Fourth of July stops neither ICE raids nor protests

Over 30 people demonstrated in solidarity with immigrants being held in the Houston ICE Detention Center on the Fourth of July. Despite constant rain, protesters chanted and drummed for two hours.

Photo: IndyMedia

The action was called by Houston Sin Fronteras to commemorate the one-month anniversary of their action that shut down the facility for almost 3 hours on June 4 and to “demand liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness for all people.”

After the activists had finished protesting and held a short rally, a Homeland Security bus brought in immigrants they had just rounded up. The protest began again with loud chants aimed toward those inside of the bus, which had pulled into a heavily secured area surround by fences with rolls of razor wire on top.

A few days earlier, Ashley Turner and Ben Browning, the two youth who were arrested on June 4 for locking themselves to the detention center’s entrance and exit gates, received the good news that the federal grand jury had not billed them on the felony charge of Manufacture of a Criminal Device. The two still face misdemeanor charges of trespassing which carries a fine of $2,000 and six months in jail.

The Houston detention center is run by the Corrections Corporation of America, CCA.

—Gloria Rubac