dignity of the human person

Please join IRATE (the Interfaith Refugee Action Team - Elizabeth) and Pax Christi NJ at 1:30 pm on Sunday, October 12th as we march with the flags of the nation to honor our immigrant heritage and protest the treatment of immigrants held at the Elizabeth Detention Center. We will assemble on Progress Street, just off Dowd Avenue in Elizabeth and march two blocks to the Detention Center where we will hold a vigil to remember those who are being held inside and at similar facilities across the country.
Immigrants in detention include families, both undocumented and documented immigrants, many who have been in the US for years and are now facing exile. They include survivors of torture, asylum seekers and other vulnerable groups including pregnant women, and children. Individuals who are seriously ill are held without proper medication or care. Immigrants detained during this process are in non-criminal custody because being in violation of immigration laws is not a crime. It is a civil violation similar to a traffic ticket.

IRATE is an alliance of grassroots organizations whose members believe that the current U.S. policy of detaining immigrants in prison-like conditions is contrary to our tradition of welcoming refugees. Currently in New Jersey, the Bureau of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) has some 300 people detained at the Elizabeth Detention Center and an unknown number of people in county jails throughout the state.

For more information on Pax Christi or the the vigil contact Kathy O’Leary 908-273-0751 kathy-wargo@comcast.net

For more information on immigration detention go to www.irateweb.org, www.detentionwatchnetwork.org or www.cliniclegal.org

It stands to reason to say of course he is, he was a victim of it himself. Sadly that is not entirely true. John McCain has appeared to lead the charge to end the use of torture unequivocally, but his legislative compromises have allowed the practice to continue and have even provided immunity from prosecution for its perpetrators.

Now, TrueMajority is working with Catholics United and School of the Americas Watch to bring you the voices of torture survivors and military interrogators who are asking Sen. McCain to regain his moral footing and ban torture.

Please see below a video from Joshua Casteel, a former interrogator at Abu Ghraib, turned conscientious objector, asking John McCain to ban ALL TORTURE

Watch the video and sign their petition demanding an end to torture:

More on John McCain’s position on torture below the fold