Latest / The People's News / Jailer Pleads Guilty to Murder; Despair in Dilly; Help for Haitians Facing Deportation - TPN 8/2/26

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Jailer Pleads Guilty to Murder; Despair in Dilly; Help for Haitians Facing Deportation - TPN 8/2/26 · The People's News

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  Speaker 1: It's the week of August twenty twenty six, and this
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: is what's on the People's News. Jaylor pleads guilty on
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the death of an inmate. Local haitiens meet to help
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: those that face Trump ordered deportations. Democratic lawmakers call for
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the closing of the Dilley Immigration Detention Center. Republican lawmakers
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: but removing reproductive rights from women back in the next
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Texas legislative session. Astronaut Days at Space Center Houston. All
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  Speaker 1: that and more on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: This is the People's News, and the People's News starts
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  Speaker 1: now in Galveston County. Jaylor Skylar Ray Chapman, please guilty
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  Speaker 1: in the death of Saul Vargas. Vargas died of exphyxia
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  Speaker 1: due to net compression while being held in the Galveston
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  Speaker 1: County Jail. There were several guards on duty, but only
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  Speaker 1: one was charged. We hear more from the case from
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  Speaker 1: civil rights attorney Randall Kallanan.
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  Speaker 2: Well, mister Vargas had been arrested and was waiting trial
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  Speaker 2: at the Galveston County Jail when he began exhibiting some
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  Speaker 2: mental health problems, and he was in the medical.
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  Speaker 3: Unit of the facility.
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  Speaker 2: And the guards were delivering a mattress to his medical cell,
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  Speaker 2: and based upon the video, it appears that he was,
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  Speaker 2: you know, maybe suffering from some sort of paranoia because
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  Speaker 2: he was staring at the wall as if there.
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  Speaker 3: Was something there when there was nothing there.
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  Speaker 2: And so when they opened the door to deliver his mattress,
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  Speaker 2: he tried to get out, and he didn't really have
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  Speaker 2: any chance of escaping because he's right in the middle
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  Speaker 2: of the middle of the jail and there's guards all around.
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  Speaker 3: And he didn't use any violence.
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  Speaker 2: He didn't hit anybody or spit on them or kick him.
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  Speaker 2: It was just sort of like he was trying to
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  Speaker 2: get past him to get out of his jail cell,
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  Speaker 2: experiencing this trauma. And he was then put to the
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  Speaker 2: ground by several detention officers and he was also tased
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  Speaker 2: several times, and for some reason, although I'm not sure,
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  Speaker 2: they took off his clothes and they forced him back
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  Speaker 2: into the cell, and they left him in an extremely
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  Speaker 2: uncomfortable position with his arm behind his back and he
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  Speaker 2: was kneeling with his chest over the bed, and then
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  Speaker 2: they left him there in that position, and he didn't
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  Speaker 2: move from that position. So they should have noticed right
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  Speaker 2: then that he was having some sort of problem, and
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  Speaker 2: then they kept him in the sell there for eighteen
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  Speaker 2: to twenty minutes before they opened the cell, and by that.
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  Speaker 3: Time it was too late. He had passed away.
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  Speaker 2: So there were some issues of excessive force and then
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  Speaker 2: failure to do met our rounds. And it was quite
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  Speaker 2: obvious to several individuals at the jail, or should have
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  Speaker 2: been quite obvious that he was in distress, yet they
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  Speaker 2: did not give him the assistance he needed and he
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  Speaker 2: passed away.
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  Speaker 4: You know, situations it is the.
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  Speaker 5: Inmate is usually video, is a lot of footage of
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  Speaker 5: that inmate is twenty four to seven video, so things
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  Speaker 5: like this won't happen.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, the video.
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  Speaker 2: Apparently nobody was watching the video on the outside. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, there was nobody watching it, because if there was,
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  Speaker 2: they would have seen that he was staying in that
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  Speaker 2: same very extremely uncomfortable position, not moving, and maybe they
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  Speaker 2: would have got to him sooner. There is a complete
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  Speaker 2: video of what happened, So that is a good thing
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  Speaker 2: that there is a video because then there's less confusion
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  Speaker 2: about what really happened.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, because I mean that the g was on the
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  Speaker 5: Gavis County medical examiner ruled a homicide.
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  Speaker 2: That's correct, and that was because officer Chapman put a
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  Speaker 2: lot of weight into his neck area. And that's what
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  Speaker 2: the medical examiner said was the cause of his of
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  Speaker 2: his death was neck compression. Not unlike George Floyd.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I thinks that it's the same situation.
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  Speaker 5: How are these officers in gableson county train because it
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  Speaker 5: seems like it's a it's a matter of.
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  Speaker 4: Lackom training by by by that county.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we're gonna look into the training.
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  Speaker 2: However, if he had any good training, he certainly would
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  Speaker 2: have wouldn't have done what he did.
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  Speaker 3: And he was he did plead guilty to a criminally.
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  Speaker 2: Negligent homicide and had got ten years of probation.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, so he's not serving in that position anymore.
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  Speaker 2: He was required to give up his jailer's license and
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  Speaker 2: to and also to never go for a peace officer's license.
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  Speaker 5: And but what about the accountability of a county, Well,
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  Speaker 5: that hopefully will.
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  Speaker 2: Be what's going to be determined by this civil suit
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  Speaker 2: that we have if the family has the wrongful death
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  Speaker 2: action in civil rights violations action.
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  Speaker 4: You don't want me asking what was the charge. What
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  Speaker 4: was the charge was it? What was his original charge?
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  Speaker 3: Criminally negligent homicide?
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  Speaker 4: No, I'm talking about artist.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not one hundred percentsre It was not. It was
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  Speaker 3: some nonviolent something non violent that.
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  Speaker 5: Oh, this is experiencing the same situations as Harris County
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  Speaker 5: with overcrowding.
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  Speaker 4: And this is this is this?
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  Speaker 5: Is this the first time something like this has happened in.
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  Speaker 4: That county or has this been something on the Oh?
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  Speaker 2: No, I had a case about three or four years
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  Speaker 2: ago where an individual died of xenix withdrawal when he
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  Speaker 2: had brought to the jail his Xanix prescription and they
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  Speaker 2: had it in a locker, uh, just steps away from
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  Speaker 2: where he died of thex withdrawal.
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  Speaker 5: And they refused to there should be some type of
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  Speaker 5: prescription or something like that that he has to take
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  Speaker 5: this correct.
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  Speaker 2: Well, what we learned there was that the jail had
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  Speaker 2: a policy of not giving.
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  Speaker 3: Xanax even though if you were subscribed prescribed it.
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  Speaker 2: So that's we were able to win that against the
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  Speaker 2: county because that was a policy that they had, which
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  Speaker 2: we said, you know, if he didn't have that policy,
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  Speaker 2: probably be alive.
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  Speaker 5: I know the family is kind of distraught about this
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  Speaker 5: whole situation with.
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  Speaker 4: Mister Barton's family. There is what is it? What is
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  Speaker 4: the families? Uh? What is the family saying right now?
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  Speaker 2: Well, they are hoping that through this lawsuit, uh, the
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  Speaker 2: inmates at the Galveson County Jail will get better medical
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  Speaker 2: care because this easily could have been avoided.
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  Speaker 5: And when something like this happens, especially are they investigated
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  Speaker 5: or by by idiot authorities down there.
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  Speaker 2: Well, generally when someone dies in custody, the Texas Rangers
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  Speaker 2: are required to investigate, and also the District Attorney's office
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  Speaker 2: does an investigation, and the and the sheriff does an
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  Speaker 2: investigation themselves.
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  Speaker 4: Have they have they done anything so far?
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  Speaker 2: Well as far as policy changes, I do not know,
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  Speaker 2: but they once again they did.
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  Speaker 4: Uh.
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  Speaker 2: The mister Chapman who put the weight on the neck
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  Speaker 2: of mister Vargus did plead guilty and got ten years
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  Speaker 2: probation deferred judication for criminally negligent homicide.
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  Speaker 3: Now we the family would like more people.
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  Speaker 2: To be considered for criminal action because there was.
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  Speaker 3: Some excessive force they believed prior to putting him in
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  Speaker 3: the cell, and also they neglected to assist mister Vargus
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  Speaker 3: when he was obviously in distress.
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  Speaker 5: And what was the situation that they had to take
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  Speaker 5: strip Sachi for the most part.
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  Speaker 4: And take his clothes.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I can only guess, but my guess was My
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  Speaker 2: guess is this, since he was displaying odd.
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  Speaker 3: Behavior, they took his clothes off so he wouldn't so
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  Speaker 3: he wouldn't kill himself in the cell. So it's an
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  Speaker 3: anti suicide maneuver.
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  Speaker 1: As stated, none of the other officers per charge. Chapman
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  Speaker 1: will have ten years of probation and give up his
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  Speaker 1: jailor license and can never be a peace officer again.
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  Speaker 1: The family of Vargas has filed a civil lawsuit naming Chapman,
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  Speaker 1: Galveston County contract jail, medical staff, and other jailors responsible
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  Speaker 1: for mister Vargas's suffering and death. And now this is
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  Speaker 1: my insight into artificial intelligence. In my first career, which
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  Speaker 1: was in technology, I work with artificial intelligence for over
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  Speaker 1: thirty years. At its core, the technology is the same
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  Speaker 1: and has changed not at all from the original algorithm,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: which is pattern recognition in text and responding in a
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: way that invites the user to keep engaged. Truth has
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with it. Sentience or intelligence has nothing
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: to do with it. Early reactions to this algorithm in
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  Speaker 1: the seventies were insightful. Users instantly attributed human emotion and
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: intelligence to the program. It makes sense, especially to those
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: of us who have pets. I attribute human emotion and
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: intelligence to my dog Ginger every day. Over the years,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: artificial intelligence has been called AI, text analytics, the Internet
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: of Things, machine learning, and then back to AI again.
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  Speaker 1: Once again, the core algorithms have not changed. It is
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: the same logic. What has changed is increased compute power,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: massive storage capability, a privacy breaking ultra fast wireless network,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and obscenely wealthy tech pros using the technology to kill
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: jobs and gain power and money. My advice to you
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and to any learners out there is use artificial intelligence
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: very sparingly, and when you do, make sure that you
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: read through it and correct it before you submit it
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: as an assignment. Put down the phone, get off social media,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: and think true to form. Texas Republicans continue to attack
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: women both at the ballot box and their reproductive rights.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: We hear more from Texas News Service and freeda Ross.
• 11:35
  Speaker 6: Advocates for reproductive rights in Texas are preparing for the
• 11:39
  Speaker 6: upcoming legislative session. Following a recent meeting of the Senate
• 11:43
  Speaker 6: Committee on State Affairs during the interim Charges hearing, lawmaker's
• 11:48
  Speaker 6: heard testimony election security and the implementation of House Bill seven,
• 11:54
  Speaker 6: which prohibits the manufacture, mailing, and distribution of abortion inducing drugs.
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: Raven Freeborn, executive director of Avowed Texas, believes the two
• 12:05
  Speaker 6: topics go hand in hand.
• 12:07
  Speaker 7: This isn't just about abortion. If lawmakers can punish people
• 12:10
  Speaker 7: for intent in one area, they can and will extend
• 12:14
  Speaker 7: that logic anywhere else to protest, to speech, to healthcare,
• 12:18
  Speaker 7: and to voting.
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: According to the Guttmacher Report, more than forty two thousand
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: Texas residents had clinician provided abortions in twenty twenty five.
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: Republican lawmakers want to further restrict the use of abortion
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: inducing medications since HB seven went into effect. Attorney General
• 12:37
  Speaker 6: Ken Paxton has sued medical providers in multiple states for
• 12:41
  Speaker 6: mailing the abortion peel mif of pristone to patients in Texas.
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: The providers are protected by shield laws in their states.
• 12:49
  Speaker 6: In twenty twenty one, legislators also blocked Medicaid recipients from
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: using the coverage to pay for services at Planned Parenthood.
• 12:58
  Speaker 6: Shelley Hayes McMahon, executive director of Planned Parenthood Texas Votes,
• 13:03
  Speaker 6: says lawmakers should be discussing how to reinstate coverage instead
• 13:07
  Speaker 6: of proposing additional restrictions.
• 13:10
  Speaker 8: Why aren't they talking about healthcare access. Why aren't they
• 13:13
  Speaker 8: talking about women who can't afford preventive healthcare. Why aren't
• 13:16
  Speaker 8: they talking about rural hospitals closing. Why aren't they talking
• 13:20
  Speaker 8: about maternal mortality? And why aren't they talking about the
• 13:22
  Speaker 8: millions of Texans who remain uninsured.
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: Before HB seven, Texas already had one of the most
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: restrictive abortion bands in the country. The ninetieth Texas Legislative
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: Session starts on January twelfth, twenty twenty seven. I'm FREDA Ross,
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: Texas News Service. Find our trust Indicators at Publicnewsservice dot org.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Oil and gas drilling is dangerous for North Texas students.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: We hear more from FREDA Ross with the Texas Public
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: News Service.
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: North Texans concerned about oil and gas drilling in the
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: Barnett Shell will soon resent new findings to the Arlington
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: City Council and school board members. A study by liverbl
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: Arlington shows that seventy six schools in the city are
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: within half a mile to two miles of gas wells
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: or drill sites. The organizations round Jana Bandari says most
• 14:17
  Speaker 6: of the schools impacted are in one part of the city.
• 14:21
  Speaker 9: Almost ninety five percent of the residents are people of color,
• 14:24
  Speaker 9: and they seem to be bearing the highest concentration of
• 14:27
  Speaker 9: fracking in the city, especially the fracking expansions. All the
• 14:31
  Speaker 9: fracking expansion is happening in those parts of town.
• 14:34
  Speaker 6: She says. The report lists every drill site and gas
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: well within two miles of each Arlington public school. The
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: study was conducted using data from the Railroad Commission of
• 14:44
  Speaker 6: Texas and the city. Drilling and Arrant County started in
• 14:48
  Speaker 6: the early two thousands, and there are close to two
• 14:51
  Speaker 6: hundred drilled wells in Arlington alone. Last year, city council
• 14:55
  Speaker 6: members approved a new gaswell site. The new Maverick site
• 14:59
  Speaker 6: is close to three elementary schools. Doctor Lariska Driska with
• 15:03
  Speaker 6: Concerned Health Professionals of New York says younger children are
• 15:08
  Speaker 6: more susceptible to toxins, and they've studied the impacts of
• 15:11
  Speaker 6: fracking on kids for more than a decade.
• 15:14
  Speaker 10: Allowing the continuous, intensifying, long term exposure of densely populated
• 15:20
  Speaker 10: communities to toxic fracking emissions is tantamount to running what
• 15:24
  Speaker 10: is in effect a vast, uncontrolled human experiment atop the
• 15:29
  Speaker 10: Barnett shoe.
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: She adds, there's a definite link between proximity to oil
• 15:33
  Speaker 6: and gas development and increases in childhood cancers. Members of
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: Liverpool Arlington say they hope the data prompt city officials
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: to revisit protections for children and nearby residents. They'd like
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: to see twenty four hour air monitoring at drill sites
• 15:50
  Speaker 6: within a half mile of Arlington schools and compressor stations.
• 15:54
  Speaker 6: I'm frieda Ross Texas news service. Find our trust indicators
• 15:59
  Speaker 6: at public at newsservice dot org.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Over three hundred and fifty thousand Haitians will be impacted
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: by the US Supreme Court upholding the corrupt and criminal
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Trump Administration's move to end their temporary protected status. The
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: risk is real and the choices are few. Being held
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: in detention in the US or go back to the
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: uncertainty of Haiti, which is ravaged by gang, warfare, rape
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: and hunger. Houston Haitians United are working with a community
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: here in Houston and are planning an upcoming press conference
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: to address some of their concerns. We talk to Dorothy
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: McGee with Houston Haitians United.
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  Speaker 11: Yes, well, thank you, mister Hannah for your time and
• 16:48
  Speaker 11: interest in learning about the Haitian community's perspective. We are
• 16:55
  Speaker 11: aware that this situation has caused fear, anxiety, and anger
• 17:00
  Speaker 11: for many Haitians and their allies, and we invite the
• 17:04
  Speaker 11: community to our upcoming press conference on this issue, which
• 17:09
  Speaker 11: will be on August seventeenth at ten am. It's a Monday.
• 17:15
  Speaker 11: We're still working out the location and other details. We
• 17:18
  Speaker 11: will send a flyer as soon as we can to
• 17:22
  Speaker 11: inform the community, and we're here to build solidarity, offer
• 17:30
  Speaker 11: possible solutions, and talk safety. We're not here to promote
• 17:34
  Speaker 11: any polarizing narratives, and we are a five oh one
• 17:38
  Speaker 11: c three nonprofit therefore we can't be it's a politics
• 17:42
  Speaker 11: or lobby. But we're here to show the community that.
• 17:46
  Speaker 11: Of course, we're aware of this pretty significant Supreme Court
• 17:50
  Speaker 11: decision and the resulting immigration policy, which effectively renders more
• 17:57
  Speaker 11: than three hundred thousand people deportable just they not have
• 18:03
  Speaker 11: another immigration protection or benefit. Therefore, the person slowly had
• 18:10
  Speaker 11: temporary protected status, which was first granted to the Haitian
• 18:15
  Speaker 11: community in twenty ten after the devastating seven point zero earthquake,
• 18:21
  Speaker 11: then they would be at risk for deprotected deportation.
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: I just got I got an email from medicine in
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: sun far Fair, Doctors without Borders, and you talk about
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: you talk about safety.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: In in the in Haiti right now, and.
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: Doctors Borders had stopped resuming their activities as a hospital
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: and city from sol and they're still saying it's still dangerous,
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: but they're going back. As of July twenty ninth, they're
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: operating again, which is something, Yes, that is it is
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: a pleasure for them because they've been caught in the
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: cross fire for a while now, since July fourteenth.
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  Speaker 11: Yes, correct, Well, as you've stated, there are concerns over violence,
• 19:19
  Speaker 11: specifically gang violence in Haiti. Much of the capital, Porta
• 19:25
  Speaker 11: Prince is controlled by gangs, and most of the deportation flights,
• 19:31
  Speaker 11: to my knowledge, from the United States are landing in Kapai,
• 19:36
  Speaker 11: which is in the north of the country and the
• 19:38
  Speaker 11: second largest city. Porter Prince's airport has been closed indefinitely.
• 19:44
  Speaker 11: We could say, really, well, it's been closed through September
• 19:49
  Speaker 11: of this year, but we suspect that it will continue
• 19:52
  Speaker 11: to be closed due to the ongoing gang threats, and
• 19:57
  Speaker 11: that causes a huge logistical challenge for persons who maybe
• 20:03
  Speaker 11: returned to Haiti, but they're not from Kapaisien. And let's
• 20:08
  Speaker 11: say somebody who's trying to get to the southern part
• 20:10
  Speaker 11: of the country, they would then have to leave Kapaisian
• 20:16
  Speaker 11: either through road, plane or even helicopter, and again that
• 20:21
  Speaker 11: exposes people to safety risk. I've even heard of people
• 20:25
  Speaker 11: trying to get to the southern part of the country,
• 20:28
  Speaker 11: which again anyone going through the south must pass through
• 20:32
  Speaker 11: porto prints surrounding areas which are gain controlled and to
• 20:37
  Speaker 11: circumvent gang checkpoints, people are even resorting to using small
• 20:42
  Speaker 11: boats to get to their hometowns in the southern parts
• 20:46
  Speaker 11: of Haiti. That leaves people vulnerable and it costs money.
• 20:53
  Speaker 11: It's an undue strain on people who are returning to Haiti.
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: What happened to the Kenyans that were there as far
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  Speaker 5: as enforcement of law, as far as trying to try
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: to make bring some of stability to.
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  Speaker 11: The country, Yes, thank you for your question. There was
• 21:12
  Speaker 11: a Kenyon led mission I believe it was initially deployed
• 21:15
  Speaker 11: in twenty twenty four or twenty three. There were several challenges,
• 21:22
  Speaker 11: logistical challenges, there were issues with machinery and other challenges
• 21:28
  Speaker 11: that limited the main language. Yes, there was a culture
• 21:35
  Speaker 11: barrier as well language barrier, and again that limited their
• 21:41
  Speaker 11: ability to be effective. And again, the overall intervention of
• 21:47
  Speaker 11: UN forces in hayes quite a controversial topic. Many Haitians
• 21:53
  Speaker 11: recall in earlier years that when prior peacekeeping forces came,
• 21:58
  Speaker 11: they left and many people were infected with cholera and
• 22:03
  Speaker 11: the outbreak was so severe resulted in several deaths. So
• 22:09
  Speaker 11: Haitians are quite resistance to the idea of peacekeeping forces
• 22:15
  Speaker 11: in general.
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: Well, the meaning that you guys are setting up what
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: are you going to or.
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: You're going to try to bring resources to people that
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: are facing deport.
• 22:29
  Speaker 11: Yes, now we are not a legal firm, but we
• 22:32
  Speaker 11: will offer practical information, will invite community leaders and collaborators
• 22:40
  Speaker 11: for us to brainstorm solutions. We're here to also build community.
• 22:45
  Speaker 11: We know that sometimes being Haitian in Houston can feel isolating.
• 22:50
  Speaker 11: Sometimes we're misunderstood because we're an insular community. So we
• 22:57
  Speaker 11: want people to not only find a sense of community.
• 23:01
  Speaker 11: We invite people who are not Haitian too. One need
• 23:04
  Speaker 11: not be Haitian to attend to understand our specific challenges
• 23:09
  Speaker 11: because Haitians are not a malist. Therefore, the person who's
• 23:15
  Speaker 11: in a TPS status who might be affected by this
• 23:19
  Speaker 11: recent immigration decision, they may be very well integrated into
• 23:24
  Speaker 11: the US or they may be a recent arrival. And
• 23:28
  Speaker 11: so we're here to talk about the various impacts that I
• 23:32
  Speaker 11: can have, especially to youth. And I'm especially hurt when
• 23:37
  Speaker 11: I hear of these decisions affecting youth who had no
• 23:42
  Speaker 11: control over what their parent or guardian did for them
• 23:47
  Speaker 11: to achieve temporary protected status. And so now many parents
• 23:51
  Speaker 11: are faced with the challenging decision should I go back
• 23:54
  Speaker 11: with my child to Haiti or should I leave my
• 23:58
  Speaker 11: child with a trusted relative in the United States or elsewhere,
• 24:04
  Speaker 11: And that is a painstaking decision.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: So how can people find out more about you, about
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: about the.
• 24:12
  Speaker 11: Media, Well, they can follow us on social media. They
• 24:17
  Speaker 11: can find us on social media. We are on Instagram,
• 24:21
  Speaker 11: ha United eighteen oh four. Our website is Houston Haitians
• 24:26
  Speaker 11: United dot org. Our email address is info at Houston
• 24:32
  Speaker 11: Haitians United at RG and we also operate a hotline
• 24:36
  Speaker 11: at eight three two nine four five one four four eight.
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: And also for those who always talk about.
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: Haiti and they talk about the Clinton administration or the
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: money that was given to Hayy after the earthquake, and
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: what happened to the money and what happened to the resources,
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: can you address that educate?
• 25:04
  Speaker 11: Yes, that is a quit Cross controversial issue in involved politics,
• 25:09
  Speaker 11: so I won't get into the political aspect. But the
• 25:13
  Speaker 11: Red Cross was actually sued by a Haitian diaspor group
• 25:18
  Speaker 11: in twenty twenty four due to the lack of action
• 25:23
  Speaker 11: and the alleged misuse and misdirection of Red Cross funds
• 25:30
  Speaker 11: for proposed projects in Haiti. In fact, I WAT a
• 25:34
  Speaker 11: report that claimed that only six houses were built from
• 25:39
  Speaker 11: the millions and large sums of money received for relief
• 25:43
  Speaker 11: efforts for the twenty ten earthquake.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: That was Dorothy McGee with Houston Haitians United. Eight three
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: to two nine four five one four four eight is
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: the Haitian hotline and you can go to their website
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Houston Haitians United, All put Together dot org. They're also
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: on Facebook and Instagram. While Republicans attack the rights of
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: women and fight for the rights of white people. Everywhere.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: The Democrats are out defending democracy, recently going to the
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Dilly Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Center in Delhi, Texas.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Parents and children are locked up for months at the
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: private immigration processing center. Abuse, starvation, children near suicide have
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: been some of the numerous statements made about the treatment
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: at the center. Those who are held inside call it
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: a hellhole. On Tuesday, local Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher from the
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: seventh District, along with members of the Democratic Women's Caucus
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: and Waqum Castro, Congressman from San Antonio, toured the facility
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: with an oversight visit. This is the press conference they
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: held after that visit.
• 27:03
  Speaker 12: Well, welcome everybody. My name is Toa Schulti. I'm the
• 27:06
  Speaker 12: president for dot US. I'm just gonna briefly start by
• 27:10
  Speaker 12: I want to thank everyone for being here today. I
• 27:14
  Speaker 12: want to thank the members of Congress for doing their work,
• 27:17
  Speaker 12: and I want to thank doctor Mattel for being here.
• 27:19
  Speaker 13: And I want to thank all of you for being here.
• 27:23
  Speaker 12: You're going to hear from people today who visited America's
• 27:25
  Speaker 12: Child and Family jail for immigrants. It is a place
• 27:29
  Speaker 12: that a lot of you have covered for some time now.
• 27:31
  Speaker 12: It is a place where when public attention has been
• 27:35
  Speaker 12: drawn to it in the horrors of incarceration in the
• 27:37
  Speaker 12: immigrant attention system across the country, on children and on families.
• 27:42
  Speaker 12: The stories you're in to here are shocking. They should
• 27:46
  Speaker 12: not in this administration, sadly be surprising, but we can't
• 27:49
  Speaker 12: be numb to them. And so I want to thank
• 27:50
  Speaker 12: the members of Congress for being here. And I think
• 27:54
  Speaker 12: it is on all of us to continue draw attention.
• 27:56
  Speaker 12: So we're gonna hear from the members today and we'll
• 27:58
  Speaker 12: come around at the end and have quests for you all.
• 28:01
  Speaker 12: And with that, I just wanted to take the opportunity
• 28:03
  Speaker 12: to thank Conschman Castro for your continued advocacy, for your
• 28:07
  Speaker 12: team's advocacy, and for everyone for being here at such
• 28:11
  Speaker 12: a critical moment in which this administration has more money
• 28:14
  Speaker 12: available to it on an annual basis for immigration enforcement
• 28:18
  Speaker 12: than all but six or seven militaries in the world.
• 28:21
  Speaker 12: And part of that is what we are doing to
• 28:25
  Speaker 12: lock up children and their parents. So Conisman Castro, thank
• 28:28
  Speaker 12: you for everything.
• 28:29
  Speaker 10: Thank you so yeah.
• 28:32
  Speaker 13: Well, first, thank you Todd so much, and thank you
• 28:34
  Speaker 13: to everybody at foward dot US for your incredible work
• 28:38
  Speaker 13: in bringing the nation's attention to the horrors at the
• 28:42
  Speaker 13: Dailly Detention Center, what I call the Dally trailer prison.
• 28:45
  Speaker 13: It's an honor to be here today and to have
• 28:47
  Speaker 13: inspected Dilly today with members of the Democratic Women's Caucus
• 28:51
  Speaker 13: who have joined us in San Antonio and in Dilly
• 28:54
  Speaker 13: for this inspection, and also with doctor Patel, a pediatrician
• 28:58
  Speaker 13: who has been very outspoken about the lasting trauma both
• 29:01
  Speaker 13: physical and mental to the children, especially who were imprisoned
• 29:05
  Speaker 13: at Dilly. Recently, as many of you know, there were
• 29:09
  Speaker 13: one hundred and ten of us in Congress who came
• 29:11
  Speaker 13: together to demand that a Dlly detention center be shut down.
• 29:16
  Speaker 13: We know that it's possible because it's been done before
• 29:19
  Speaker 13: during the Biden administration. The trauma, physical and mental on
• 29:24
  Speaker 13: those children will be harsh and long lasting. Every single
• 29:29
  Speaker 13: day that a child spends in Dilly, they are traumatized.
• 29:34
  Speaker 13: And over the past several months, this was the seventh
• 29:37
  Speaker 13: time that I've been to Dilly. I've seen it in
• 29:40
  Speaker 13: their faces, as some of them are stonefaced, others are
• 29:43
  Speaker 13: sobbing and clinging to their parents or begging to get out.
• 29:48
  Speaker 13: The parents themselves are often despondent. There are just very
• 29:54
  Speaker 13: sad and horrible stories about medical care that's either denied
• 29:59
  Speaker 13: or delayed, legal processes that people are not only unfamiliar with,
• 30:05
  Speaker 13: but also in legal limbo. Remember, this is a system
• 30:10
  Speaker 13: where you have young kids who will sometimes have to
• 30:13
  Speaker 13: represent themselves in front of judges in court, something that
• 30:17
  Speaker 13: in the United States even a convicted killer doesn't have
• 30:20
  Speaker 13: to do because they get legal representation. And so today
• 30:25
  Speaker 13: was no different. Unfortunately, the numbers at Dilly have gone up.
• 30:30
  Speaker 13: There are now more than five hundred people there. The
• 30:33
  Speaker 13: last time we were there, the numbers were probably about
• 30:35
  Speaker 13: one hundred less. There are now more children there than
• 30:39
  Speaker 13: there were before. They were at ninety six in May,
• 30:41
  Speaker 13: they're now at one hundred and twelve. I believe that
• 30:44
  Speaker 13: is the result of the ice surge that we've seen
• 30:48
  Speaker 13: over the last month or so. So as we've seen
• 30:51
  Speaker 13: these raids on the street, we've seen families that have
• 30:56
  Speaker 13: been torn apart on the street and brutality on the street.
• 30:59
  Speaker 13: The result of that is that more families and more
• 31:02
  Speaker 13: children are now imprisoned at Dilli. Remember, every time a
• 31:06
  Speaker 13: child is put into the delly detention center. Somebody in
• 31:09
  Speaker 13: America makes more money. We have commodified child imprisonment in
• 31:15
  Speaker 13: our nation. Cour Civic is a private prison company whose
• 31:20
  Speaker 13: investors include some of the largest asset managers in this country.
• 31:24
  Speaker 13: That includes that includes asset managers that manage firefighter pension
• 31:29
  Speaker 13: funds and public teacher pension funds and so forth. They
• 31:33
  Speaker 13: are making money the more kids that are put into DELLI.
• 31:36
  Speaker 13: And then finally a few quick stories, because I told
• 31:40
  Speaker 13: you there's an incredible human trauma. I talked to a
• 31:43
  Speaker 13: woman who had recently had a heart procedure done. She'd
• 31:46
  Speaker 13: had heart trouble before she went to Delhi, and then
• 31:48
  Speaker 13: when she was there it worsened. So she had a
• 31:52
  Speaker 13: heart procedure done, a kind of operation, and she was
• 31:55
  Speaker 13: not given the follow up appointment that she was supposed
• 31:58
  Speaker 13: to have. She was not given the proper medicaid that
• 32:00
  Speaker 13: she was supposed to have because of that heart situation.
• 32:04
  Speaker 13: We talked to another young woman, who a sixteen year
• 32:07
  Speaker 13: old girl actually, who was there with her father, and
• 32:11
  Speaker 13: she spoke about spending two days at the San Antonio
• 32:14
  Speaker 13: Processing Center across point. She mentioned that in that room
• 32:17
  Speaker 13: where people are detained, that there are cameras that can
• 32:20
  Speaker 13: see the entire room. And not only is there a
• 32:23
  Speaker 13: camera in the main room, there's a camera that's pointed
• 32:25
  Speaker 13: at the place where people use the restroom. That's how
• 32:28
  Speaker 13: dehumanizing this situation is for folks. There were folks that
• 32:34
  Speaker 13: have lost custody of their kids because they've been detained
• 32:36
  Speaker 13: at Dilly. They've lost their apartments. Some over the pass
• 32:40
  Speaker 13: have told me that they've lost their homes. There's another
• 32:46
  Speaker 13: story of a woman, actually that same girl, who was
• 32:48
  Speaker 13: on her way to church with a friend here in
• 32:50
  Speaker 13: San Antonio, and they took her to Cross Point, the
• 32:54
  Speaker 13: processing center. They told her dad that they were going
• 32:56
  Speaker 13: to send her out of state if he didn't come
• 32:58
  Speaker 13: pick her up, that he could come pick her up
• 33:00
  Speaker 13: and take her home. When he showed up to pick
• 33:02
  Speaker 13: her up, they took him in as well, and now
• 33:05
  Speaker 13: they're both in that trailer prison. So this has been
• 33:07
  Speaker 13: a system that has been duplicitous, that has made it
• 33:10
  Speaker 13: a routine to lie, lie not only to the detainees,
• 33:15
  Speaker 13: but also to the public and even to members of Congress.
• 33:19
  Speaker 13: The final thing for me, I've told you all before.
• 33:21
  Speaker 13: I told you the story of the National Rape Abuse
• 33:24
  Speaker 13: Hotline and how when I picked up the phone to
• 33:27
  Speaker 13: test whether it worked. I picked up the phone and
• 33:30
  Speaker 13: the language was an Asian language. I think it was Chinese. Well,
• 33:34
  Speaker 13: today all of us had a chance to go see
• 33:36
  Speaker 13: the intake center and we asked when people are informed
• 33:40
  Speaker 13: about their rights, and I said that ICE and cor
• 33:44
  Speaker 13: Civic said that there was a digital billboard which all
• 33:47
  Speaker 13: of us could see, and that was the way that
• 33:50
  Speaker 13: people would get information about the Floridas settlement. Because kids
• 33:53
  Speaker 13: are only supposed to be detained from up to twenty days.
• 33:57
  Speaker 13: The same language I think it was Chinese, but it
• 34:00
  Speaker 13: could have been different, was playing on that digital billboard
• 34:04
  Speaker 13: over and over and over. And they said, well, I
• 34:07
  Speaker 13: pointed that out, and they said, well, you know, it's
• 34:09
  Speaker 13: just a rotation. It changes. Well, first of all, there's
• 34:12
  Speaker 13: hardly anybody there that is speaking Mandarin or another language
• 34:17
  Speaker 13: like that. And we asked the people who were detained there.
• 34:20
  Speaker 13: When we went into the larger room, there was a
• 34:23
  Speaker 13: woman that said she sat there for nine hours in
• 34:25
  Speaker 13: the intake room and that that billboard never changed. This
• 34:29
  Speaker 13: is a system that is corrupt, that is duplicitous, that
• 34:33
  Speaker 13: is reckless, and this detention center, the duly detention center
• 34:37
  Speaker 13: should absolutely be shut down, and we're committed towards working
• 34:40
  Speaker 13: to that. So thank y'all so much for covering this. Next,
• 34:44
  Speaker 13: I'd like to introduce my colleague from Arizona who has
• 34:48
  Speaker 13: been doing a lot of work inspecting the detention centers
• 34:50
  Speaker 13: in the state of Arizona, and that's Representative and sorry.
• 34:54
  Speaker 14: Thank you, Congressman Castro.
• 34:56
  Speaker 13: First of all, I want to start.
• 34:58
  Speaker 14: By thanking the Congressman and his team because their leadership
• 35:03
  Speaker 14: on this issue and on shutting down Dilly in particular
• 35:06
  Speaker 14: and ending the detention of children is not just inspiring
• 35:11
  Speaker 14: to Americans all over the country, but inspiring to all
• 35:13
  Speaker 14: of us his colleagues here in Congress, So thank you
• 35:16
  Speaker 14: so much. My name is Yasaman and sorry. I proudly
• 35:19
  Speaker 14: represent Phoenix, Glendale, and Guadalupe in the US House of Representatives.
• 35:23
  Speaker 14: Today was my twelfth oversight visit at an ice detention center,
• 35:27
  Speaker 14: the first at Dilly. In Arizona, we have the Eloyd
• 35:30
  Speaker 14: Detention Center as well as the Florence Correctional Center, as
• 35:33
  Speaker 14: well as a holding facility inside of a small regional
• 35:38
  Speaker 14: airport that is the last stop before people are deported
• 35:42
  Speaker 14: to whatever country it is that the Trump government is
• 35:45
  Speaker 14: sending them to. And while I have seen and spoken
• 35:50
  Speaker 14: with dozens of detainees inside those attention centers, and Eloy
• 35:54
  Speaker 14: is also operated by Corcivic, the same private prison company
• 35:57
  Speaker 14: that runs Dilly, and the conditions we know are horrific,
• 36:01
  Speaker 14: the lack of clean drinking water, the food that is moldy.
• 36:04
  Speaker 14: I've heard about worms being in water fountains, used underwear
• 36:08
  Speaker 14: being intentionally given to women and the results being UTIs
• 36:13
  Speaker 14: and infections that don't obviously get the treatment that they
• 36:16
  Speaker 14: need because of the severe medical neglect we know exists
• 36:20
  Speaker 14: inside of these attention centers and run by Corsific in particular.
• 36:24
  Speaker 14: But I'll say, even after all of those visits and
• 36:27
  Speaker 14: hours and hours of conversations with people there, it is
• 36:31
  Speaker 14: something entirely different to see this happening to kids and
• 36:35
  Speaker 14: to children. And I will never forget. One of the
• 36:39
  Speaker 14: women I met at ELOI said to me, I will
• 36:42
  Speaker 14: never be the same after I leave this place, the
• 36:44
  Speaker 14: physical and psychological torture that I have endured, the trauma
• 36:49
  Speaker 14: that I've endured. She started sobbing, that I will never
• 36:51
  Speaker 14: be the same person. Now, imagine that our government, with
• 36:57
  Speaker 14: our tax dollars is doing that to children, And that
• 37:02
  Speaker 14: is what I just cannot believe. Even though I know
• 37:06
  Speaker 14: the Trump regime is the most corrupt and the most
• 37:09
  Speaker 14: authoritarian and American history, it is still hard to fathom
• 37:13
  Speaker 14: that there is so much evil and so much callousness
• 37:18
  Speaker 14: the people at the very top, like Stephen Miller and
• 37:20
  Speaker 14: at Department of Homeland Security, that they are willing to
• 37:24
  Speaker 14: put children through such horrific trauma and abuse and you know,
• 37:30
  Speaker 14: long term issues that they will have inevitably because of
• 37:34
  Speaker 14: what they're being put through. I spent a while today
• 37:38
  Speaker 14: talking to the sixteen year old girl that Congressman Castro mentioned,
• 37:43
  Speaker 14: and she was like any other sixteen year old girl.
• 37:46
  Speaker 14: She was talking about her high school. She was talking
• 37:48
  Speaker 14: about wanting to join the volleyball team, she was talking
• 37:50
  Speaker 14: about I asked her who her favorite artist is, and
• 37:53
  Speaker 14: she said, bad Bunny. She was laughing. She was, you know,
• 37:57
  Speaker 14: you know, being hopeful. Also, you could see that she's
• 37:59
  Speaker 14: trying to provide hope for her dad. I also looked
• 38:02
  Speaker 14: very closely at her father, and being somebody who's very
• 38:05
  Speaker 14: close to my father and just knows that father daughter dynamic, well,
• 38:10
  Speaker 14: I can't even describe to you, the pain in this
• 38:12
  Speaker 14: man's eyes, the pain in his eyes because he doesn't
• 38:17
  Speaker 14: know what's going to happen to him and his daughter.
• 38:19
  Speaker 14: He's thinking about his wife, who's at home with their
• 38:21
  Speaker 14: two sons. He was telling me, you know, over and
• 38:25
  Speaker 14: over again, I've never committed a crime. I have no
• 38:28
  Speaker 14: criminal record, and nobody at Dilly has any sort of
• 38:32
  Speaker 14: criminal record whatsoever. And that is just one story. That
• 38:38
  Speaker 14: is the tragedy of all of this. There are countless
• 38:41
  Speaker 14: stories like this, a family's being separated, of children being traumatized,
• 38:46
  Speaker 14: of people who will never be the same, and the
• 38:49
  Speaker 14: corruption is astounding. Cor Civic and Geogroup, in my view,
• 38:54
  Speaker 14: are just absolutely evil. These are two companies making record
• 38:57
  Speaker 14: profits as a result of the cruelty of our government.
• 39:02
  Speaker 14: And I just know that, you know, the people standing here,
• 39:07
  Speaker 14: so many of us in Congress, so many Americans who
• 39:11
  Speaker 14: recognize and believe that this is not right, that this
• 39:13
  Speaker 14: is not what American values are about. These are not
• 39:16
  Speaker 14: what family values are about. These are not the values
• 39:19
  Speaker 14: of any religion in this you know that's supported or
• 39:23
  Speaker 14: celebrated in this country. We have to do everything that
• 39:27
  Speaker 14: we can to stop this. We have to shut Dilly down.
• 39:30
  Speaker 14: We have to end any family detention, and ultimately we
• 39:34
  Speaker 14: have to end for profit detention in this country, and
• 39:38
  Speaker 14: I look forward to continuing to work to do so,
• 39:41
  Speaker 14: and glad I got the opportunity today to see what's
• 39:43
  Speaker 14: happening here in Texas. With that, I will hand it
• 39:46
  Speaker 14: over to a local Texan congress Woman Fletcher.
• 39:51
  Speaker 15: Thanks so much, Congresswoman. I'm sorry, and I join you
• 39:54
  Speaker 15: in thanks for Congressman Castro and his entire team that
• 39:58
  Speaker 15: have welcomed all of us to Santa and taken us
• 40:01
  Speaker 15: to Dilly today. I am from just down the road.
• 40:05
  Speaker 15: I'm Lizzie Fletcher from Houston, and I'm really grateful for
• 40:11
  Speaker 15: the opportunity to be here today to witness myself what
• 40:16
  Speaker 15: is happening in the great state of Texas and in
• 40:19
  Speaker 15: the United States of America. And every American really needs
• 40:23
  Speaker 15: to know what we saw at Dilly today and what
• 40:28
  Speaker 15: we are seeing happening unfold in streets across this country.
• 40:33
  Speaker 15: And so I'm grateful to everyone who's here who's sharing
• 40:36
  Speaker 15: this information, grateful to Afford you us for the incredible
• 40:40
  Speaker 15: work that they're doing to make sure that people don't
• 40:45
  Speaker 15: look away from what we are seeing happening, and both
• 40:49
  Speaker 15: of my colleagues have used the word that if I
• 40:51
  Speaker 15: had to have one takeaway from today, and one word,
• 40:56
  Speaker 15: it is trauma. The United States government and is traumatizing
• 41:02
  Speaker 15: individuals that it has in detention. I spent a lot
• 41:06
  Speaker 15: of time today talking with some of the adults who
• 41:09
  Speaker 15: are there, because there are families as well as a
• 41:13
  Speaker 15: group of women who are detained at Dilly. And I
• 41:15
  Speaker 15: spoke with women who've been there for eight months who
• 41:19
  Speaker 15: were picked up off the street while they were coming
• 41:22
  Speaker 15: home from exercising. They had no idea why they were
• 41:26
  Speaker 15: being picked up, they had no idea where they were going,
• 41:29
  Speaker 15: and they have very little, if any contact with anyone outside.
• 41:33
  Speaker 15: They don't know what's happening with their asylum case. They
• 41:36
  Speaker 15: don't know how long they'll be there, they don't know
• 41:38
  Speaker 15: what's going to happen to them when they get out,
• 41:40
  Speaker 15: and they're not getting any answers, they're not getting any information,
• 41:43
  Speaker 15: and they're not getting any help except from the people
• 41:46
  Speaker 15: who are working so hard to share their stories and
• 41:49
  Speaker 15: make sure that Americans know that this cannot go on.
• 41:53
  Speaker 15: It cannot go on in our names. And what we
• 41:56
  Speaker 15: see is these individual cases of trauma for the children
• 41:59
  Speaker 15: and the families. But this immigration enforcement regime, ICE and
• 42:06
  Speaker 15: the Trump administration are creating trauma not only for individuals,
• 42:11
  Speaker 15: but they are terrorizing our communities, and they are creating
• 42:14
  Speaker 15: trauma across our communities. And that's certainly true at my
• 42:17
  Speaker 15: home in Houston, where as all of you know, we
• 42:21
  Speaker 15: recently saw ICE pursue someone who was not the target
• 42:28
  Speaker 15: of an investigation in unmarked vehicles, with plain clothes officers
• 42:34
  Speaker 15: trying to stop Lorenzo Arajo and detain the three men
• 42:41
  Speaker 15: who are with him in his van after they shot
• 42:44
  Speaker 15: and killed him in the street. People in Houston are outraged,
• 42:50
  Speaker 15: but they're also traumatized. This is a national trauma, and
• 42:54
  Speaker 15: that's why people need to know what's happening, and people
• 42:58
  Speaker 15: need to speak up and speak out where wherever they are,
• 43:01
  Speaker 15: because this is being done in our names. This is
• 43:03
  Speaker 15: being done by the United States government, and I think
• 43:06
  Speaker 15: for most Americans it is unimaginable. But it is also something,
• 43:11
  Speaker 15: as Congressman Castro said, that has been hidden. It's been
• 43:15
  Speaker 15: hidden because we are not getting information. This Congress is
• 43:18
  Speaker 15: not conducting the oversight that it should be. That's why
• 43:22
  Speaker 15: I'm so grateful to Congressman Castro and to the DwC
• 43:25
  Speaker 15: for making sure that we are doing the oversight work
• 43:28
  Speaker 15: that the majority in Congress is refusing to do. And
• 43:32
  Speaker 15: we need to make sure that people across the country know,
• 43:36
  Speaker 15: as Congressman I'm sorry said, by definition, no one at
• 43:41
  Speaker 15: Dilley has a criminal record. Americans are being lied to
• 43:45
  Speaker 15: about what this administration is doing, who it's detaining, what's
• 43:51
  Speaker 15: happening when it takes them into detention. They're not being
• 43:54
  Speaker 15: honest with the people about how and why and what
• 43:58
  Speaker 15: they are doing.
• 44:00
  Speaker 13: Has to stop.
• 44:02
  Speaker 15: It absolutely has to stop the detention that we see
• 44:05
  Speaker 15: in Dilly and the trauma that we see in our communities.
• 44:10
  Speaker 15: It doesn't serve the interests of the American people. It
• 44:14
  Speaker 15: doesn't meet our values and our aspirations for who we are.
• 44:19
  Speaker 15: I know that this is not who we are, and
• 44:23
  Speaker 15: we all need to stand up in this moment to
• 44:26
  Speaker 15: stop it.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: There were no Republicans on this visit, and there have
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: been no actions taken by the Republican administration and its
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: criminal and corrupt leader. For now, this facility remains open,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: and US citizens and immigrants alike across the country are
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: being denied their due process. Hi, This is Steve Gallington,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: producer and host of the People's News. The People's News
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: is people powered news. We are free to report the
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: unvarnished and unspun truth, challenge the status quo of corporate
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: propaganda and social media advertising disguised as real news. Shiny
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: new one hour episodes of The People's News drop each
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Sunday on The People's News Podcast. Thanks for listening. The
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Artemis two mission gained attention worldwide and has attracted many
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: young people to again look to the Moon and space
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: as a career. This past weekend was dive into space
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: exploration with Astronaut Days at Space Center Houston. Current and
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: past astronauts were on hand to talk about space travel
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: and the effort to get back to the Moon. We
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: talked to former astronaut Megan MacArthur, who is now Chief
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Science Officer at Space City Houston, an astronaut advisor for
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: the private company vast Door.
• 45:54
  Speaker 16: At Space Center Houston this weekend, so Friday and Saturday,
• 45:57
  Speaker 16: we are hosting Astronaut Days, which is an opportunity for
• 46:01
  Speaker 16: visitors to come and learn all about what it's like
• 46:03
  Speaker 16: to live and work in space. We have a whole
• 46:06
  Speaker 16: bunch of different activities that people can participate in. We
• 46:09
  Speaker 16: have some astronauts speakers who will come and talk about
• 46:12
  Speaker 16: their missions. We have all of the spacecraft that we
• 46:15
  Speaker 16: have in our collection that you can come and view.
• 46:17
  Speaker 16: We also have a visiting spacecraft mockup from VAST which
• 46:22
  Speaker 16: is a commercial company building the first commercial space station
• 46:26
  Speaker 16: that's going to launch next year, so guests can come
• 46:29
  Speaker 16: and see what that looks like. We also have a
• 46:31
  Speaker 16: whole bunch of hands on activations, interactive elements, and science
• 46:36
  Speaker 16: experiments that people can engage in to learn about the
• 46:38
  Speaker 16: science that we do in space.
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: And it's not for kids.
• 46:42
  Speaker 5: It does one thing we know after the Apollo missions
• 46:45
  Speaker 5: that interest in the space program increase and we have
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: more people trying to know about space and get involved
• 46:54
  Speaker 5: in the space program. After this last mission, you see
• 46:59
  Speaker 5: that happening again.
• 47:01
  Speaker 16: We absolutely see that. We see lots of people that
• 47:04
  Speaker 16: have followed the Artemis mission that happened earlier this year
• 47:08
  Speaker 16: and are very excited about spaceflight and learning more and
• 47:12
  Speaker 16: trying to figure out how they can participate. And we
• 47:15
  Speaker 16: think it's a great thing. This is a great place
• 47:17
  Speaker 16: to come and learn more about that.
• 47:20
  Speaker 5: One of the interesting things is that is that it
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: you've had a program that that teachers that you didn't know.
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: That you took teachers up in space.
• 47:31
  Speaker 5: Which is is something that you know as a teacher,
• 47:34
  Speaker 5: you would would dream of that happening, but.
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: You have facilitated that in the past. Am I correct?
• 47:42
  Speaker 16: We have In fact, we have three astronauts in the
• 47:47
  Speaker 16: Shubtle era that participated as fully fledged astronauts, actually four
• 47:52
  Speaker 16: teacher astronauts, including Barb Morgan. So you might be recalling
• 47:57
  Speaker 16: that CHRISTA mccauliffe was to fly at the mission specialist
• 48:00
  Speaker 16: astronaut and there was a tragic accident, and after that happened,
• 48:05
  Speaker 16: there was a pause put in the program that was
• 48:08
  Speaker 16: designed to fly teachers into space. And so in the
• 48:12
  Speaker 16: late nineties and nineteen ninety eight, Barb Morgan, who had
• 48:15
  Speaker 16: been Christa mcculliff's backup, she was brought back to NASA
• 48:19
  Speaker 16: and trained as a fully fledged astronaut and she flew
• 48:23
  Speaker 16: in space Space Shuttle. And following that we hired three
• 48:26
  Speaker 16: additional school teachers who came and were trained at NASA
• 48:30
  Speaker 16: as fully fledged astronauts, and they also flew in space,
• 48:34
  Speaker 16: both aboard Space Shuttle and aboard Space station, and recently
• 48:37
  Speaker 16: actually we had a chief astronaut, Joe Acaba, who had
• 48:41
  Speaker 16: previously been a high school science teacher.
• 48:44
  Speaker 5: One thing that people understand, I think in the sixties
• 48:47
  Speaker 5: and seventies.
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: Back to the fifties, people.
• 48:49
  Speaker 5: Had as fascination with space and Hollywood, et cetera. Put
• 48:55
  Speaker 5: this put this in people in kids his that yes,
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: this space is something that's stick to strive for, that
• 49:01
  Speaker 5: we need to strive for. And even when JFK came
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: to Houston and said we will have we will have
• 49:07
  Speaker 5: a man on the Moon.
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: That happens where we're at now.
• 49:11
  Speaker 5: As far as that mission to go.
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: Further into space.
• 49:18
  Speaker 11: Well, you're absolutely right.
• 49:20
  Speaker 16: I think as humans we have this fascination with the
• 49:23
  Speaker 16: universe around us, and we also have a drive to
• 49:26
  Speaker 16: explore the unknown and to challenge ourselves, and space offers
• 49:29
  Speaker 16: a really great environment to do that. So we've been
• 49:32
  Speaker 16: flying people in space for many decades now, but we
• 49:35
  Speaker 16: are constantly looking to explore in new ways and kind
• 49:41
  Speaker 16: of expand the boundaries of who gets to go to space.
• 49:45
  Speaker 16: The more people that we have participating, the more things
• 49:48
  Speaker 16: that we can learn. So for almost thirty years now,
• 49:50
  Speaker 16: we've had the International Space station in low Earth orbit,
• 49:53
  Speaker 16: which is a science laboratory where we can run all
• 49:57
  Speaker 16: kinds of experiments that actually have results that benefit us
• 50:00
  Speaker 16: right here on Earth. And in addition to that, NASA,
• 50:03
  Speaker 16: of course, as you mentioned earlier, is sending astronauts back
• 50:06
  Speaker 16: to the Moon. So recently, earlier this year, we had
• 50:09
  Speaker 16: astronauts fly around the Moon in preparation for a lunar
• 50:12
  Speaker 16: landing in the coming years. And in addition to that,
• 50:15
  Speaker 16: NASA is encouraging commercial companies to build space stations to
• 50:21
  Speaker 16: take over in low Earth orbits so that NASA can
• 50:23
  Speaker 16: focus on the exploration missions. So Vast the company that
• 50:27
  Speaker 16: I mentioned earlier, is building a commercial space station that
• 50:31
  Speaker 16: they'll launch next year. And as we get more capability
• 50:34
  Speaker 16: more experience doing this, it expands the number of people
• 50:38
  Speaker 16: and the type of people who come from all different
• 50:40
  Speaker 16: backgrounds who will have access to going to space and
• 50:44
  Speaker 16: participating in the experiments and the work that we're doing
• 50:47
  Speaker 16: in space. So it's a really exciting time for everything
• 50:50
  Speaker 16: that's going on.
• 50:52
  Speaker 5: One thing I'm cautioned about is the poly mission. Of
• 50:57
  Speaker 5: the second poly mission we had we had to track happened.
• 51:00
  Speaker 5: We had more commercial companies come into into NASA to
• 51:04
  Speaker 5: try to help with the with the with building of.
• 51:07
  Speaker 4: Of of the space space capsules.
• 51:11
  Speaker 5: Is it a fear that bring in more companies in
• 51:14
  Speaker 5: or more private propertization kind of cuts the SAP aspect
• 51:18
  Speaker 5: of things.
• 51:19
  Speaker 16: Well, NASA has always partnered with companies, whether they're private
• 51:23
  Speaker 16: companies or publicly held companies to build the things that
• 51:26
  Speaker 16: we launch into space. For example, Lockheed Martin built the
• 51:29
  Speaker 16: Orion capsule that just sent astronauts around the Moon. So
• 51:33
  Speaker 16: it's the relationship between NASA and the commercial company that
• 51:38
  Speaker 16: is so important that that those companies can learn from
• 51:41
  Speaker 16: NASA from all their many years of experience, and then
• 51:44
  Speaker 16: NASA can learn from these companies that come in with
• 51:47
  Speaker 16: some innovative ideas and new ways of thinking. And so
• 51:50
  Speaker 16: by partnering with that experience and that innovation, we end
• 51:54
  Speaker 16: up getting really good solutions. So it's important, as you mentioned,
• 51:57
  Speaker 16: for NASA to maintain that insight and that oversight to
• 52:01
  Speaker 16: how those new vehicles are being built. Because NASA has
• 52:05
  Speaker 16: so much experience and has had tragic experiences as well,
• 52:09
  Speaker 16: that we share that information so that we can learn
• 52:11
  Speaker 16: from those lessons and be safer going forward.
• 52:15
  Speaker 5: And our our next mission are we going to the
• 52:18
  Speaker 5: moon or are we going or we just we're again.
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: Going around the moon.
• 52:24
  Speaker 16: So the next Artemis mission will be actually an Earth
• 52:27
  Speaker 16: orbit mission that will be to test out rendezvous capability
• 52:32
  Speaker 16: with the landers that are being built by the commercial companies.
• 52:36
  Speaker 16: So they are commercial companies that are building landers that
• 52:38
  Speaker 16: will land on the Moon, and they need to be
• 52:40
  Speaker 16: able to launch that lander into Earth orbit and then
• 52:44
  Speaker 16: refuel it and then rendezvous with the crew capsule and
• 52:48
  Speaker 16: then go to the Moon. And so it's a complicated operation.
• 52:51
  Speaker 16: So it makes a lot of sense to do as
• 52:53
  Speaker 16: much testing as we can in Earth orbit before we
• 52:56
  Speaker 16: go all the way out to the Moon.
• 52:58
  Speaker 4: And the main the main course is to make it
• 53:01
  Speaker 4: to Mars. And how far are we from that, well
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: that is a great question.
• 53:07
  Speaker 16: So currently NASA's focus of course is getting to the Moon.
• 53:10
  Speaker 16: But the things that we will learn by living on
• 53:13
  Speaker 16: the Moon will absolutely help us down the road with
• 53:16
  Speaker 16: a Mars mission, and so I find that very exciting.
• 53:21
  Speaker 16: I would say it's still probably decades away, but I
• 53:24
  Speaker 16: have been surprised before when I think people decide they
• 53:28
  Speaker 16: want to do something challenging and they put all of
• 53:30
  Speaker 16: their energy and effort into doing it, they can actually
• 53:32
  Speaker 16: do it pretty quickly, so we have a lot to
• 53:35
  Speaker 16: learn still. But Mars is I think an ultimate destination
• 53:39
  Speaker 16: for humans who are curious about our universe is there
• 53:42
  Speaker 16: was there ever any form of life on Mars in
• 53:45
  Speaker 16: the past, and could we if we go there, could
• 53:47
  Speaker 16: we find evidence of that? And I think that's a
• 53:49
  Speaker 16: very profound question that helps us understand whether or not
• 53:54
  Speaker 16: there's any other life in the universe.
• 53:56
  Speaker 5: When we had this space program originally which the United
• 54:01
  Speaker 5: States versus the Soviet Union, now we have more of
• 54:05
  Speaker 5: an international.
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: Players involved.
• 54:10
  Speaker 5: Every nation has Like the last the Artomis mission, I
• 54:12
  Speaker 5: had Canadians on board to on board that mission.
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: Are we to the point.
• 54:18
  Speaker 5: Where we we're bringing everybody all the world together.
• 54:23
  Speaker 16: Well, NASA is pursuing the Artemis Accords, which many nations
• 54:29
  Speaker 16: have signed onto already, that talks about how as a
• 54:33
  Speaker 16: united group we will pursue exploration of the Moon together.
• 54:38
  Speaker 16: And there are lots of countries already that have signed
• 54:40
  Speaker 16: on to the Artemis Accords. And NASA is often saying lately,
• 54:44
  Speaker 16: if you if you want to go fast, go alone.
• 54:46
  Speaker 16: If you want to go far, you know, go together.
• 54:48
  Speaker 16: And so this idea of we're representing the Earth as
• 54:51
  Speaker 16: we move away into the Solar System. It's very important
• 54:54
  Speaker 16: I think that we represent our whole planet and as well,
• 54:59
  Speaker 16: you know, we have people from all around the world
• 55:01
  Speaker 16: with amazing ideas, right, a lot of innovative ideas, and
• 55:05
  Speaker 16: so we work together, we're likely to get you know, better,
• 55:08
  Speaker 16: more efficient, more innovative solutions.
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 55:12
  Speaker 5: So well, I'm sor I'm throwing one my age and
• 55:16
  Speaker 5: two what and this is space program?
• 55:21
  Speaker 16: Yeah, I think that's a lot of people's entry point
• 55:23
  Speaker 16: for being interested in space exploration, of course, is science fiction,
• 55:27
  Speaker 16: whether it's books or television shows or movies. I think
• 55:29
  Speaker 16: it's a wonderful entry point for people to come in
• 55:32
  Speaker 16: and say, well, is this real and how would this
• 55:33
  Speaker 16: really work? And I think when people start to explore
• 55:36
  Speaker 16: how it does really work, they're just equally as amazed,
• 55:39
  Speaker 16: you know, as if they had if they had watched
• 55:41
  Speaker 16: a movie. There's really a lot of fascinating things to
• 55:43
  Speaker 16: learn and explore.
• 55:45
  Speaker 5: The artemists mentioned and uh, I'm just talking. The Moniman's
• 55:50
  Speaker 5: mission brought my interests back into the space program. You know,
• 55:57
  Speaker 5: I never lost it, but I was, I was I
• 56:00
  Speaker 5: was back to the Apollo mission, the last Apollo mission.
• 56:05
  Speaker 5: Thinking about that when when we went to the Moon
• 56:08
  Speaker 5: and it brought it brought back a lot of history
• 56:11
  Speaker 5: for me.
• 56:12
  Speaker 11: That's great.
• 56:13
  Speaker 16: I love hearing that. I love hearing that that has
• 56:15
  Speaker 16: rekindled your interest in space exploration.
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: Also, I'm just curious as Space Enter Houston. I know
• 56:23
  Speaker 4: they had it.
• 56:24
  Speaker 5: At RICE, but I don't know if you guys have
• 56:26
  Speaker 5: the speech that Kennedy Kennedy presented at RICE saying that
• 56:34
  Speaker 5: we will have a man on the Moon.
• 56:35
  Speaker 16: And yes, yes, we actually have the actual podium from
• 56:42
  Speaker 16: which President Kennedy gave that speech and we have it
• 56:45
  Speaker 16: on display here at Space Center Houston. So that's another
• 56:48
  Speaker 16: thing that you can see if you come down to
• 56:50
  Speaker 16: visit us.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: That was former astronaut Megan MacArthur talking about Astronauts Day
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: at Space Center Houston that occurred over this past weekend.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: The People's News is a production of Steve Gallington and
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: Richard Hannah and is protected by copyright laws. All the
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  Speaker 1: atgallington dot com. Thank you.