Event:  Tuesday July 7th at 6pm
Cal-City City Hall, California City

#8 on the City Council meeting agenda is a public hearing to appeal CoreCivic’s permit to operate.  You can dial in via zoom using this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89958907490 Meeting ID: 899 5890 7490

The ACLU will also be doing a press conference at 5pm outside Cal-City City Hall leading up to the City Council meeting.  Attendance and public comment on the agenda item is strongly encouraged.

Lady Liberty

Back in May, we took a trip to New York state.  We started in Buffalo where my husband went to college and made our way East across the state to visit friends and family.

We took a day trip to New York City to do the tourist thing by admiring the architecture and marvels of the City’s public transit system.  Towards the end of the day we calculated that we had just enough time to take a look at the Statue of Liberty from one of the parks; Battery Park.  As we gazed upon the statue, I looked to my right where a fort once stood that held a 100 canons.  Surely, there would still be a few in the historic fort.  I couldn’t help but wonder, “Has Lady Liberty been at gunpoint this whole time?” 

My sister-in-law began to reminisce, “when we were kids, we went all the way top and looked out of the touch,” but added, “they don’t allow that anymore.”

I turned to my husband, “Trump’s going to take her arm down.”

He laughed nervously, “they’re going to put her in handcuffs.”

Ellis Island to today

My husband’s grandmother immigrated as a child to the US from Sicily.  She came in through Ellis Island and the whole process back then took only a few hours.  When my own mother immigrated from the Philippines, it took 10 years and several court hearings.  She started with a student visa, then a work visa, and then a green card.  To move from a green card to citizenship takes 5 years of established residency (unless you marry a US citizen and then the wait time is 3 years on a green card.)

People seeking asylum have it much worse.  You cannot simply sign an application and wait for a hearing while being productive members of society.  An asylum application can’t be filed ahead of entering the country either, it must be submitted in person.  The current wait time for their first hearing is nearly 2 years.  These asylum seekers are often unaware that they would be walking into what is essentially a prison.

I’ve read the reports from KWESI, and my husband has also had the opportunity to go to the CoreCivic Cal-City detention center to meet a detainee and talk with her for an hour.  It’s just heartbreaking to hear the stories that people had so much hope in our country, and then to be met with the dark reality of our broken system.  The irony that people who dreamed of freedom from their own country’s persecution, instead traded it to walk into a system that traps them behind bars as well.  I can understand why people don’t come in “the right way.” There is so much bureaucratic red tape that the system is no longer functional.  It didn’t start off this way.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776

The CoreCivic Cal-City Detention Center Constitutional Rights Violations

We’ve been granted permission to share the reports made from KWESI volunteers who visit detainees inside the CoreCivic Cal-City Detention Centers.  Identifiable information has been removed from the reports to prevent retaliation against them which has been common.  People inside are eager to share their stories with people who care because the conditions are pretty dire and people outside need to know the truth.  To read the reports, click here.  The conditions inside are not only shocking but also hold some very concerning Constitutional Rights violations.

• 1st Amendment: Religious freedom is being infringed upon.  People who have religious dietary restrictions are forced to buy food from the commissary to survive.
  • “She subsists on rice, noodles, and beans from the commissary.”

• 5th Amendment: Due process violations are being created by constantly moving people from one place to the next.  This moves them away from their court hearings and away from lawyers they already paid.
  • “He was flown from Alligator Alcatraz in Florida to Texas and then to Arizona and then to California.”
• 8th Amendment: Cruel and unusual punishments are being used on people who aren’t even prisoners.
  • “She has no criminal record of any kind.”
  • “the lights are always on…”
  • “…they put him in solitary confinement”
  • “…the food is bad and they all refer to the meat as “mystery meat” which looks and smells like cat food.”
  • “…works for the laundry department and earns the standard $1/day.”

Ridgecrest 50501 Summer Schedule

We have been partnering with KWESI for the last month by sending volunteers to the CoreCivic Cal-City Detention Center to meet with detainees and hear their stories.  This is currently our only summer action that we have planned.

If you’re interested in talking with a detainee and you’ve been an active participant in our protests, please coordinate with Eileen for details about appointments.  You can also support our group with Venmo @Eileen-Shibley-1 for our gas funds.  People from our group are now going twice a week.  It’s a $25 round trip for the carpool which adds up to $200 a month.  We would like this to be a sustained action that we can participate in.

We ask that you also donate to KWESI.  They are able to put funds on detainees commissary cards that they need to buy food by going to kwesi.org

We’re taking a little break from protesting, but not our civic duty.  Join us at Ridgecrest City Council meetings on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month at 6pm to comment on the Data Center and Flock.  City Hall, 100 W California Ave.

Calling all Artists

This October we will be hosting an Art Show with the theme “Fall of Freedom.” Art has always been a way of reflecting on society.  I would like to encourage local artists to take the time this summer to create a piece to share with the community.  It could present the current problem alone, compare and contrast today with where we once were, depict a future of where we might be heading if we don’t change course, or provide a solution to provide hope for our future.  Submission instructions TBD at a later date.