Hundreds of Immigrants on Hunger Strike at Northwest Detention Center

April 13, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

A letter from one of the immigrants taking part in the NWDC hunger strike

To the public society: the public opinion

We want to let you know we are people imprisoned in the detention center in Tacoma, WA by immigration agents. We are around 1400 people, and many of us have families who depend on our income, and as you can imagine we cannot make money inside. So we ask the community that is outside to help however they can, help accelerate our immigration process to either deport us or release us on bond. This [prolonged detention] is harming us physically, mentally, morally, and emotionally to people detained and to our families with the simple act of keeping us detained for too long. All cases at a minimum are taking at least month and a half to two months just to see a judge who will only read the charges against you, and then you wait for another month to give you a court date, and then decide whether they will deport you or you will get a bond.

The truth is that under this conditions amongst the desperation, impotency, anguish, etc, of not being able to do anything from the inside we ask you respectfully to deliver this letter to the appropriate institution: Human Rights. Or the public opinion as soon as possible to see if there is anything that can be done for us. We believe that having encaged in this place is a business. We know the food that is given to us is not good and they sell us the famous commissary, so as long as you have someone that send you a few dollars you can buy and if you don’t you have to make due with what they give you; and not even talk on the telephone [because you have to pay for that, too], as long as you are encaged you have to communicate with you relatives either here or in your country of origin.

Well, to the point: the only thing we want is not to be detained for so long, if we are to be deported so be it and to be given a chance to stay and pay bond, or any other way possible to remain. We don’t want to be encaged for so long, we believe this is unjust.

Sincerely,
Everyone detained especially those in pod A1C

As of Wednesday night, 750 immigrant detainees being held in the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Washington have joined in a hunger strike that began Monday, April 10. Among the detainees’ demands are expedited hearings; an end to “inedible” food; better medical care; and an increase in the amount they are paid for working inside the prison from the $1 a day they receive now. This is not the first strike by detainees at NWDC. In 2014 1,200 immigrants went on a hunger strike, some who continued their strike for weeks, in order to draw attention to the same conditions.

NWDC is the largest detention center on the West Coast, with a capacity of 1,575 detainees. It is run by a private prison corporation—GEO Group Inc., which operates prisons and detention centers around the country. Last year Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) held more than 350,000 immigrants in civil detention facilities.

NWDC Resistance, a support group that was formed out of the hunger strikes of 2014, has rallied supporters outside the detention center from the start, camping out each night to draw attention to and build support for the prisoners’ strike and to their demands. According to their press release, “Detention conditions were already terrible under Obama, and from what we’re hearing, they’ve gotten even worse since Trump’s election. We know from past hunger strikes that ICE and GEO are quick to retaliate, and we want the hunger strikers to know that they are not alone.”

They’ve called for a rally at noon on Thursday, which will mark 72 hours since the start of the hunger strike—the point at which ICE and GEO have to acknowledge that there is a hunger strike taking place. They are expecting to receive a call from the prisoners at that point, telling their supporters whether they plan to continue the strike.

Maru Mora-Villalpando, spokesperson for the support group told the Seattle Weekly she is doubtful that appealing to the Trump administration will yield very much. She recently returned from an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hearing in Washington, D.C., and for the first time in two decades of such meetings, she said, the United States did not show up. “For us, it was just another sign that we’re dealing with a fascist regime that doesn’t care about human rights.” But that makes what the prisoners are doing even more important.

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