Hazahza case

Family Seeking Freedom Held In Detention Center
by Jay Gormley
IRVING (CBS 11 News) ―
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• Palestinian Family: Detention Was Like Prison
(2/10/2007)
CBS 11 News has an update on the release of a Palestinian woman and her son from a detention center near Austin. While mother and son are back inIrving, the rest of her family remains in another detention facility in west Texas.

"That's the love of my life," said Reza Barkhordari. "That's my future." Reza was supposed to marry Suzan Hazahza this past December.

"We basically had our whole life planned out," Reza said. "But unfortunately, all those dreams have been shattered." Suzan, her father, her sister and two brothers are being heldat the Rolling Plains Detention Center in Haskell, TX.

The Palestinian family has been awaiting deportation since November 2. They fled the war-torn Middle East in 2001 seeking political asylum in the U.S. The family was denied and was ordered back to Palestinian territory. But Joshua Bardavid, the Hazahzas' attorney, filed a petition in federal court demanding the family's release."There's no legal reason for the government to hold the Hazahzahs," said Bardavid. "They've already decided to release two members of the family; the mother and an 11 year old child."

Earlier this month, immigration and customs enforcement released Nazmieh Hazahza and her son Mohammad from the T. Don Hutto Dentention Center near Austin.

The family's attorney claims that the Rolling Plains DetentionCenter is far worse than the Hutto Facility. The Rolling Plains facility holds violent criminals serving life in prison. Reza says it's no place for his bride to be.

"I am losing hope because I see no progress," Reza said. "There are no ears to hear this, and people simply don't care. It's better to be dead than to loose hope."

Attorneys for the Hazahza's said if the family is released,they will petition for another hearing for political asylum.
(CBS 11 News)

|Honk for Suzi's Freedom: The Hazahzas in Haskell Hell |
|Greg Moses, Texas Civil Rights Review. |
||
|February 26, 2007 |
| |
|For many miles of his protest walks, whether against border walls or children's prisons, JayJohnson-Castro has walked |
|alone. His four-day walk from Abilene to Haskell, Texas this week may be no different, as he protests the cruel and |
|unusual treatment of the Hazahza family and immigrant prisoners like them. But there are two things to remember about |
|Jay's walk this week. The first thing is how many people will be honking.|
| |
|"There are literally thousands of people every day who honk, wave, and take photographs as they drive by," Jay explains |
|over the telephone from his home in Del Rio. "They don't walk. Nobody wants to walk. But they honk in solidarity with no |
|walls, withno prisons for children. By the time the walk against the wall got to McAllen and Brownsville, there was a |
|chorus of horns nonstop from both directions. So if there is a perception that there is only one man walking, there is |
|also the reality of the vast majority of people honking that they are offended and disgusted by a wall on American soil, |
|or a prison for children."...