Hunger Strike by WA State Immigration Detainees

Hunger Strikes part of a larger campaign aimed at President Obama to issue an executive order halting deportations

ICE Detainees Immigration Protest (Photo: Joe Barrentine)

by Amel Ahmed (2-24-14) Tacoma, WA — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed that at least 550 detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Washington state have launched a hunger strike.

Grim Reward

Grim Reward

The detainees, who have been refusing to eat since Friday, are demanding better food, safer working conditions and for President Barack Obama to sign an executive order ending deportations, according to Maru Mora Villalpando, founder of Latino Advocacy.

The hunger strikers, Villalpando said, are part of a growing, nationwide campaign against the U.S. immigration policy. Villalpando put the number of hunger strikers at 1,200, more than twice what ICE reported to Al Jazeera.

The strike is expected to last through Tuesday, Villalpando said. The center, which is run by the private correctional services company GEO Group, currently houses 1,300 people being investigated for possible deportation.

ICE told Al Jazeera that hunger strikers are under continuous observation by detention center staff and medical personnel: “ICE fully respects the rights of all people to express their opinion without interference.”

Villalpando, whose group organized protests outside the detention facility last month, told Al Jazeera that protesters began the strike on a Friday because that is when guards segregate those who will be deported on Monday morning from those who remain in detention.

Hunger strikers at the facility were inspired to fast after witnessing protesters outside the gates of the detention center block deportation vans from exiting, Villalpando said. Solidarity actions outside the center are being planned in tandem with the hunger strikes. “People will be coming every day from noon to 4 p.m. until Tuesday to show their support with the 1,200 immigrants,” Villalpando said.

Villalpando accused GEO Group of exploiting detainees at the facility by paying them $1 a day for performing services that include working in the kitchen and janitorial work. “It’s just ironic that the government is detaining people for working without a social security number; meanwhile, they allow this company to exploit their labor,” said Villalpando.

GEO, which calls itself the world’s leading provider of correctional and detention services, lobbied Congress last year on immigration reform, standing against alternatives to detention, according to The Nation. GEO did not respond to requests for comment.

Nationwide campaign
Immigration detainees in Washington State are the latest to join a nationwide campaign to protest deportations. Similar actions have been held in Arizona, Illinois, California and Virginia.

Coordinated actions by immigration advocates and detainees signify a new front in the battle to halt deportations after a bipartisan immigration reform bill stalled in the Republican-controlled House last July. Activists have shifted their focus from Congress to President Barack Obama, demanding that he issue an executive order to end deportations until the immigration system is overhauled for the around 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States.

A national campaign dubbed “Not One More Deportation,” organized by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, is sponsoring events around the country to halt the deportations. On April 5, a day of action called “All Out in the Streets” will include additional hunger strikes and sit-ins outside the White House and across the country.

IMGP0029

Peace Train

IMGP0033

Climb on Board the Peace Train

IMGP0034

People Are NOT ‘Illegal’!

IMGP0063crp

What Would Jesus Do?

IMGP0072

Into the Belly of the Beast

IMGP0081

Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here

IMGP0090crp

Main Stream Meets Main Street

IMGP0102

As ye have treated the least of these, so have ye treated me. – Matthew 25:33-40 –

IMGP0104crp

Gates to Immigration Hades

IMGP0111

Tracks to Immigration Concentration Camp

IMGP0114crp

Orphaned?

IMGP0120

Good Fences Making Good Neighbors?

IMGP0122

When the Saints Come Marching In

IMGP0124crp

Endangered Species

IMGP0125crp

Arbeit Macht Frei

IMGP0126

Jobs & Jails: Eggs & Bacon?

IMGP0132

Come to the Barrio

IMGP0134

Mending Walls

IMGP0135

Love is Stronger than $

IMGP0138

A Nation of Immigrants

IMGP0141

Sunday Sermon

IMGP0145

Beauty and the Beast

IMGP0150

Home to the Hearth from a Hard Day at the Gulag

IMGP0153crp

Officer Friendly Checks Immigration Reform Advocates

IMGP0155crp

Cold Day in Hell

IMGP0156

Ms. Sunshine after a hard day at the Gulag

IMGP0166

Prison-Industrial Complex

IMGP0167

Good Humor Man

IMGP0168

Meat Wagon

IMGP0170

Human Trafficking

IMGP0171

$oylent Green

IMGP0175

Easy Come, Easy Go

IMGP0176

Human Misery Profit Margin

IMGP0178

Courage In the Face of Adversity

IMGP0181

Pear shaped or square shaped, these walls don’t lose their shape.

IMGP0183

What GeO’s for FexEx is good for America

IMGP0186

Immigration Reform Advocates Stand Tall

IMGP0189

ICE is NOT Nice!

IMGP0190

Storming the Walls of the Prisons

IMGP0191

Sisters of Mercy

IMGP0192crp

Watching US Watching Them!

IMGP0195

Taco Time at the Prison-Industrial Complex

IMGP0198

Homeward Bound for those lucky enough to have one

IMGP0202

Warm, Safe, & Dry

 

About admin

Opposed to politicians who equivocate about air quality & BioMassacre
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.