Enlace 10 29 2011

Campaign for National Day of Action against the Private Prison Industry

• Date Saturday, October 29th
• Time 10am
• Location Wells Fargo Bank 3782 SE Hawthorne
• Sponsor Enlace International
• Campaign Video Prison Divestment Campaign
• Sponsor Website Enlace Intl
• Contact Peter Cervantes-Gautschi: (503) 705-3343 or email: pcg@enlaceintl.org

Purpose

In concert with protesters in 16 major cities across the country, concerned Portlanders will converge on the SE 38th and Hawthorne branch of Wells Fargo Bank to demand that Wells Fargo abandon its role in the nation’s rapidly expanding for-profit immigrant detention system.

About

Over the past three years, hundreds of thousands of non-criminal immigrants have been subjected to excessively abusive treatment in for profit prisons run for the federal government by the Geo Group (GEO) and Corrections of America (CCA). Through its mutual funds, Wells Fargo is a major investor in the GEO, the nation’s second largest private prison company, and a minor shareholder in CCA, the largest.

These for-profit prison companies, which rely on billions of tax dollars as their primary source of revenue, have successfully lobbied federal and state governments to adopt and implement policies that have led to the incarceration of over one million immigrants over the past three years. Recent reports by the Houston Chronicle and PBS showed that excessive abuse of detainees is rampant across the increasingly privatized federal immigrant detention system.

Wells Fargo, a recipient of billions of tax bail-out dollars, is a major contributor to politicians who have championed the increased incarceration of immigrants. Wells Fargo has also played a key role supporting GEO business ventures. Immigrants arrested in the Portland area are sent for detention to the GEO-run Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington.

National Month of Action

The Prison Divestment Campaign will launch a National Month of Action in October 2011, culminating in a National Day of Action on October 29th. The following is a current list of the remaining scheduled actions, by state:

• New York - Long Island October 29th & Manhattan October 29th
• Washington- Seattle October 29th
• Oregon - Portland October 29th
• Kansas - Wichita October 29th & 31st
• Florida - Miami November 1st
• Arizona - Tucson November 2nd
• California - San Francisco November 5th
• Texas - Austin November 5th

Background

Enlace has been working on exposing Wall Street for its involvement in the Mexico economic crisis of the 1990’s and the current US and global financial crisis. An published article by Peter Cervantes-Gautschi titled “Wall Street and Immigration: Financial Services Giants Have Profited from the Beginning”, exposes Wall Street as the main culprit in the Mexican financial crisis. You can also read Mr. Cervantes-Gautschi’s article “Wall Street and the Criminalization of Immigrants” published last year on the growing role of Wall Street financial institutions and big banks in anti-immigrant laws and policies.

For more tools connecting Wall Street and Immigration, please contact Daniel Carrillo at Daniel@enlaceintl.org or 213-284-3802