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Photos by Kandi Mossett, Indigenous Environmental Network,today, Feb. 17, 2013, in Washington DC. Thank you!February 17, 2013
VIDEO Climate Rally DC Feb 17, 2013
Streamed live on Feb 17, 2013
The Largest Climate Rally in History: February 17, 2013 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. RSVP today or find more info at ForwardOnClimate.org. Presented by 135 different organizations and their members, including 350.org, the Sierra Club, the Hip Hop Caucus, Greenpeace, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Green For All and Forecast the Facts.
UK Tar Sands Network supports today's action in DC
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| Good afternoon! Today in Washington DC, tens of thousands of people are taking part in the biggest climate rally in US history. They are asking President Obama to move#ForwardOnClimate and, specifically, to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The President’s imminent decision will have momentous consequences. KXL is ‘a fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet.’ Obama’s actions will affect us in Europe too. In order to justify its catastrophic expansion plans, the tar sands industry needs to find new markets to export its dirty oil to. The aim of building the KXL pipeline is to bring tar sands oil down to Texas so it can be exported, and Europe is being eyed up as a key future market. As we recently revealed, US company Valero is currently drawing up plans to bring KXL oil into the UK via Pembroke in Wales. So today we're asking you to show solidarity with our friends in the US and Canada who are working so hard to stop the KXL and other pipelines being built, by sharing this image on Facebook and Twitter:  You can also add your voice to the campaign to keep tar sands oil out of Europe for good, by signing this petition against Valero's plans to bring dirty oil to Wales and in support of the EU ‘Fuel Quality Directive’ (FQD). Other news: 1. ‘Idle No More’ protest in London as movement vows to target tar sands We were joined by Clayton Thomas-Muller in London last month, for a powerful Idle No More solidarity protest outside Canada House and Buckingham Palace. Get the whole story here. 2. Evidence that Canada's lobbying on the Fuel Quality Directive may be backfiring? Friends of the Earth Europe have just published an exposé of the last year's intensive lobbying by Canada and Big Oil against the EU FQD. But Canada's High Commissioner to the UK admits that tar sands have become: 'a totemic issue, hitting directly on Brand Canada.' Read the report here. 3. High-profile figures arrested in bid to stop Keystone XL pipeline On Wednesday 48 people, including climate scientists, political figures, community leaders, celebrities and NGO directors handcuffed themselves to the White House fence and were arrested, in a high-profile act of civil disobedience aimed at intensifying the pressure on President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, ahead of today's rally. Get the full story here. With love on this solidarity-filled Sunday, Jess, Sue, Emily and Ruthi |
Operation Streamline: Corporate profiteering from migrant misery
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| Remembering migrants who died crossing the Sonoran Desert, at San Xavier on Tohono O'odham land. Photo Brenda Norrell |
Operation Streamline Does Not Belong in Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Or in Southern Arizona Communities
Matthew Lowen
(AFSC),mlowen@afsc.org
Sarah Launius
(No More Deaths),media@nomoredeaths.org
Censored News
On Tuesday, February 19, 2013, the End Streamline Coalition will hold apress conference in front of the Evo A. DeConcini Federal Courthouse at 12:30pm. The Coalition will announce local and national days of action (February 19-21) to call for an end to the federal district court program known as Operation Streamline.
Every day as part of Operation Streamline, at least 70 migrant men and women are collectively processed and given criminal sentences prior to their deportation. Most, if not all of these migrants are sent to private prisons where companies profit handsomely from their incarceration. In 2011, contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accounted for 20 and 14 percent of revenue for CCA and GEO Group, respectively.
As discussion of Comprehensive Immigration Reform mounts in Congress, Senator McCain and the “gang of eight” have proposed an expansion of Operation Streamline and other federal felony prosecutions of people crossing the Mexican border looking for work or to reunite with family.
For many who have witnessed a Streamline hearing, the mere image of men and women shackled at the wrist, belly, and ankles being collectively herded through the legal process is enough to shock the conscience. Streamline raises serious and troubling questions about constitutionally protected due process, the growth of private prisons, the deepening criminalization of migrants and the exploding costs of contemporary immigration enforcement.
Press conference speakers will include Marcelo Ruiz, Isabel Garcia (Derechos Humanos), Caroline Isaacs (AFSC), Andy Silverman, and community faith leaders. They will be accompanied by their supporters and a street theater performance.
The End Streamline Coalition is joining national organizations such as Grassroots Leadership, Justice Strategies, American Friends Service Committee, and the American Civil Liberties Union who will be participating in national Days of Action across the country in anticipation of the February 22 hearing in WashingtonD.C. on Operation Streamline and its possible expansion.
Here in the borderlands of Southern Arizona, the End Streamline Coalition demands an end to Operation Streamline and the system of migrant criminalization it reprsents.
Sponsored by: End Streamline Coalition, No More Deaths, Samaritans of Tucson, Derechos Humanos, American Friends Service Committee of Arizona, Community of Christ of the Desert, St. Francis in the Foothills UMC, Unitarian Universalist Church of Phoenix, Arizona Immigration Ministry, UUCT Immigrant Rights Working Group, Tucson Solidarity Organizing Network, The Restoration Project at Casa Mariposa, Maricopa Branch of the NAACP.
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