We are celebrating these lines from New York Times August 6, 2009:
"[T]he government will stop sending families to the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a former state prison near Austin, Texas, that drew an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit and scathing news coverage for putting young children behind razor wire. ...The past three years have seen thousands of people participate in dozens of Hutto vigils, two great documentary films on family detention, major media scrutiny, a landmark lawsuit settlement, 66,000 petition-signers, and the organizing of students, immigrant rights advocates, faith activists, and everyday people around the country to end family detention.
The decision to stop sending families there - and to set aside plans for three new family detention centers - is the Obama administration's clearest departure from its predecessor's immigration enforcement policies."
The Obama administration announcement is not just a victory for Grassroots Leadership's Campaign to End Immigrant Family Detention, but for an entire movement for justice that has come together to close Hutto and to end immigrant family detention.
Even with this victory, the fight for justice is not over. Hutto will remain open as a women's detention center, and some families will still be detained at another detention center in Pennsylvania. Please make an on-line donation to support continuing work of Grassroots Leadership at http://www.causes.com/grassrootsleadership.?m=898e4645 Also, please help us keep you informed about our work by signing up for our Action Team at www.grassrootsleadership.org.
Thank you for you support.
Bob Libal & Luissana Santibanez
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