Right after my wife and I participated by honking loudly and repeatedly at our No Kings rally we came home to watch the reports on where and how many others did the same. The CNN broadcasters all said it was over 8 million participants in at least 1,300 localities It was over that number, both people and localities because, for example, our protest was not counted or shown on national television. Most of the protests in big cities were on television. Regardless, our protest was done while lining up on the narrow sidewalk over the by-pass of I-215 and Bear Valley Road in Hesperia, California or maybe it was Victorville. All these small towns are adjacent to each other. It was dangerous to stand on the narrow and crowed sidewalk, so we parked in an adjacent empty lot with others similarly minded.
The reason for this site is that down the street from this on and off ramp to the freeway is an ICE immigrant detention center on Amargosa Street (appropriate name). Both sides of the by-pass were full of protestors and the spill over went down the on ramp on the west side and into the edge of the parking lot of the mall next to that area.
Surprisingly, there were no ICE, Border Patrol, Homeland Security, FBI or National Guard personnel at all anywhere near us. Perhaps, they were waiting for us to storm the ICE Detention Center down the street. There was one California State Highway Patrol car parked at the bottom of the off ramp on the east side of 215 in a dirt spot. One cop was the occupant inside that we could see. She or he never got out of the patrol car during the hour and some we were there.
This March 31st I attended with some 20,000 others an online group telephone call from the organizers of these No King Rallies. The agenda for the meeting was what is next. The main topic was organizing May 1st protests and now to go about helping organize these events in our area. Texas was sorely missed in the television broadcasts other than the big cities and in the online phone call. So here is what you missed Raza: You want to join in then go to www.nokings.org/whats-next/ You can listen to the recording of our March 31st event at www.youtube.com/live/OEKIXNH-Ksw/
If you want to know more then go to Take Action | Indivisible In case you want to know who in your general area is doing the same thing you want to do then check out www.mobilize.us/indivisible/ Find each other. Organize each other. Start our own protest.
You can do that by going to Contact | Indivisible Raza we must be visible in these protests. We do have at least two top organizers involved with this movement: Neida Rodriguez and Edwin Torres de Santiago, both head groups of their own, mostly in Minnesota and the Midwest.
The big event, if you have limited time to help organize our community, is planned for May 1st. Historically, it has been celebrated as the International Day of the Worker. March 31`st was Cesar Chave Day but all that has changed name since his public massacre stemming from accusations from Dolores Huerta. It is now National Farmworker Day. Let’s celebrate May 1st as part of the No Kings Day movement. Aren’t we all workers? I do not know many millionaires among us.
There are some and some of them are against us as well like Juan Sanchez formerly of Austin, Texas. Who knows where he is hiding now and under what name. The bigger corporations doing the contracts to hold immigrants, adults and children, are CoreCivic and GEOGroup. About 60% of all ICE detainees are held by private company-owned detention centers.
Juan Sanchez started and used to own Southwest Key Programs, The detention center he started with a government grant is now called the Ruben Torres Detention Center and sometimes referred to as the Cameron County Detention Center 2 in Brownsville, Texas. It used to be the old WalMart facility back when at 1145 East Harrison Street and can hold over 1,000 detainees.
Sanchez got into the business in 1987 with a Texas state grant of $200,000 to supervise 21 juveniles on parole. He then partnered with Ruben Gallegos to house immigrants in Brownsville, in the late 1980s. The two, under the corporate name of Southwest Key began operating detention shelters for immigrants. In February 2011, the corporation reported holding 11,000 children in detention. By 2016, they were operating in 3 states: California, Arizona and Texas with a staff of 8,000 plus employees. He had started with 5 employees back in 1987. He also incorporated several other companies for profit. He reported income that year of $242,755,041 and was paying himself a salary of $770,860 plus ample benefits and retirement policy. In 2017, that annual salary went up to $1.5 million.
Allegations of abuse of children were filed against him and his staff beginning in 2017 at various centers. For example just in Brownsville, Texas, Southwest Key operated Casa Padre, Casa El Presidente, Nueva Esperanza, and La Esperanza. In Houston it is Casa Quetzal. In Tucson, it is Estrella del Norte. In Youngstown, Arizona it is Hacienda del Sol and in Mesa, Arizona it is Casa Kokopelli. The Youngstown facility was ordered closed in 2018 due to rampant physical child abuse by several staff members. The Casa Kokopelli had an employee named Levian D. Pacheco who had HIV was an employee. He sexually abused at least 7 children held there as unaccompanied minors. He was tried and sentenced to 19 years in prison; but nothing was done to the corporate owner. There are 3 more facilities in California in El Cajon, and Lemon Grove.
In 2019, Sanchez was forced to step down from being the CEO of this small empire in 2019 alongwith his CFO, Melody Chung. She was paid $1 million a year to keep the books on management and finances. The one that took over as CEO as of February 2021 was Anselmo Villarreal, formerly from Mexico. He came to the US to get a Master’s degree in Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1986; then, a PhD in 2014 from Cardinal Stritch University also in Wisconsin. This university closed in 2023. Villarreal in addition to being President and CEO is also on the board of directors of Southwest Key alongwith George Kypuros, Edgardo Ocasio, and Julieta Langarica. A former board member since 2004 was Victor R. Garza who passed away 2024. Yet another board member who also has left the directorship is Orlando Martinez.
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