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What is Keeping Hope Alive?
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Keeping Hope Alive (KHA)
provides back-up support to immigration prisoners across the U.S. It
assists detainees and their families in investigating, documenting, and taking
action against abuses perpetrated in federal facilities and county jails. KHA
aims to create accountability where there is none, to improve access to
desperately needed legal resources, and to bring national attention to human
rights abuses in the detention industry.
KHA is coordinated by
Alexander (Malik) Ndaula, a South African national
and former detainee. Malik fled to the U.S. at the age of twelve after the
assassination of his parents, who were outspoken members of the anti-apartheid
movement. After spending several years in the U.S. without securing political
asylum he was eventually detained by the immigration system after serving time
for a petty misdemeanor. He secured his release from the immigration system in
May 2004 by litigating his own case.
KHA is currently stationed at the
National Immigration
Project of the National Lawyers Guild
with grant support from the
Open Society
Institute. Dan Kesselbrenner, Director of
the National Immigration Project, is helping to guide the legal support that is
being provided through KHA. Several chapters of the ACLU are also
supporting KHA's activities to monitor and respond to human rights abuses in
immigration detention centers.
Current activities of Keeping Hope Alive include:
- Responding to requests for legal support from
detainees on an ongoing basis.
- Improving detention law libraries, by mailing
out up-to-date legal resources and producing self-help materials designed
specifically to help detainees litigate their own cases with the immigration
system..
- Monitoring allegations of human rights abuses
at detention facilities and entering into negotiations with prison officials
to improve conditions for detainees.
- Coordinating the litigation of individual and
class action suits that challenge abusive treatment of detainees.
- Providing resources for detainees and the
general public which explain how immigration enforcement is being used to
expand the authority and profitability of the U.S. prison industry.
For a more info you can also check out this
article from the Prisons Almanac
2005,
published by the Prisons Foundation.
About Malik
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I am a former detainee and
jailhouse lawyer. I spent three years in immigration custody.
We were forced to
do our own legal work and advocate for one another. Many of us
became legal
minds and experts the hard way. I worked hard every day and night,
continuously
corresponding with advocacy and human rights organizations, and even
litigating
to expose the unfair treatment of immigration prisoners. I helped many
individuals
secure their freedom before attaining my own in May 2004. I made a
pledge not only to
myself, but to the over 1 million immigrants deported since
the 1996 laws and the 30,000
held in various prisons daily including their
families, that the day I regained my freedom
I would work to step up the fight
for fairness and social justice for us all. Thus, the proposal
to form this
project ’Keeping Hope Alive. Since my release, I became an active member
of
the New York area immigrant rights project
Families For Freedom.
I also began doing volunteer work at the National Immigration
Project of the National Lawyers Guild, which is now my fulltimeplace of employment and the current home of Keeping Hope Alive.
You can contact me at 617 227 9727 ext 8 or email
alexander@nationalimmigrationproject.org.
Detainee Letters
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New!
Letter from detainees at
San Diego CCA criticizing conditions and practices
Answer
to Patrick Brown Complaint
Petition for review of repressive
detention conditions by detainees at the Etowah County jail
Exiling
New Yorkers: The story of how one Dominican immigrant was deported for
agreeing to a plea bargain.
Click here for
more detainee
letters.
Class Action Suits
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Brown et. al. v. Ridge et. al.
A class action suit being brought forward by several current and former
detainees which is currently sitting in the Western Louisiana District Court.
Malik Ndaula is a plaintiff on this case, and the primary person guiding the
litigation of the case. See the January 31 press release,
New
Life for Class Action Suits Alleging Systemic Abuse of NonCitizen Detainees,
for current info on the status of this case. Also see the document below
Abimbola et. al. v. Robinson et. al.
A class action suit being brought forward by several current and former
detainees which is currently sitting in the Northern Alabama District Court.
Malik Ndaula is also a plaintiff on this case. Many of the other plaintiffs for
this suit are currently being held in the Etowah County Jail. Visit the
link below for an overview of their grievances, which are being addressed by the
Abimbola suit. Also, see the January 31 press release,
New
Life for Class Action Suits Alleging Systemic Abuse of NonCitizen Detainees
for current info on the status of this case.
Machado Part 1
Machado Part 2
Machado Part 3
Self Help
Materials
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Please check back later on! We will be adding
items to this section in the weeks to come. In the meantime, you may find
it helpful to review a copy of
standards for detention law libraries issued by the Department of Homeland
Security (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
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