees could affect federal funding and redistrict- Hidalgo Detention Center, which houses up to 990 ing. Some of his former supporters see his willing- immigrant detainees. According to its warden, the ness to profit from his district's immigrant detainees facility is almost always full. as evidence of hypocrisy. After the 2010 Census is tallied, the detention cen- "I can't think of anything more two-faced," said ter will nearly double La Villa's population on paper, the Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National potentially doubling its federal funding allocation Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, distributed by the state according to population. and an advocate for immigration reform. (The facility, run by the U.S. Marshals, is already a To the Census Bureau's dismay, Rivera has urged boon to the local government, which receives $2 per undocumented immigrants not to fill out the cen- prisoner per day.) sus forms. "It's our greatest bargaining chip," he The distribution of funds based on immigrant said. "The states and counties want the funding, and detainee populations "points to a flaw in the way we want the legalization." Rivera's campaign has the population counts are used," said Audrey Singer,

14 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank. "The fact that ICE BECOME AN detainees are geographically concentrated will have an effect on the count." In Washington, there appears to be confusion about OBSERVES sob NER the inclusion of immigrant detainees in the census. Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat, represents a district that includes the 1,900-bed INVEST IN THE NEW

South Texas Detention Center and the 450-bed VIEW a partial map of Laredo Contract Detention Facility. He defended the ice detention centers inclusion of immigrant detainees: "Vitally important at txlo.com/a TEXAS OBSERVER funding that supports these facilities relies, in part, Why should you become an Observer Partner? on census data." Aside from the benefits you receive when you join, Experts say Cuellar is wrong. "Immigration pris- you will help found a new era of journalism ons are funded by the Department of Homeland and discourse from The Texas Observer Security, not formula grants" based on census data, and said Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative. be part of a new progressive dialogue on Like Rep. Ortiz, Cuellar is a longstanding advocate www.texasobserver.org. of immigration reform. His attitude about immigrant detainees in the census has disturbed immigration- Pick your level reform advocates in his district. Watchdog, Muckraker or Maverick? Give what you can and enjoy the benefits. One reason Texas' congressmen and state rep- And we'll list your name on our Web site as an resentatives might be looking the other way is that Observer Partner. 375,000 Texans were not counted in 2000, according to a Census Bureau study. That cost the state a huge Here's what your money means for amount of federal dollars. The main culprit, experts The Texas Observer: agree, was the difficulty of getting undocumented immigrants—including an estimated 150,000 in the Watchdog • $150 • $250 • $500 • $1,000 Rio Grande Valley alone—to participate. $150 pays a photographer for a print/web photo spread; This year, the Census Bureau has spent millions on $500 purchases new video editing software; a campaign to convince minorities, including undocumented immigrants, to get themselves counted. $1,000 replaces a writer's outdated computer. Still, community organizers and activists along the Muckraker • $2,500 • $5,000 • $10,000 border say the effort faces considerable challenges. $2,500 pays a writer for a feature story; "The census worker shows up and expects people "They're to be compliant," said Michael Seifert of the Equal $5,000 pays for telephone/internet service for nine Voice for America's Families Network. "Much using them to months; $10,000 pays health care for three writers. laughter is heard in the cantina around that idea." During the 2000 census, Seifert said some immi- secure federal Maverick • $15,000+ grants distrusted and feared the government—a Contact us to talk about benefits and fear then inspired by President Bill Clinton's 1996 funding, and named reporting projects and positions. immigration enforcement bills. "I find it so sweetly ironic that those who have then they're The newly designed website is live! As a Partner been caught up in the biggest dragnet of a civilian or subscriber, you have exclusive online privileges. population in American history—the detainees—will shipping them You'll be able to: build an individual profile page be included in the census count, and therefore serve with a personal blog; network with Texas Observer as a 'corrective' to all of those people who will ignore out of the staff and other Observer Partners; get full access to our the census request," Seifert said. archives; participate in our online book club, The issue could be resolved if Texas decides to country." political discussions, polls and contests; and contribute remove immigrant detainees from the count before information to ongoing investigations. distributing state funds and addressing redistricting. The Census Bureau has agreed to release data For more information on Observer Partner levels on inmate populations earlier than usual to let states and benefits, go to www.texasobserver.org , and localities consider it in apportioning districts email Julia Austin at [email protected] , for 2011 and 2012 races. It's an issue that could be or call 800-939-6620. broached in the 2011 legislative session. Bills to make such adjustments are already pending in New York, Maryland, Illinois, Florida and Wisconsin. So SEE immigration prosecu- far, including immigrant detainees in Texas' census tion/detention statistics by count has been a non-issue. region at txlo.com/b OBSERVER "It's hard to believe that the victims of our inhu- mane immigration detention system are being used like this," Rivera said, "like pawns in a game of state SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE and national politics." SEND A SAMPLE ISSUE OF THE Kevin Siglf an Observer contributing writer lives in TEXAS OBSERVER TO A FRIEND! 1.'Gashingto12. D.C. Email [email protected]

MARCH 19, 2010 or call 512-477-0746

Why is Texas ' R CI( prosecuting adults for dropping out?

N THE FALL OF 2007, LADARRIUS GUNN'S SENIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL started fine. A lightning-fast cornerback and kick returner, Gunn starred at Paris High and had committed to play for Southern Methodist University. Then a nasty knee injury at the homecoming game ended his football career. His future in doubt, Gunn lost interest in school. Soon enough, the school seemed to lose interest in him. He began skipping class and was sent to in-school suspension. "Before he got injured, they treated him like a king," says Gunn's mother, Teresa King. "He got away with a lot of stuff. But afterwards they started treating him like he wasn't anything." By February 2008, Gunn was missing whole days of school. The school referred him to a justice of the peace for truancy. Gunn was surprised to learn that he could be prosecuted for dropping out. After all, he was 18 years old. But Justice of the Peace Cindy Ruthart ordered him to pay a $250 fine and attend Saturday school for eight weeks. Gunn wanted to finish high school—just not in Paris. That March, he withdrew from Paris High and transferred to a high school in Missouri, where his girlfriend lived. Gunn earned his diploma and eventually made his way back to Texas. Nine months later, in February 2009, Gunn was arrested on a warrant that Ruthart issued for failure to pay his $250 fine. Though Gunn was 19 and a high school graduate, Ruthart ordered him to "pay or lay" - either pay the fine or spend five days in jail. (Gunn's mother paid the fine.) "I didn't think it was fair because I had already graduated high school," Gunn says.

GUNN'S CASE may be unusual in its details, but it turns out that Texans between 18 and 21 are now subject to truancy laws previously reserved for juveniles. The change came in 2007, when the Texas Legislature—with little fanfare and almost no debate—rewrote a portion of the state's Education Code at the behest of administrators and judges, who argued they needed a way to deal with the one- third of high school dropouts who are adults. Legislators passed a law requiring people who enroll in or attend school after photograph by their 18th birthday to stay for the entire year or face criminal penalties. Punishment can include jail time, fines and one-year suspensions of driver licenses. No other state has such a law, according to several national truancy experts. Technically, the Legislature left it up to local school boards whether to adopt the policy. So far, almost 900 of the state's 1,030 districts have opted in. The state does not collect information on truant ages, so it's impossible to know how many adult Texans have been charged. But the number of truancy cases has risen sharply across the state in recent years. Between 2005 and 2009, the number of "failure to attend school" charges filed by schools increased more than 40 percent, from about 85,000 to 120,000. In Paris, prosecution of adults like Gunn has become an issue thanks to local civil-rights activists, who have long contended that Paris school authorities pun- ish black children more harshly and frequently than white students. Paris received national attention in 2007 when the Chicago Tribune highlighted the case of Shaquanda Cotton, a 14-year-old girl sentenced to the Texas Youth Commission for up to seven years for pushing a teacher's aide. A 14-year-old white girl in Paris convicted of arson received probation from the same judge. Brenda Cherry, co-founder of the local Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality, suspected that truancy enforcement in Paris similarly fell harder on blacks. She and

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 17 other activists gathered two years' worth of informa- sents one of the poorest parts of Houston, is vice chair of "My God, tion on truancy prosecutions in Ruthart's court. They the House Committee on Public Education. He worries attempted to identify each individual's race by running that a punitive approach will poison creative efforts to that's horrible. names by high-school students and perusing year- get Texans to return to school. Former Houston Mayor books. Of 105 individuals prosecuted, they marked 54 Bill White, for example, pioneered "Reach Out to It begs to be a as African-American, 35 as white, and one as Hispanic. Dropouts Walk," a program in which volunteers go door With 15 students' ethnicity still unknown, it's difficult to to door urging students to return to the classroom. class-action determine whether there is any racial bias. In the Houston school district, 891 students between "They are more fair with truancy than with other 18 and 21 have had truancy charges filed against them lawsuit." things," Cherry says. "But I don't think they would since October 2009. Mark White, manager of student arrest a white student after they graduated." engagement for the district, says the district mainly Sharon Reynerson, the supervising attorney in uses the adult-truancy law to deal with "senioritis," the the Paris office of Lone Star Legal Aid, says the law is tendency of some students close to graduation to skip fundamentally unjust. "They should be legally able to class. Houston is careful, he says, about how it uses the drop out of school when they turn 18," Reynerson said. court system for adults who've returned to school and "It's like they've turned the schools into a prison." are struggling. "There are cases where we're going to Ruthart dismisses the complaints. "I guess you've grin and bear it," Mark White says. heard about all the marches because of the injustices, Other Texas school districts and courts appear to I guess, in the system," she tells the Observer. "Those be prosecuting adult truants with greater zeal. are the people you're talking to." In Midland County, Judge David Cobos, a strict Experts on truancy and juvenile justice are less judge who helped pioneer the use of GPS tracking DIG INTO the statistics for "Failure to Attend School" sanguine about prosecuting adults for truancy than devices on disobedient kids, estimates he sees an addi- cases filed in JP courts at legislators, judges, and school officials who favor it. tional 800 people—almost a quarter of his caseload—a txlo.com/truancyjp "My God, that's horrible," says Ken Seeley, president year because of the law. (The judge says he hasn't out- and CEO of the National Center for School Engagement, fitted any adult truants with tracking devices because a Colorado-based organization focused on school atten- they've all complied with his orders.) dance. "That's very unusual. It begs to be a class-action Cobos defends the law as a common sense way to suit or for the ACLU to step in and take up this case." address the state's dropout crisis. "Before the law was Treating truancy as a crime for juveniles has been changed, they could just drop out and walk away, which a failure, Seeley argues—so why extend it to older stu- of course had an impact on the dropout rate in Texas," dents, an even more marginal group? Students still in said Cobos, who lobbied the Legislature for the change. high school past 18 tend to have learning disabilities, In Paris, Judge Ruthart has a similar view. "I think behavioral issues, or problems at home. At that age, it's a good thing," she says. "If we don't make them get they might be on their own, working long hours or a diploma or get a GED, they're going to fall through taking care of kids of their own. the cracks." The Texas law, Seeley says, is "heavy handed and Texas school administrators are under increasing punitive to those older students who chose volun- pressure to reduce dropout rates, and have plenty of tarily to re-enroll in school. These young adults incentive to get tough. State school funding is based should be afforded some flexibility in completing in part on how many students attend school each day. their high school diploma." The state accountability system and the federal "No Sometime this year, Congress is expected to Child Left Behind" laws both are tied to dropout rates reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency as well as "completion" rates, which measures the per- Prevention Act of 1974. As part of the reauthoriza- centage of students who finish high school on time. tion, Congress likely will strip judges of the authority Paris schools were slapped for the first time last to detain juveniles for so-called "status offenses" such year with an "academically unacceptable" rating as running away, breaking curfew—and truancy. But from the Texas Education Agency because of abysmal unless state law is modified, justices of the peace in completion rates, especially for African-American Texas could still lock up 21-year-olds for cutting class. students. If the poor rating persists, the agency can State Rep. Scott Hochberg, a Democrat who repre- intervene, pushing out teachers and principals and even closing schools. Desperate for a solution, many schools have 11. "thrown the problem over to the court system, assuming that a system of fines and penalties will intimidate • the kids into attending school," says Albert Cortez, the director of policy for San Antonio-based Intercultural Development Research Association. "It's an interest- ing approach because it means the schools don't have HAPPINESS SIT OF • to do anything differently." www.planetittexas.coin The confluence of get-tough school policies and the criminal justice system can produce not just inef- GROWNUP GIFTS FOR KIDS OF ALL AGES fective, but downright absurd, outcomes. AUSTIN (512) NEW STORE STASSNEY NEW STORE! NORTH SOUTH RESEARCH E. RIVERSIDE IN AUSTIN IN FALL 2008, Tracey Johnson was a few months shy of 832 -8544 443 -2292 502 -9323 441 -5555 707-9069 CESAR (HAVE/ his 19th birthday and stuck in the 11th grade. He'd been NEW STORE!! SAN MARCOS 512 392-4596 skipping classes that semester, school records show, but 3111 E. CESAR CHAVEZ SAN ANTONIO (210) NEW STORE (fast of Pleasant Valley showing up regularly for football practice. His grade in EAST CENTRAL EVERS MILITARY WEST AVE at Tillery) 654-8536 822-7767 521 - 5213 333-3043 525 -0708 247-2222 WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG

U.S. history was 16, though he had a 100 in athletics. cials did not respond to requests for comment. Truancy in Texas "It seemed to be OK with the school at the time," says Why would the district do this? Cotton, Johnson's The following are total Failure Creola Cotton, Johnson's aunt and a civil rights activ- aunt, was curious. She got Johnson's school records. On to Attend School cases filed ist. OK, that is, until Johnson injured his kidney dur- the student withdrawal form, the original stated reason in Texas courts by fiscal year: ing football practice. After he found blood in his urine, for Johnson's leaving school (known as a "leaver code") 0 0 0 p 0 0 0 p Johnson didn't show up at school or practice for several was "non-attendance/GED." This had been crossed out 0 0 0 05), 1/4 0,cy cy days. When he returned, he had been dropped from the and replaced with a "homeschool" code. 91 rolls for having too many unexcused absences. Under the state's accountability rules, an individual "If you're not a big-time sports star, they don't treat who leaves school to take the GED is counted as a drop- you right," says Johnson, a 6-foot-l-inch, 320-pound out; someone who leaves to be homeschooled does not. 2004 lineman. "They used to come pick me up for football The school apparently was trying to erase a drop- practice. Once I got injured, I was off the school roster." out at the same time it was having him prosecuted for Johnson withdrew from school. His mother and dropping out. Sharon Reynerson, the lead attorney 2005 Assistant Principal Stephen Long signed the within the Paris office of the nonprofit Lone Star Legal drawal form stating that Johnson would begin test- Aid, accuses the Paris school district of "falsifying ing for a GED at Paris Junior College. their records because they got an unacceptable rat- A month later, the school district referred Johnson ing from the state." to Judge Ruthart for absences he had racked up before Cortez, the education policy expert, says gaming the his departure. Johnson pleaded no contest. Ruthart education agency's system is common—though dif- fined him $175 and ordered him to get his GED within ficult to document. "How can schools make the prob- six months. "She told me I had to pass it or else she was lems of truancy and dropouts disappear?" he asks. gonna put out a warrant," Johnson says. "One way is to use the coding system. The verification 2008 "He was going to pursue his GED on his own any- requirements are so weak that it invites abuse." way," says Cotton, his aunt. The judge's "response Back in 1986, Cortez's organization, the Inter- was she didn't believe it." cultural Development Research Association, con- 2009 Ruthart says she has no record of Johnson taking the ducted the first comprehensive study of high school GED before his appearance in court and defends her dropouts in Texas. The result was shocking: Thirty- SOURCE: TEXAS OFFICE OF ruling. "He still committed the offense even though he three percent of all students in Texas failed to gradu- COURT ADMINISTRATION dropped out," she said. "He still broke the law. I guess the ate. After almost 25 years of measures to decrease the school decided to file on him—that's their deal. You see dropout rate, Texas' rate remains virtually the same, what I'm saying? We can't refuse the case." 31 percent. In response, authorities have ratcheted up By July 2009, Johnson had taken all five portions truancy enforcement. of the GED but fell short, barely, of passing. "In the research we've seen, it doesn't seem to In August, a month after the district received its really do anything to help," says Cortez. Even Judge unacceptable rating from the education agency, Ruthart concedes that she has little idea if prosecut- Johnson says he was called to the school by one of his ing adult truants is effective. "I don't know how many DIG INTO the statistics for former coaches and told that if he signed a document, end up dropping out, I don't know if they graduate or "Failure to Attend School" "they wouldn't be able to file a truancy on me. they just don't go back the next year and they didn't cases filed in municipal courts "I would be good to go. That's what he told me," receive a diploma," she said. at txlo.com/truancymuni Johnson says. "I didn't really know what was I signing." But the dismal reality—that nothing has changed Johnson had signed a form stating he was being in two-and-a-half decades—has not prevented Texas homeschooled four hours a day using a Christian schools, judges and lawmakers from prescribing curriculum he had never heard of. Paris school offi- more of the same. 11:7

HIGHTOWERREPORT

NEEDED: VIAGRA FOR BACKBONES

THE WHITE HOUSE NEEDS pathetic appeasements. ing his bill to mush to heads, demanding the free-market system." a good alchemist. Not Take America's wors- win a few GOP votes. To restrictions to rein in Hello ... Wall Street's a magician who can ening job crisis. Nearly appease them, he slashed "obscene" executive pay. bailout and luxurious turn lead into gold, but 15 million people are his jobs investment Republicans refused bonuses didn't come a practitioner who can unemployed, with 40 from $266 billion to $15 to back real reform, so from the "free market"— formulate a Viagra-type percent of them mired in billion—a puny response Obama has now shrunk they came from us tax- pill to stiffen backbones. long-term joblessness. that, at best, will create from any boldness, payers. Come on, Obama, Obama and team Obama has eloquently 250,000 jobs. meekly abandoning grow a spine. Don't just seem incapable of tak- addressed their plight Responding to the his moral outrage to talk about change, dare to ing firm stands. They and rightly proposed public's fury toward beg for the wimpiest of stand up for it. see a problem, address a $266 billion emer- Wall Street bankers who wrist-slaps on miscreant —JIM HIGHTOWER it in the boldest of gency response to put are paying themselves bankers. "I, like most of A FIND MORE INFORMATION terms, suggest stout these folks to work. But billions of dollars in the American people," on Jim Hightower's work— action—then droop he quickly caved in to bonuses after wrecking Obama said, "don't and subscribe to his award- winning monthly newsletter, into limp compromises do-nothing Republican our economy, Obama begrudge people success The Hightower Lowdown— before shriveling into ideologues, compromis- went after the greed- or wealth. That is part of at www.jimhightower.corn

MARCH 19, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19 NECHES RIVER DATELINE Still Wild Water by Dan Oko

E HAD BEEN WARNED. THE conflicted with a plan to establish the Neches River meandering run of the National Wildlife Refuge in the same area. Texas Neches River through the authorities attempted to kill the refuge by filing suit "Little Thicket," as our against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. On Feb. 22, guide dubbed it, would the Supreme Court declared it would not hear the disorient even the most lawsuit. "I think it's a win for society," says Richard experienced paddlers. Donovan, author of Paddling the Wild Neches. "As Largely concealed behind the remnant hardwood our population continues to grow, more and more of curtains of East Texas, the slow-moving river slipped our wild places will disappear." into the dark forest, its channel moving like a serpent. With deer crunching through the underbrush, Spanish moss hung from tall oaks, while mid-river, wood ducks clucking in the distance, and woodpeckers smaller trees such as sweet thwacking nearby timber, we gum and river birch trembled Vre were soaking up a heady dose For those in the current. We kept alert *u.' .." of habitat on its own terms. for signs of wildlife, including Faced with a flood-stage river, willing to Cupe water moccasins that might we drifted over trees that nor- seek the comfort of our canoe. mally would have created a with mud With two days of travel and cathedral of branches above miles left on the river, our get- us. Though rapids were of no and bugs, the away was feeling like some- concern, even our guide, wiry, thing out of Deliverance. white-bearded Adrian Van Neches offers When people talk of what's Dellen, a retired Air Force left of wild Texas, the Neches is colonel, struggled to keep a primitive not necessarily the first place track of the central run of the that leaps to mind. Partially river. We passed wild hog wal- naradise. to blame is the state's outdoor lows, and Van Dellen paused adventure set, who let their to point out the Neches River visions drift westward, where rose mallow, an endangered the bend of the Rio Grande sug- local plant. Later, he shared gests a ribbon of life beneath his notion based on the late the wide open skies of the Tex- theologian Thomas Berry's Dogwood on the "eco-zoic" theory that we banks of the Neches Mex border. Still, the Neches PHOTO BY ADRIAN F. VAN DELLEN proves a superior ecological are entering "a period when panorama, draining some humans should be present 10,000 square miles on its 416-mile journey from its upon the Earth in a mutually enhancing manner." headwaters in Van Zandt County east of Dallas to salty Arriving at camp, I discovered a pair of broadhead Sabine Lake on the coast. On its way to the Gulf, the skink, medium-sized lizards with distinct bluish tails, Neches gives shape to myriad parcels of the Big Thicket and counted weird mushrooms in the forest litter. National Preserve—considered by scientists to be one "Me man, build fire," my friend Scott Sommerlatte of the richest ecosystems in the nation. Elsewhere, grunted with a grin as the sun edged down over the lob- the landscape has been logged or drilled, and signs lolly pines our first night. Our long first day was about of use and abuse increase as strip malls multiply and to grow a little longer after discovering the camp stove you approach the downstream population centers of had been left on my porch in Houston. Yet we'd been Houston and Beaumont. Yet a bold wilderness thrives rewarded by the sights and sounds of the river. The along the upper Neches, where we drifted. lost pines and hardwoods of the East Texas bottom- Thanks to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, lands were a repository for all sorts of critters. Later the Little Thicket and a 25,000-acre chunk of habi- that night, fueled by beer and whiskey (at least some tat north of Highway 84, as well as sections of the I.D. of us), the conversation veered between travel, sports, Fairchild State Forest, look like they will stay wild. As conservation, and the fate of the river. The court deci- in Deliverance, there was a plan to darn this untamed sion not only ensured that some 36 miles of the river would continue to flow freely, it also spelled good news READ THE PLAN for the stream. The city of Dallas and the Texas Water Neches River National Wildlife Development Board had proposed a $569-million for the acreage where some of the last long-leaf pines Refuge at txlo.com/refuge drinking-water project known as Fastrill Dam, but it in America can be found. This distinct Southeastern

20 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG species of long-needled evergreen covers a mere 3 resource. For those willing to cope with mud and Adrian F. Van Dellen enjoys a solitary dawn on the Neches. percent of the 70 million acres it once occupied. Its bugs, the Neches offers a primitive paradise. PHOTO BY ADRIAN VAN DELLEN disappearance is one of the reasons people believe the As we crossed Tails Creek, named for a Caddo chief- ivory-billed woodpecker died out. tain, the whorls of the Little Thicket were replaced Waking in the morning mist, all was quiet. It was next by a classic, broad-shouldered Southeastern river. I to impossible to imagine what it must have been like identified familiar trees including white oak, hickory when the Neches was still a major trade route. Following and black gum, and tallied a list of birds such as the in the footsteps of the Cherokee and Caddo tribes, the belted kingfisher, black vulture and turkey vulture, sons and daughters of Appalachian clans brought their crows, and ever-present "little brown jobbies." After saws and axes to these dark forests. They used the river three days on the Neches, we came to our takeout at BROWSE THE WEB SITE to ship logs downstream, and ferries helped move goods state Highway 294, where logging trucks rattled the of a group opposed to the upstream from the Port of Beaumont. Now it's nothing bridge. Beneath blue skies, we set about sorting our reservoir at www.tcatexas.org but solitude on the upper Neches. gear, feeling secure in the knowledge that, for the Neches loyalists like Van Dellen and Donovan are time being, the Neches River would be waiting the not content now that there's a federal refuge on the next time we were ready for a nearby escape. Neches. Threats to this delicate habitat remain. Dallas Since moving to Texas, freelance writer Dan Olio has has already announced that the city is looking for learned to love thickets, big and small. His work has alternative dam sites on the river, infuriating conser- appeared in Texas Parks and Wildlife, Outside and vationists who believe that Lake Texoma, northwest of Audubon. Denison on the Red River, and Toledo Bend Reservoir, along the Texas-Louisiana border on the Sabine River, would be better sources of drinking water. With the timber industry in decline in East Texas, the wildlife service and local conservationists are looking at ways to secure more real estate for the refuge. Though the refuge plan calls for 25,000 acres, economic realties mean that the federal government is still scrambling for funds to purchase land. About 6,000 acres have been bought by conservation groups that intend to donate the land to the refuge. In a twist on the normal state of affairs, many locals are relieved to have Washington take control of the land—it beats having it submerged. The defeat of Fastrill Dam protects 38 miles of a river that stretches over 400 miles, and the conservation community is organizing to establish stronger CentralTexas protections. The top priority is convincing Texas' Gardener congressional delegation to push for a federal Wild and Scenic designation that would stop future dams. Even those who never want to sleep in the dirt, hear KLRU-TV, Austin PBS, creates innovative television that inspires a wood duck or feel the weight of a paddle cutting and educates. KLRU-produced programs that air statewide on kl ru through the water can see the Neches is a worthy Texas PBS stations include Central Texas Gardener, Texas tv and beyond Monthly Talks and The Biscuit Brothers. Check your local listings. klru.org MARCH 19, 2010 CULTUR E

Paul Wall and his CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK school together in nearby Jersey Village, released their candy Cadillac PHOTO BY MIKE FROST tracks through independent label Swishahouse, which Keep It Trill was becoming the breeding ground for the new sound. Fiercely regional, Swishahouse built a local fan base by Josh Rosenblatt by putting out music by Houston, about Houston, and for Houston. N MARCH 17, MCS CHAMILLIONAIRE Things changed in 2005 when the music indus- and Paul Wall kicked off a try wised up to the Houston scene's commercial national tour at Austin's South potential and brought the Third Coast "chopped by Southwest music festival. The and screwed" sound to the mainstream. Wall and show was a reunion for the two Chamillionaire were arguably Houston's biggest rappers, who helped develop the breakout stars. Wall's The Peoples Champ debuted Houston hip-hop sound in the late at No. 1 on the Billboard chart that September. Two LISTEN TO PAUL 1990s. Back then, Houston hip-hop was a grassroots months later, Chamillionaire released The Sound of WALL'S "They Don't Revenge, Know" at bdo.corniwall affair. With the music industry focused on rappers which went platinum and won a Grammy. from the two coasts, local artists like DJ Screw and Lil' Suddenly obscure, dirty, unheralded Houston rap Keke had to start their own labels, lobby local radio was mainstream. Wall and Chamillionaire shared LISTEN TO an affection for the slowed-down sound of DJ CHAMILLIONAIRES'S stations for air time, and sell mix tapes out of their "Ridin"' at tx1o.comicham cars. Chamillionaire and Wall, who had gone to high Screw, but lyrically they ended up on opposite ends

22 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG Jack Myers In memoriam for my son Jacob Myers: Oct. 3, 1985-May 6, 2009

The wind cups a few sparks of fear of an ideological divide. Wall aimed his songs at the carefully so as not to blow them out. loyal Texas hip-hop audience. Chamillionaire went straight for commercial success. Sadness lifts its head like a horse in darkness. Wall's songs were so Houston-centric they required My beloved son is dead and I walk backward, a glossary. His hit single, "They Don't Know," was the ultimate declaration of regional chauvinism. Wall lowering The End like a rock curtain, built that song as a catechism of hip-hop exclusivity, tasting metal in the silence that attaches itself quizzing listeners on their knowledge of Texas rap vernacular. What do you know, he asked, about swan- to the electrodes of memory. Flashbacks of Jake The song "They Don't Know" scorch the surface while my feet can't touch bottom. Mind-howls spread and even themselves out distinguished those who among the smithereens of wind and light. belonged from those who didn't. I am blinded by the guilt that gold-rims my thoughts like a set of bone china which I am given to eat grief from, gaz and vogues (rims and tires). Or candy paint (cus- tom paint job)? Or P.A.T. (Port Arthur, Texas)? The punchline was that the MC answered his own ques- a kind of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to bring him back tion the same way every time: "nothin'." "They Don't to life. I passed on to my son the opposite of every mistake Know" was a clubhouse declaration, a secret hand- shake, written not to invite listeners but to distinguish I ever made, crushing him between propriety and homilies. between those who belonged and those who didn't. Tonight dew drops jewel the leaves and the clouds air-brush For Paul Wall, knowing about "chunkin' a deuce" was like pronouncing "shibboleth" with an "h." It proved the moon as if beauty were brain-dead to the sky he was trill or, to the initiated, true and real. curling like a burning photo. Each day is a fresh grave Not so for Chamillionaire, who seems made for mass appeal. He's handsome and personable. He dug into me. Everything I do is instilled with the care performed for American troops following the Fort Hood massacre last year. His first big radio hits, of the frail and aged. As my spiritual beliefs slide away "Ridin"' and "Turn It Up," weren't willfully esoteric or Texas-specific; they were just classic, catchy pop from what is, every thing is becoming a holy remnant. songs. Chamillionaire acted as an ambassador for the My son's death is deathless and backlights the world. Houston scene, not just an embodiment of it, which explains why he became its breakout star and Wall Jack Myers was a former Texas Poet Laureate and the author of remains a devotee's secret favorite. 17 books of and about poetry. He died late last year. Staying local has its rewards, as proved by Houston's pioneering duo UGK. They were signed to Jive Records in 1992, but the label never really invested in them. While some of their former label mates sunk into obscurity (remember Whodini?), . "Best place to cure UGK's surviving MC, Bun B, has had one of the lon- 13 ,i ie gest careers in hip-hop by catering to Texas fans. The Hen WC what ails you" It's a model Wall has clearly studied. He may have smaller record sales than Chamillionaire, but he's Explore our Oasis of maintained underground appeal. Chamillionaire, meanwhile, has become the biggest-selling ringtone Earthly Delights! artist of all time. What will Texas fans think of him after all the national media attention dies away? • extensive array of natural health Hard to say. In the meantime, you can count on both and bodycare products MCs to provide a heavy dose of synthesized string • comprehensive collection of herbs hooks, beats slower than I-10 traffic at rush hour, and the shiniest teeth you'll ever lay eyes on. That's how www.theherbbar.com • great gift ideas and much more! they do things in Houston. is Mon.-Fri. 10-6:30 MARCH 19, 2010 200 West Mary • 444-6251 Sat. 105- The Iron Canvas by

Artists install a wreath by N A WINDY, LATE-FEBRUARY SUNDAY Susan Harbage Page on in Brownsville, gallery owner Mark the border wall. PHOTO BY JAZMINE ULLOA Clark and a dozen artists left the gallery carrying paintings and other pieces. They crossed the street, passed a lone Border Patrol van on the river levee, and arrived in Hope Park, a green space on the Rio Grande that celebrates ties between Mexico and the United States. In defiance of the Border Patrol, they began hanging artwork on the Chertoff and his entourage first came to the border rusty, unfinished wall snaking its way partly through city. Clark picketed Chertoff's press conferences, par- the park, the art's colors popping against the gritty iron ticipated in citywide protests, and tagged the gallery's Irv, bars and overcast sky. It was a way to "beautify the ugly," roof with No Al Muro ("No Border Wall") in charcoal. Clark says. "It lets people know that the wall has not When Chertoff's tenure ended in 2009, Clark threw way to gone away as a political issue and that we are extremely him a retirement party at the gallery, where guests disappointed in the Obama administration and their could pummel a piñata modeled after Chertoff and beautify decision to continue this idiocy." throw shoes at a George W. Bush impersonator. Clark has been fighting the wall since 2006, when Clark is still fighting, even though the struggle' can the ugly. former Homeland Security Secretary Michael feel doomed at times. Immigration reform has fallen on the nation's backburner, and construction on the wall is rolling along at $12 to $18 million a mile. The rest of the country may have moved on to other top- Supporting The Texas Observer ics, but Clark and his neighbors can't because of the with every referral and transaction. hulking reminder. He no longer rides his bicycle along the levee to work. "It used to be a quiet, serene ride You Know Me through nature," he says. "When you have an iron cur- (with a few degrees of separation) tain on one side blocking your view, it is a little on the oppressive and depressing side." Get real estate help from someone you know. He says he is not going to let the United States forget Call me today! it's making a mistake. So on Feb. 28, he turned the wall into a canvas that displayed people's frustrations with Larry Hurlbert, Realtor© the metal divide. There were paintings of moonlit moja- das, female border-crossers, and the river view undis- 512.431.5370 • [email protected] rupted by the fence. An illustration by Clark depicted dozens of Mexicans marching into the country through The Kinney Company, Real Estate Services, Austin, TX a hole in the fence. One Mexican was an unemployed www.thekinneycompany.com Ronald McDonald selling helados, ice cream, on the corner. It is "every nightmare about Mexican immigration," he says. There were conceptual pieces, such as a missing-person poster and a pile of stuff including a pair of shoes, a deflated flotation tire, and a water jug left behind by immigrants illegally crossing the border through Arizona. A 30-foot ladder of green bamboo and KOOP RADIO twine leaned against the fence, reaching toward the sky and swaying in the wind. Artist David Freeman, an arts instructor at South Texas College in McAllen, stuck 91.7FM salva-tree thorns on the rungs to symbolize obstacles faced by illegal immigrants in the United States. Perhaps the brightest display was that of Susan Harbage Page, a photographer and lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Page designed The Voice of the a funeral wreath using colored ribbons and plastic flowers arranged like a target. It is a memorial to the lives lost r COMMUNITY crossing the border, "a beautiful thing that sucks you in but represents many harsh realities and losses," she says. The installation came and went quietly, without any clashes with U.S. Border Patrol or local authorities. "I plan to do this every year," Clark says, "until www.koop.org the wall goes away." Ea Jaznzine Ulloa is a staff reporter with the Brownsville Herald.

WW1Ar.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG H I MINUTAGLIO

New School Journalism

WAS IN NEW YORK A SHORT WHILE AGO AT YET ANOTHER "FUTURE OF MEDIA" conference—with men in bow ties, the tang of cologne and coffee, and a shitload of glossy-looking PowerPoint presentations—that felt eerily like a conference I attended in Texas in 2009. Which was eerily like one I attended at Harvard in 2008. All of them, I suspect, will be remark- ably similar to the ones in 2010 I have circled on my calendar. The conferences, filled with dutiful harrumphing, could all go by the same title: Does Anybody Here Have A Goddamned Clue What The Hell Is Going On With the Journalism Business? At future-of-journalism confabs, you have to also say that kids should be taught the evolution of Texas endure discussions with fidgety "new media people," journalism in Texas. All of it: who are 100-percent sanctimoniously convinced • The Dallas Express had to exist because The Dallas should make that there are still some journalists who haven't Morning News was never going to write certain sto- heard that old media business models are dying. It ries. Like the time, just before the attack on Pearl journalism reminds me of my favorite headline, ever, from The Harbor, a black janitor from Dallas was castrated by Abilene Reporter-News: "Shooting Of Cow Depresses a mob in Pittsburg—you'll find the story in the "black a required Pastor." In other words: Stop preaching the obvious. newspaper," but not in the "white newspaper." Today you'd be hard-pressed to find a mogul, editor • William Brann, who edited a controversial "jour- course in or reporter who hasn't signed up, willingly or unwill- nal of personal protest" called The Iconoclast, was ingly, for new media changes. hounded and kidnapped by irate readers—and finally high schools We need to stop having conferences to agree on what shot to death in 1898 in Waco by someone no doubt we already agree on. Instead, we need to talk about offended by his investigations of the political, busi- and maybe game-changing notions for the next generation of jour- ness and cultural powers-that-be. nalists. If technology is making it possible for everyone • Women who pursued journalism in Texas once even middle to gather news, share news and become a citizen jour- were exiled to writing about high society, cooking nalist, then we should explore some things that prob- and school lunch menus—until women like Molly schools. ably will make Rick Perry bolt awake at night and run Ivins and Kaye Northcott decided to blow down some screaming naked through groves of stinging ocotillo. doors with their work at this very magazine. For starters, Texas should make journalism a If Molly could arrange it, I think she would required course in high schools and maybe even appear, via the Skype portal in heaven, to teach middle schools. The courses should address the good these skills to Texas students: How to find that stuff: why giving voice to the voiceless is a guiding elusive paper trail of malfeasance, maybe even principle of the Founding Fathers. As Molly Ivins at their own schools. How to use new technology might have insisted: Oh hell, it's no real biggie we're to make sure that the intended audience actually just talking about Big Time Democracy. receives it—including, especially, their classmates. A year ago, I was a guest in a classroom with How to examine systems of government, do pub- Magdalena Zavala and her student journalists at Taylor lic affairs reporting, deconstruct how institutions High School. There was the future of journalism: kids work—starting with their own educators, princi- grilling me, showing some healthy skepticism about the pals, coaches and superintendents. guy with the tie in the front of the room. I had a feeling We all know technological paradigms are unfold- they were going to be putting Twitter, Facebook and ing faster than the good brisket disappears at Snow's READ ABOUT critical online journalism skills anything else to the same use that citizen journalists BBQ in Lexington. Now we need to make sure the at tx1o.comionline have been doing in China, Iran, Haiti and other places owner's manual to good journalism, the kind that where the press needs to be in the hands of the people. absolutely must be practiced in a democratic society, For grins—and since my kids were required to is served up sooner ... not locked in a gilded box on study a certain sanitized version of Texas history—I the top floor of those old burning structures. CI

MARCH 19, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 25 go hungry. Here are young women, Katrina survivors, even apparently former middle-class people who have nearly starved. (Nye is the husband of the Observer's poetry editor, Naomi Shihab Nye) Nye's subjects are not merely victims; they defy stereotypes. In one, John R. sits in front of his make- shift shelter hidden in the outskirts of San Antonio. "It just makes you short- fused, and feel like your belly is rubbing on your backbones" Nye was at a church in San Antonio when someone pointed to John gardening and told Nye the man was unusual. Nye found that John had a photographic memory and could name each Roman emperor in chronological order and discuss their reigns. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of human anatomy and physical geography. On the recording, John says photographic memory "can be a good thing, because it keeps you in tune with the world, but also, it can be a bad thing because ... a memory, and high intelligence, it's like bulimia. You vomit up all this intelligence, but at the same time, it leaves emptiness inside you that you must eat and you must consume." John's often hungry for food as well, and he finds what he can in dumpsters. He has an advantage other home- less people don't—his knowledge of botany allows him to forage among wild plants. In another photo, Nye shows that in Texas even cow- boys can go hungry. Pepper Lewis, thumbs planted in the pockets of his Levis, shows his resolve to face what many of us cannot imagine. Pepper was a real working cowboy, not a rodeo cowboy. He explains in his audio profile, in a laconic Texas accent, that he could no longer work after his horse bucked him onto a concrete bridge support, cracking his skull and breaking three neck bones. He was reduced to dumpster-diving to find food. "I know exactly what hunger is: doing without," he says. "I did not eat last Thursday or Friday. Just makes you short-fused, and feel like your belly is rubbing on your backbone. I don't know what to say. If you have a John R. at home PHOTO BY MICHAEL NYE loaf of bread, you can make it, or a can of beans." Hungry Eye The exhibit is deeply moving. It's also an important return to a more humanistic style of documen- by Alan Pogue tary photography. Most contemporary documentary photography has been influenced by formalism and ICHAEL NYE'S PHOTOGRAPHS advertising. Not Nye's work. His approach is his own, literally speak to you. Accom- but the spirit that moved Dorothea Lange and Russell panying his 50 portraits at the Lee lives in him. His photos are shot from the same Witte Museum in San Antonio, level as his subjects, never looking down at them, lit- until April 4, are headphones. erally or metaphorically. LI Put them on, and you hear the Alan Pogue is a documentary photographer and HEAR THE AUDIO and see the photos voices of the subjects you're see- writer. His photographs have appeared in the at tx1o.com/nye ing, talking to you about their lives and what it's like to Observer since 1972.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/USPS 541300), entire contents copyrighted © 2010, is published biweekly except during April, July, October and December, when MA OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE there is a 4-week break between issues (22 issues per year) by the Texas Democracy Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit foundation, 307 W. 7th St., Austin TX, 78701. Telephone & Soros Foundation: Network (512)477-0746, fax (512)474-1175, toll free (800)939-6620. Email [email protected]. Periodicals Postage paid in Austin, TX, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER Send address changes to: The Texas Observer, 307 W. 7th St., Austin TX 78701. Subscriptions: 1 yr $35, 2 yr $60, 3 yr $85. Students $20. Foreign, add $13 to domestic price. Back issues $5. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N Zeeb Rd, Ann Arbor MI 48106. INDEXES The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals; Texas Index; and, for the years 1954 through 1981, Texas The Texas Observer Index. INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING is supported in part by a grant from the Open Society Institute. BOOKS & THE CULTURE is funded in part by the Cultural Arts Commission City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts. Division on the Arts

26 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG H PENNEBAKER

Twilight of the Super-Americans

ORE THAN 50 YEARS AGO, NEW YORKER WRITER JOHN Bainbridge came to Texas and stayed nine months. He traveled across the state. He hung out at lavish cocktail parties. He listened to oilmen. He braved the frigid northers, the scorching heat, the fierce winds. He took lots of notes. In 1961 Bainbridge published The Super-Americans, a sprawling, colorful depic- Eight years tion of Texas and Texans. It was a national best-seller of George W. that outraged almost as many literate Texans as Edna Ferber's novel, Giant, had in 1952—and for roughly the same reasons. Like Ferber, Bush made Bainbridge found a state of shameless excess: overnight fortunes, bad taste, loud swaggering boastfulness. We might have been a microcosm of America, all right—optimistic, friendly, future-oriented—but our attempts at high culture were mostly snicker- Texans far inducing, we were narcissistic but not introspective, and our restaurants sucked. less attractive At least The Super-Americans didn't morph into an Besides, somebody's already written a pretty good Oscar-winning epic like Giant. But Bainbridge's book book on tilting at windmills. than they did its own look-at-the-buffoons damage, unless you're 3. Our current generation of rich people is mostly of the persuasion that any press is good news as long high-tech billionaires. These people might be smart used to be. as they spell your name right. As writer Bill Broyles and industrious, and you might want to work for one pointed out in Texas Monthly, "The Super-Americans of them. But let's be honest: They're a pretty unin- glorified Texas and patronized it at the same time." spiring-looking, quiet-living bunch, even if some It's a strange, uncomfortable experience to read do bring their dogs to work. If James Dean hadn't The Super-Americans almost 50 years after its publi- crashed his Porsche, do you think he'd be playing H. cation. Some of it is wincingly familiar and still true: Ross Perot or Michael Dell in a movie? Would you Texans' suspicion of big government; our anti-intel- have gone to see him if he had? lectualism; our miserly support of welfare, unem- 4.Fifty years ago, Bainbridge could get away with call- ployment, and education; the ease of buying guns. ing Texas "the last frontier." If you've ever set a tire on You have to wonder whether those qualities have 1-35, north or south, you know those days are long past. been branded onto our state psyche—tragic flaws 5. Sure, we've always been proud of our unique that guarantee us endless generations of right-wing and terrible Texas weather, which even impressed toadies like Rick Perry and John Cornyn. Bainbridge. But—back to this global-warming deba- But much about Texas and Texans and the rest of cle—the entire country now has crazy weather. We the world has changed since Bainbridge took up brief are not as climatologically distinct as we used to be. residence among us a half-century ago. These days, 6. If you want to see a bunch of rich boors without I'm guessing that a modern-day Bainbridge won't shame, turn the dial to reality TV. No need to crack show up to write a best-selling opus about the likes of open a book about another state. us Texans. Let me count the reasons: 7.You know all the traditional, picturesque Texas 1. Eight years of George W. Bush made swagger- regalia like boots and hats? Amigos, they are every- ing Texans far less attractive than they used to be. where, even in Times Square, sported by Yankee You could argue that swaggering Texans were never impostors and Eurotrash who don't know the words all that popular in the first place, but at least we sold to "The Eyes of Texas." In a word, our wardrobes have well once upon a time. been sullied. That screaming drunk in the 10-gallon 2. Texas' legendary oil barons gambled everything hat is probably from the former U.S.S.R. He probably and got broke and down-and-dirty in a picturesque, thinks Odessa is in Russia. violent, testosterone-fueled way that sold books and 8. If Texans are no longer billed as fascinating and movies. But oilmen just aren't the icons they used to larger than life, neither are Americans. If you want to be. Look at T. Boone Pickens, who's pitching wind make a splash in publishing, you might want to grab instead of crude. What kind of macho image is that? the title The Super-Chinese. El

MARCH 19, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ; 27 B MOSER

Preach, Bill, Preach

OMETIMES BILL WHITE MAKES MY BRAIN SING. LIKE OTHER Texans who fancy the notion of electing a governor who actually wants to govern, I look at his laudable record as mayor of the state's largest city and feel my left brain tingle. I hear him speak in fully formed paragraphs about his plans for the future and entertain gleeful thoughts about a sud- den outbreak of rationality in the Lone Star State. The thrill of the unknown! But then my heart sinks as I remember: We've read this script before, and we know how it turns out. Al Gore, anyone? John Kerry? Urn, Chris Bell? Like those policy-wonkish Democrats, White often seems determined to reason people into voting for him. "I'm an advocate of reality-based politics," he likes to say. "How 'bout accountability?" he likes to ask. "Texans are ready for somebody who'll solve problems," he likes to insist. Reality. Accountability. Problem-solving prow- ning politician who might not have a vision for Texas, White can't ess. There could hardly be finer qualities for a chief but who sure as shootin' conveys one. Perry's version executive. But they make a lousy platform for a win- of "Texas values"—frontier-style individualism and beat Perry ning campaign—especially in Texas, where logic rarely up-by-your-bootstraps self-sufficiency—connects at decides elections. And truth be told, few human beings a gut level with many Texans' view of themselves. with a mere anywhere make rational choices at the ballot box. We White has flashed glimmers of an alternate vision all like to flatter ourselves that we'll vote for the candi- that could effectively tap into Texans' better angels. campaign. But date with superior ideas and solutions. But we're suck- You could hear it in his victory speech on primary ers for the ones who touch our hearts and guts. night when he said, "Our elected officials should be he just might The politics of pragmatism often prevail at the local humble public servants, who use the power of the level, where government has a tangible immediacy— state to serve the people and not simply to perpetu- beat him with improving garbage pick-up, reducing crime rates, ate themselves in office." You could hear it the week unsnarling traffic. But in a political arena the size of after the primary, when White went on Dallas' AM a crusade. Texas, ideals and abstractions outstrip practicalities gospel station, "Heaven 97," and answered a ques- every time. White can fundraise, campaign and debate tion about how to reintegrate criminal offenders into circles around Gov. Rick Perry and he will still come up the community thusly: "Remember the words of the short in November if he doesn't offer a message—no, a scripture: 'When I was hungry, you fed me; when I

vision — that transcends the nuts-and-bolts of policy. was naked, you clothed me; when I was in prison, you You wouldn't know it to listen to him, most of the visited me.' Right? It takes a lot of committed action time, but White does have a visionary streak. It famously from people to give people hope and regain a life. It's surfaced in the summer of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina not just a matter of a program; it's also those of us drowned New Orleans. Mayor White threw open his city reaching out to these offenders one-by-one and see- to more than 250,000 refugees, galvanized more than ing that somebody's made in the image of God." 24,000 volunteers to help them, and told groups who'd If he's going to break the Democrats' 16-year los- booked conventions in Houston to take their money ing streak in statewide contests, White will have to go elsewhere. Suddenly, a city known for its cold-blooded lighter on the policy prescriptions and heavier on the capitalism was transformed into a national symbol of preachments. I'm reminded of a political scientist's compassion. As he personally welcomed victims of the explanation of the drubbing Texas Democrats took in storm, White kept repeating a variation of Matthew 2002. "The Republicans were on a crusade," he said. 25:35: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to "The Democrats were on a campaign." eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I White won't win without reversing that equation. was a stranger and you invited me in." He can't beat Perry with a mere campaign. But he That's the side of Bill White—the Methodist just might beat him with a crusade. And then, when Sunday-school teacher side—that needs to emerge in it's over, he can let his left brain take over again and this campaign. He's running against a devilishly cun- wonk it up to his heart's content. LI

28 1 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG Karen Rangel

BORDERLAND YOUTH

Karen Rangel, a ninth- grader at Franco Middle School in Presidio, took this picture while peering through her classroom window. It's part of her work with Borderland Youth, a participatory social art project based at Texas State University. The project works with young people living along the U.S.- Mexico border to creatively reflect on the cross-cultural experiences of the region.

See more students work at www.texasobserver oT/eyeontexas. CALL FOR ENTRIES: Seeking Texas-based documentary photography that captures the strangest state. Please send inquiries to may@ texasobserveroig.

MARCH 19, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 20

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