Company Bella update

Larisa:

Bella had her hearing today with an immigration judge. There was no debate. The prosecutor had nothing to say and no charges were presented. It was quick and to the point. Bella was released on a 5, 000 bond. She will have to appear in court at some point later, but most everyone agrees that will be routine. So over a month, major legal bills and a 5k bond later, Bella is released from detention without ever having been charged. She is released after having been denied her heart medication, after having been moved in shackles face down on the floor of a van for several hours, after sleeping on a piss stained floor, and finally, after nearly being moved without reason to Atlanta, GA. She has lost nearly a month of salary. Mostly, she has been made to feel a target in this country for doing nothing.

My mother and her mother are on their way to Krome to pay the fee and then they have to drive to Monroe to get her. Sometime late this evening, Bella will be home.

She does not know the work that we all did on her behalf, but she will. In the end, it was our efforts in contacting local authorities, and members of Congress that put pressure on the immigration office to give her a hearing, even as others waited. It was our efforts and the efforts of Congressman Wexler and Congresswoman Deb Wasserman-Shultz that got Bella in front of a judge.

So my family and I thank you all for everything. I would like to thank all of you for your moral support as well. There were a few days I nearly lost my mind. I managed to work even with this going on, which was no easy task. But it was largely do to your moral support and kind words that gave me energy.

But, we are not done. Bella is free, but company Bella is not nor is any other person being held in America's latest fad of detention camps. Operation return to sender must be stopped, habeas corpus must be reinstated, and those detained must be either charged with a crime and allowed a speedy trial or let go. Until such point as this President declares the Constitution is formally null and void, his signing statements mean nothing. His Congressional fluffers and their bills are unconstitutional and must be challenged.

If we do not continue to fight for these people, then in the end, there will be no one to fight for us, because in the end, we will all suffer the consequences of a society that functions on the Stalinist doctrine.

We all have day jobs. We all have other responsibilities, but we must organize a grass roots effort to find out who these people are, men, women, and children... what their names are, why they are being held, and if they have legal representation. This is going on all over the country. I am alarmed that people have not noticed their neighbors disappear. I am alarmed that I have not noticed. But this is real and it is serious. Google operation "return to sender" and after you have regained emotional footing, help stop what can only be described as un-American, 1930's Germany-like, illegal detainment of innocent people, most legal residents, and many who have never broken the law at all, not even to steal a ham sandwich.

yay. that's something! great work everyone. I know that Larisa appreciates all you did.