On Sunday, we pulled up to the Pearsall Detention Center where Wilber Perez is still being held with a fucking bullet in his back to demand his immediate release to a medical facility, and to demand that these torture camps close their doors across the country. We know several people who currently are or have been locked up in Pearsall, so we felt a responsibility to make our demands heard by those on the inside so that they know people outside are standing with them.
As soon as we pulled up about 10 Pearsall Pigs rolled up on us. They immediately began aggressively pushing us towards the sidewalk in an attempt to show force and put us in our place. While a bit scattered at first, we quickly linked arms and found our line, holding strong to our position on the street. It was at this moment that a lone DPS officer came between us and the Pearsall cops, and strangely told the minor league piggies to back off. In the context of what would happen later, we believe this state trooper was present to make sure nobody got arrested on the “wrong charges”, given that a wave of repression is sweeping the city of Austin in connection to the protest that occurred on September 20th,
The Pearsall Pigs were instantly embarrassed and demoralized. We took this opportunity to push forward and walk them back to their cars. We called them out on their cowardice for suppressing our voices while people were dying on the inside, and they continually argued with us, sloppily justifying their actions both to us and to their own consciousnesses.
But it wasn’t until Brooke, an immigrant who had just come to visit her husband, bravely spoke out about her family’s heartbreaking story that the pigs began getting in their cars and driving away. The absolute cowards couldn’t bear to listen to how they had betrayed her family and given her husband over to ICE, and instead they fled after acting so tough.
This is the power that those most oppressed have when they are courageous and speak out. In fact, it wasn’t just Brooke that day. Before our protest, the immigrants inside Pearsall were put in solitary and revoked of their yard time; because of this, many of them went on hunger strike in protest. Knowing this, we knew it was our duty be bold and stand with them from the outside. With immigrants hunger striking across the country, it is and has been our duty to come out to these detention centers to confront the killers at their doorstep and to support the defiant immigrants both on the inside and out.
In fact just the week before, at least a hundred people, many of them immigrants, came out in protest to the site of Wilber’s shooting while APD, DPS, and ICE were still there. Those state thugs all retreated in the face of the bravery and anger of the protestors, and have been shaken up ever since. In an act of frantic retaliation, they have put warrants out, arrested, and interrogated at least 15 people to scare us into backing down while we are ahead.
This includes Autumn Rapson who, after the protest at Pearsall, was stopped within minutes of leaving by two DPS cars full of pigs. The cowards lied about her having a problem with a license plate and wouldn’t leave until she came to the back where they instantly put her in handcuffs. This arrest felt premeditated with the pigs waiting for us on the side of the highway, especially after the protest earlier when the DPS officer separated us and the cops. These absolute pigs then locked her up in the Frio County Jail where she wasn’t even given underwear and was forced to sleep on a block of concrete. The pigs repeatedly tried to demoralize her, laughing at her and telling her nobody was coming for her.
These fucked up actions reveal what they are most scared of. The state is afraid of us standing strong in the face of repression, and trusting in one another to have each other’s backs. With this wave of repression, it is necessary that we do not give in to despair, we do not talk to cops, and we do not take deals. If we dare to struggle, we dare to win and to come out more steadfast than before.
So in the face of repression and alongside the immigrants taking the boldest actions, it is a necessity that we continue to come out and bravely confront the motherfuckers holding this wretched system up. This was our plan on Sunday, and we did hold strong as the Pearsall Pigs advanced on us. But unfortunately, the protest did wrap up a bit early as people became paranoid that vehicles with tear gas were closing in. With everything mentioned above, it is so important that we stick these actions out till the end. And that means putting up with some tear gas because the immigrants on the inside are facing so much worse.
Despite this, we took a valuable lesson from our trip to Pearsall: it is still possible and necessary to come out and confront the killers at these detention centers. We must not be afraid due to the repression of the Prairieland Defendants or due to the ongoing repression in Austin. The movement against ICE can be won, and we must move like we believe that.
LIBERTAD PARA WILBER PEREZ
JAIL KILLER ICE AGENTS
LIBERTAD PARA TODOS LOS SECUESTRADOS
ALTO CON LAS DEPORTACIONES
