Online Petition From Young People's Resistance Committee Want Waukesha's Casa de Esperanza CEO Anselmo Villarreal To Resign From Southwest Key Programs Board

Villarreal has been a Board member at Southwest Key Programs since 2012.

By H. Nelson Goodson

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

June 24, 2018

Milwaukee, WI - An online petition posted on Wednesday in Mijente dot net is requesting for Anselmo Villarreal, the CEO of La Casa de Esperanza in Waukesha to resign as Vice-chair of the Board at Southwest Key Programs. The petiton was posted by Jeanette Martin from Young People's Resistance Committee, a student group at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

The petition reads, Anselmo Villarreal must step down from his current position as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Southwest Key Program (SKP) and publicly denounce the violent separation and criminalization of immigrant children and their families under the current administration's policy. 

The Young People's Resistance Committee discovered that Anselmo Villarreal, CEO of La Casa de Esperanza, one of Wisconsin's most important Latino community organizations, sits on the Board of Directors of the Southwest Key Program, the non-profit running child internment camps on the U.S.-Mexico border. La Casa de Esperanza is an important resource hub for the Waukesha Latino and immigrant community. We find it disturbing that Mr. Villareal would associate himself in any way with an organization that is complicit in the inhumane act of separating children from their families.

Several organizations, including the American Psychological Association, the American College of Physicians, and the American Public Health Association have denounced this policy. Mr. Villareal, there is no humane way of separating children from their families. Southwest Key Programs is complicit in this violation of rights; we urge you to step down from its board and renew your commitment to the humane treatment of immigrants everywhere, according to the petition. It has a limit of 100 people to sign the petition.

Hispanic News Network U.S.A. has attempted to contact Villarreal via email to ask him if he would resign from the Board of Southwest Key Programs or will he continue on the Board? Villarreal has not responded.

Apparently Southwest Key Programs (SKP) has taken down its website and replaced it with a temporary website, which actually has very limited information and doesn't not identify its Board. Villarreal has been on the SKP Board since 2012.

SKP has a $458M an annual contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Office of Refugee Resettlement  to hold undocumented children in 2018 and has made $1.5B in the last 10 years under government contracts. 

The separating of children from undocumented parents by the border patrol is turning into a profit operation for a non-profit that operates a dozen facilities housing undocumented children. After the children are processed at border patrol centers including in McAllen, they are transported to detention facilities operated by the non-profit organization Southwest Key Programs Inc., which will be paid more than $458M in 2018 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to TIME. The TIME reported that, "The nonprofit, Southwest Key Programs Inc., is to be paid more than $458 million in fiscal 2018, according to the data — the most among the organizations, government agencies and companies that run a detention and care system for immigrant children on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services. Southwest Key has about a dozen facilities in Texas, including a site at a former WalMart Inc. store in Brownsville that has drawn attention from members of Congress and national news organizations."
ABCNEWS reported that it cost about $700 to house a child per day in a facility run by Southwest Key.
Dr. Juan Jose Sanchez, the President and CEO of Southwest Key made $1.7M in salary in 2017 (IRS info), doubling his salary from 2016. Southwest Key operates 83 detention centers/shelters/schools around the country and his wife Jennifer Nelson listed as Vice-president in the latest tax filing made $260,000. In the last ten years, Southwest Key has been paid $1.5B under government contracts, CNN reported.

To deport an undocumented immigrant, it costs an estimated $13K each. According to a 2015 report by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Private Prison Corporations (PPC's) earned $3B for holding ICE detainees. An estimated 34,000 of undocumented immigrants are incarcerated daily costing between $159 to $200 each to hold in a private prison.
States do pay for most of the costs to hold undocumented detainees from their jurisdictions and the federal government reimburse the states about half.
A national day of action against separating children is planned for June 30 around the country, according to organizers.

LULAC Members And Allies Block Bus Transporting Undocumented Children From the Ursula U.S. Border Patrol Processing Center In McAllen

Dozens of LULAC members and allies blocked a bus transporting undocumented children in McAllen during a protest to free the children.

By H. Nelson Goodson

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

June 23, 2018

McAllen, Texas - On Saturday, dozens of League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) members and allies held a protest at the Ursula U.S. Border Patrol Processing Center at the 3700 block of W. Ursula Ave. in McAllen. Domingo Garcia, a candidate for National LULAC President and a civil rights attorney was one among dozens of protesters who blocked a border patrol transport bus from driving through the area where the protest was held. Garcia was among others who sat on the street until the bus backed up and went in the opposite direction. McAllen police and border patrol agents escorted the bus out in a different direction. The bus is operated by TrailBoss Ent Inc., which was transporting children as young as five and women and men.

Those at the protest yelled "Free the Children", "Aqui estamos y no nos Vamos" and other chants during Saturday's protest.

LULAC members from throughout Texas and other parts of the country participated including allies.

According to a LULAC press release, "Today, civil rights leaders from across the country gathered peacefully in a civil demonstration at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Center in McAllen to demand an immediate termination to the existing zero-tolerance policy. Keynote speakers included the iconic Dolores Huerta; Kerry Kennedy, President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights; Domingo Garcia, President, LULAC Council 102; Hector Flores, Past National LULAC President; Rosa Rosales, Past National LULAC President; Rev. Peter Johnson, The Peter Johnson Institute for Nonviolence; Gabriel Rosales, LULAC National Vice President of the Southwest; Michael Waters, Faith Forward Dallas, and Imam Omar Suleiman, Faith Forward Dallas."

Last week Sunday, a Father's Day vigil was held and organized by National Domestic Workers Alliance, United We Dream, ACLU, America's Voice, People's Action, Women's Refugee Commission, Faith in Action, Fuerza del Valle, LUPE (La Unión Del Pueblo Entero), and Neta. The vigil exposed how undocumented children were being held in chain link cages (similar to kennels) at the McAllen border patrol processing center and on Monday a video audio was released and people could hear children crying and asking for relatives and parents.

Several lawsuits have been filed in federal court alleging that undocument children had been subjected and forced to take pyschotic drugs, were beaten, handcuffed naked in cells by detention center staff members who have been contracted by the government to house children.

The ACLU also reported that document's obtained revealed that the border patrol agents and staff from detention centers have sexually, mentally and physically abuse children. 

According to CNN, a lawsuit filed claim a range from unsanitary conditions and invasive monitoring of mail and phone calls to unair-conditioned rooms in hot Texas summers and dosing children with cocktails of psychotropic drugs disguised as vitamins. At one facility, children recounted being held down for forcible injections, which medical records show are powerful antipsychotics and sedatives.
Several centers in the lawsuits included Shiloh RTC in Manvel, Texas and Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center in Virginia. 

The U.S. Navy is planning to use abandoned military bases to built tent cities (internment camps) to house and detain more than 20,000 undocumented children, according the Pentagon.

Trump recently signed an executive order to keep children united with their undocumented parents while incarcerated and facing criminal charges for entering the U.S. illegally. Immigrant rights activists say it doesn't go far enough and Trump's executive order to unite children did not include a grandfather clause to reunite already separated children with their parents. Trump hasn't provided a plan on how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is going to reunite children with their parents.

Some children have been lost in the system and can't be located.

The separating of children from undocumented parents by the border patrol is turning into a profit operation for a non-profit that operates a dozen facilities housing undocumented children. After the children are processed at border patrol centers including in McAllen, they are transported to detention facilities operated by the non-profit organization Southwest Key Programs Inc., which will be paid more than $458M in 2018 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to TIME. The TIME reported that, "The nonprofit, Southwest Key Programs Inc., is to be paid more than $458 million in fiscal 2018, according to the data — the most among the organizations, government agencies and companies that run a detention and care system for immigrant children on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services. Southwest Key has about a dozen facilities in Texas, including a site at a former WalMart Inc. store in Brownsville that has drawn attention from members of Congress and national news organizations."

ABCNEWS reported that it cost about $700 to house a child per day in a facility run by Southwest Key.
Dr. Juan Jose Sanchez, the President and CEO of Southwest Key made $1.7M in salary in 2017 (IRS info), doubling his salary from 2016. Southwest Key operates 83 detention centers/shelters/schools around the country and his wife Jennifer Nelson listed as Vice-president in the latest tax filing made $260,000. In the last ten years, Southwest Key has been paid $1.5B under government contracts, CNN reported.

To deport an undocumented immigrant, it costs an estimated $13K each. According to a 2015 report by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Private Prison Corporations (PPC's) earned $3B for holding ICE detainees. An estimated 34,000 of undocumented immigrants are incarcerated daily costing between $159 to $200 each to hold in a private prison.
States do pay for most of the costs to hold undocumented detainees from their jurisdictions and the federal government reimburse the states about half.
A national day of action against separating children is planned for June 30 around the country, according to organizers.

Domingo Garcia, President of LULAC Council 102 released the following statement, "I have been asked today, Domingo why did you put yourself in front of a big migra bus in McAllen, Texas. It’s because I saw these children’s faces behind the bars on the bus, at the protest. They waived at me, as an American and Christian, I had to act. As a father, I could not let them just disappear or go to another baby jail. I had to try to protect these children of God, from the cruel political games of politicians in Washington D.C. Together we turned that bus around because hundreds joined us. LULAC members from all of Texas joined us. We now have to change the hearts and minds of Americans of who we are and what we stand for as a country, to defeat hate with love, darkness with light, and bigotry with unity. Hasta la Victoria, and we will do this again at every detention center in the nation on July 4th."

"Me han preguntado hoy, Domingo porque te pusiste en frente de ese grande camión de migra en McAllen, Texas. Es porque cuando vi las caras de esos niños detrás de las bardas en el camión en la protesta. Me dieron un saludó con las manos, y como Americano y Cristiano, tenía que tomar acción. Como un padre, yo no podía nomas dejarlos desaparecer o ir a otra cárcel de bebés. Yo tenía que proteger estos niños de Dios, de los juegos políticos de los políticos en Washington D.C. Juntos giramos ese autobús de vuelta porque cientos se unieron a nosotros. Miembros de LULAC de todo Texas se unieron con nosotros. Ahora tenemos que cambiar los corazones y mentes de Americanos de quien somos y cuales son nuestros valores como nación, para derrotar odio con amor, la oscuridad con luz, y fanatismo con unidad. Hasta la Victoria, y los volvemos hacer e todos los centros de detención en todo el país el 4 de Julio".

Mayor Tom Barrett Considering To Replace Milwaukee Fire and Police Commissioner Marisabel Cabrera

Fire and Police Commissioner Cabrera targeted by Mayor Barrett to be replaced when two other commissioners have notified the mayor that they are willing to be replaced.

By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

June 20, 2018

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Wednesday, a leak from Milwaukee City Hall indicated that Mayor Tom Barrett has targeted current Milwaukee Fire and Police Commissioner Marisabel Cabrera for replacement. According to the information, Barrett will recommend Mariana Rodriguez from the Latina Resource Center to replace Commissioner Cabrera. Cabrera has not released nor confirmed that she is stepping down, but Barrett has the option to nominate Rodriguez to replace one of two other commissioners who are willing to step down.
Barrett is expected to announced his recommendation to replace Cabrera at any time.
Cabrera is credited for exposing the Milwaukee Police Department's intent to allow police officers to asked for legal status from people they encountered during traffic stops and other instances, but a community outraged led for former Police Chief Edward Flynn and Mayor Barrett to scrap the policy to ask for papers.

Nine members of the Milwaukee Common Council wrote a letter to Mayor Barrett on Wednesday urging for the mayor to reconsider his decision to replace Commissioner Cabrera. The members are Ald. NiK Kovac, Ald. Robert J. Bauman, Ald. Milele A. Coggs, Ald. Khalif J. Rainey, Ald. Robert G. Donovan, Ald. Chantia Lewis, Ald. Michael J. Murphy, Ald. Mark A. Borkowski, Ald. José G. Pérez, Ald. Tony Zielinski and Ald. Russell W. Stamper, ll. They wrote, "We write to ask that you reconsider your decision to replace Ms. Marisabel Cabrera as a member of the Board of the Fire and Police Commissioners...Cabrera has shown herself a strong, independent voice, willing to listen respectfully and make decisions thoughtfully, free of undue influence from any one group or individual...Her leadership was central to the process by which the department reconsidered its ill-advised policies relating to immigrant contact last Summer...By actions of this type, and by her independence, she has earned the trust of those the Commission is expected to serve...we believe that making the decision not to reappoint Ms. Cabrera before her term expires sends a message that you have prioritized personal loyalty over public transparency and accountability."

Cabrera is currently a candidate for the 9th State Assembly District and is challenging State Representative Josh Zepnick (D-Milw.) in the Partisan Primary Election on August 14, 2018.

Father's Day Vigil At The Ursula U.S. Border Patrol Processing Center In McAllen Draws Call To End The Zero Tolerance Practice To Separate Families

Hundreds of people from various cities and states from across the nation gathered outside from the Ursula U.S. Border Patrol Processing Center in McAllen to call for the end of the Zero Torlerance policy that authorized border patrol and ICE agents to separate children from undocumented parents.

By H. Nelson Goodson 

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

June 17, 2018

McAllen, Texas - On Sunday, hundreds of activists, families and allied from the region in South Texas including from other parts of the country converged in McAllen as an organized effort to call for President Donald Trump to end his Zero Tolerance policy that has allowed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Border Patrol agents to separate children from families of undocumented parents. The Ursula U.S. Border Patrol Processing Center at the 3700 block of W. Ursula Ave. in McAllen is one of the multiple centers where children of undocumented parents are processed, held for long periods and then transferred to other facilities as part of a detention process before being deported.

A Congressional delegation by U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, of Oregon; Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland; U.S. Representative Peter Welch of Vermont; Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island; Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin; Texas Reps. Vicente Gonzalez including Filemón Bartolomé Vela Jr. who represents the McAllen area also arrived to visit the processing center for undocumented children and spoke against the Zero Tolerance policy as well.

Julian Castro, the former Secretary of Housing of Urban Development under the Obama administration spoke on Sunday in McAllen at the Father's Day vigil against the separation of families, while in the background, a border patrol bus passed with undocumented children being transported to another holding facility.
During the vigil, George Goehl, the Director of People's Action said, “This administration has been off the rails since Day 1 but this is a new kind of off the rails. History shows us in situations like this if we do not stand up en masse and say, ‘this is not ok,” it’s hard to get back on track. Our nations’ history is marked by moments where we heeded the call to stand down hatred and racism and there are moments where we didn’t show up. This is a moment when we can and must show up and shut this down. Here’s the thing, Donald Trump can make that happen immediately, this does not require an act of Congress, he can do this today right now on Father’s Day and we demand that he does just that.”

According to the organizers in a press release, "They will call for an end to the Trump administration's cruel policies of separating parents from their children at the border and traumatizing immigrant families. This effort builds upon recent events on June 1 and June 14 and is part of the ongoing

#FamiliesBelongTogether campaign to stop the separation of families.

During the vigil​, an 11-year-old girl from Florida will share messages of support from children in her community, along with fathers and grandfathers, faith leaders and community members from around the country.
"The family trauma is countless in McAllen: authorities ripped a baby from the arms of her Honduran mother, as she was breastfeeding; 1,500 children are being housed in a former Walmart; and, as reported by Nick Miroff of the Washington Post, Marco Antonio Muñoz, a Honduran father who was separated from his wife and child, committed suicide while in detention. Muñoz fled violence in Honduras."

Click for actual undocumented children crying and asking for their parents inside a holding facility that were recorded by a consular worker during an interview with Allison Jimena Valencia Madrid, 6, and a border patrol agent in the background can be heard joking that it sounds like an orchestra and a conductor is needed. The recorded cries and pleas by children to see their parents was documented a week ago. 

Today, more than 12,000 undocumented children are being held in detention centers around the country, which includes unaccompanied children. The U.N. has condemned Trump for enacting his Zero Tolerance policy and says it's illegal. Currently, there is no law requiring border patrol processing centers or its agents to separate children from undocumented parents facing criminal charges for crossing into the U.S. or applying for asylum.

The separating of children from undocumented parents by the border patrol is turning into a profit operation for a non-profit that operates a dozen facilities housing undocumented children. After the children are processed at border patrol centers including in McAllen, they are transported to detention facilities operated by the non-profit organization Southwest Key Programs Inc., which will be paid more than $458M in 2018 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to TIME. The TIME reported that, "The nonprofit, Southwest Key Programs Inc., is to be paid more than $458 million in fiscal 2018, according to the data — the most among the organizations, government agencies and companies that run a detention and care system for immigrant children on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services. Southwest Key has about a dozen facilities in Texas, including a site at a former WalMart Inc. store in Brownsville that has drawn attention from members of Congress and national news organizations."
ABCNEWS reported that it cost about $700 to house a child per day in a facility run by Southwest Key.

Dr. Juan Jose Sanchez, the President and CEO of Southwest Key made $1.7M in salary in 2017 (IRS info), doubling his salary from 2016. Southwest Key operates 83 detention centers/shelters/schools around the country and his wife Jennifer Nelson listed as Vice-president in the latest tax filing made $260,000. In the last ten years, Southwest Key has been paid $1.5B under government contracts, CNN reported.

Trump has approved for U.S. military bases to setup concentration (internment) camps that would incarcerate more than 20,000 children from undocumented parents and today, there are 2,500 children that have been separated from their parents. Reports by immigration officials have confirmed that some children have been lost in the process and don't know where they are, which many detained undocumented children aren't expected to rejoin their families.

To deport an undocumented immigrant, it costs an estimated $13K each. According to a 2015 report by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Private Prison Corporations (PPC's) earned $3B for holding ICE detainees. An estimated 34,000 of undocumented immigrants are incarcerated daily costing between $159 to $200 each to hold in a private prison.
States do pay for most of the costs to hold undocumented detainees from their jurisdictions and the federal government reimburse the states about half.
A national day of action against separating children is planned for June 30 around the country, according to organizers.

The organizing groups included, National Domestic Workers Alliance, United We Dream, ACLU, America's Voice, People's Action, Women's Refugee Commission, Faith in Action, Fuerza del Valle, LUPE (La Unión Del Pueblo Entero), and Neta.

Images released by the Ursula U.S. Border Patrol Processing Center that were taken during the Father's Day vigil and reporters covering the vigil outside were allowed a tour of the facility.

U.S. Permanent Resident Waheba Issa Dais From Israel Charged With Attempting To Provide Material Support To ISIS

Dais attempted to provide services, personnel, expert advice and assistance to ISIS, by promoting an ISIS's agenda.

By H. Nelson Goodson

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

June 15, 2018

Milwaukee, WI - On Wednesday, Waheba Issa Dais, 45, originally of Israel and a U.S. legal permanent resident residing in Cudahy, Wisconsin, was taken into custody by the FBI and charged in a federal criminal complaint. Dais was charged with attempting to provide material support or resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization., according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Milwaukee.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Matthew Krueger for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and Special Agent in Charge Justin Tolomeo of the FBI's Milwaukee Division provided information and details of the indictment filed against Dais.
According to the criminal complaint, beginning in at least January, Dais attempted to provide services, personnel, expert advice and assistance to ISIS, by promoting ISIS's agenda, facilitating recruitment and maintaining a virtual library of instructions on how to make bombs, biological weapons, poisons and suicide vests to assist self-proclaimed ISIS members and supporters in their attack planning.  Dais used multiple social media accounts that she hacked and took over from unwitting victims and private social media platforms to provide and facilitate her support.  Dais used one of her pro-ISIS accounts to encourage an individual, whom she believed to be an ISIS supporter, to conduct an attack in the name of ISIS.  She provided detailed instructions on how to make Ricin and then suggested the individual introduce the Ricin to a government post or water reservoirs.  In another post, she suggested potential targets for bombing attacks, including street festivals and celebrations in the summer.
Dais appeared before a federal magistrate judge on the charges on June 13, the same day she was arrested.

Dais is facing a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years on a federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.00, if convicted. Dais's U.S. Permanent Resident status will be revoked upon conviction and will be deported after serving her sentence.
This case was investigated by the FBI Milwaukee Division's Joint Terrorism Task Force.  The government's is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory J. Haanstad of the Eastern District of Wisconsin, with assistance from Trial Attorney Jolie F. Zimmerman of the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section.

Couple Killed In Motorcycle Accident At I-794 & W. Oklahoma Ave. In Milwaukee

The driver of a motorcycle and his female passenger were reported killed when it struck a median GM traffic barrier and post.

By H. Nelson Goodson

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

June 14, 2018

Milwaukee, WI - On Wednesday, Jason Tiller, 39, and Shameka Calhoun, 38, both from Milwaukee were reported killed in a motorcycle accident just after 10:p.m. on highway I-794 northbound at W. Oklahoma Ave. Tiller who was driving the motorcycle accompanied by Calhoun entered the freeway on Oklahoma Ave. with a group of other motorcycle drivers at a high rate of speed, according to witnesses. Tiller then failed to negotiate a curve south of S. Carferry Drive, lost control and struck and rode the median GM traffic barrier until it struck a post causing for both Tiller and his passenger, Calhoun to be thrown from the motorcycle. The motorcycle continued upright for 1/10 of a mile and stopped in the upright position.

Good Samaritans stopped to render aid and CPR. One of the victims was to injured to get CPR and the other victim received CPR. Milwaukee County Sheriff deputies arrived and also attempted to apply CPR, but attempts failed. Tiller was pronounced deceased at the scene at 10:12 p.m. by a Milwaukee Fire Department rescue unit and Calhoun was transported to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office where she was pronounced deceased at 10:29 p.m., according to the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office (MCSO).

The MCSO says that family members of the victims came to the scene, but were escorted to a nearby park.

Milwaukee police officers also assisted with traffic control at Oklahoma Ave. and the freeway was reopened at 2:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Freshwater For Life Action Coalition Seeks Milwaukee County D.A.'s Office Investigation Into State Law Violations By The City's Lead Program

A DHS report confirmed that state laws were violated by the City's Lead Program.

By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

June 12, 2018

Milwaukee, WI - On Tuesday, the Freshwater for Life Action Coalition (FLAC) in a press release announced that they will meet with District Attorney John Chisholm on Wednesday, June 13, 2018 at 8:30 a.m. at District Attorney John Chisholm's office to make a formal request for the Public Integrity Unit to investigate violations of state statutes by the City of Milwaukee Health Department's Childhood Lead Poison Prevention Program (CLPPP).
"The recent release of the State of Wisconsin DHS report clearly states that state laws have been broken. FLAC is formally registering a complaint  with District Attorney John Chisholm and is requesting that his Public Integrity Unit initiate an investigation to determine which laws were broken", said Robert Miranda, FLAC spokesperson.