Charges dropped against Sin Fronteras

from the open publishing newswire: On July 3, a Harris County grand jury no-billed Ashley Turner and Ben Browning for the charge of Manufacture of a Criminal Device. Grand jury members tend to be retired citizens with conservative values, but this one still found no probable cause to uphold the District Attorney's charge that the activists altered the U-locks they used to lock their necks to the privately run detention center's entrance and exit gates.

The Sin Fronteras defense committee expected the fight against the felony charges to last as long as six months, and the early dismissal likely means they won't pursue a civil rights case for malicious prosecution. They still need to raise $4,000 in legal fees, and have a hearing regarding their misdemeanor charge on July 24. The pending charge could land them in jail for 6 months and they face up to a $2,000 each in fines. [read the full report] [Gran Jurado Elimina cargos contra Activistas de "Houston Sin Fronteras"]

On July 4th folks from the Houston Sin Fronteras Defense Committee called for a rally at the Houston Processing Center to observe the one month aniversary of the action that shut down the facility for 3 hours as well as demand liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness for all people. Around thirty people rallied on a drizzley early morning, and a holiday, that's not bad...

As things seemed to be winding down, a short ICE bus pulled up to the font gate, and pulled around into the gated fence with concertina wire on top. The windows were all covered so people could not see out or in. It was a chilling reminder that the machinery of repression will contine to break up families and terrorize immigrant communites, even on a federal holiday observing freedom and liberty [Full Report and photos] [A few photos from July 4 morning at CCA prison in Houston]