More than 10 days of hunger strike at a detention center for migrants in the US
229 immigrants detained inside the Northwest Detention Centre in Tacoma, Washington, continue their hunger strike in response to the death of Trinidadian Charles Leo Daniel for unknown reasons.
BY Carlos Soledad 25 March 2024 EL SALTO (Revised Google translation original in Spanish)
A group of 229 immigrants detained inside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, continue their hunger strike in response to the death (on March 7th), of the Trinidadian citizen Charles Leo Daniel for unknown reasons and suicide attempts by five detainees so far. Leo Daniel was confined to solitary confinement for almost 4 years. People locked up have protested inhumane conditions, including sexual assaults for years. Outside, La Resistencia, a grassroots organization led by people who stand in solidarity with those in the Northwest Detention Centre and fighting for closure and the end of all detentions and deportations, has set up a solidarity camp and joined the hunger strike.
The founder of La Resistencia, Maru Mora Villalpando, has reached ten days without food, and camped in front of the Detention Center. Now, they have been joined by three more volunteers from Tsuru for Solidarity and Climate Action from the socialist organisation South Sound/Freedom Road. In an official statement, La Resistencia stated that on the eighth day of protests outside and inside the Detention Center there have been “a fire, night buses that bring and remove inmates, as well as emergency calls to care for hunger strikers who were sick”. Due to the gravity of the situation, La Resistencia has set up a camp outside the centre to support and give visibility to the hunger strike.
Amid protests, conditions have worsened inside the Tacoma Detention Centre, with GEO Group and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) transferring people and deporting them without interruption. A fire also occurred in the laundry on the afternoon of March 14. Volunteers from the migrant organisation called the emergency services, but GEO Group did not evacuate any centre’s units or classrooms. Meanwhile, ICE authorities continue to lock up, deport and intimidate strikers.
Maru Mora, leader of La Resistencia, an organization that is also a member of the International Network Papers For All, with a presence in the United States, Europe and Latin America, has joined the hunger strike, in the camp installed outside the Detention Center. After ten days without eating, and only ingesting liquids, she has answered El Salto on the phone to make the fight visible and call for international solidarity. “We want the allied organizations to report to their respective territories what’s going on in Tacoma and put pressure on Senator Cantwell. Maru, says she’s fine, though tired: I’m consuming pure liquids, I try to sleep in the nights, it’s my 10th day, but if I have to be more days, I think I’m going to have to do it.”
On the ninth day of refusing to eat, according to the migrants group’s reports, there were many emergencies in the immigration prison
On the ninth day of refusing to eat, according to the migrants group’s reports, there were many emergencies in the immigration prison. In unit B3 alone, nine people were taken urgently for emergency treatment. Some of these people fainted and were subsequently taken to the F2 unit for medical isolation, which in itself is a euphemism to refer to solitary confinement for neglect. At 9 pm, La Resistencia camp witnessed firefighters and paramedics taking a person out of the detention centre.
The situation is “very serious” according to the human rights defender. “There have been six suicide attempts, epileptic attacks, some heart attacks, fainting. Hundreds of them are on hunger strike, some start, others stop”. The activist complains that the politicians have done nothing, “that’s why we decided to set up the camp; we have two tents, which we also made to protect an altar for Mr. Daniel – the migrant who died in the Detention Centre”. GEO, which is the private company that manages the Detention Centre, “removed it twice” says Villalpando, “but they can’t do it because it is on public property, not the Detention Centre’s. We also have a kitchen and a small room, as well as a place to receive people who are being released”.
Meanwhile, ICE authorities continue to lock-up, deport and intimidate strikers
Meanwhile, ICE authorities continue to lock up, deport and intimidate strikers. ICE is the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) – the immigration police – which did not previously exist. It was created in 2003, following the attack on the Twin Towers. It is the most resourced federal police agency in the country, above the FBI, the DEA and the CIA combined, whose aim is to pursue our families.
Maru attaches particular importance to international solidarity and calls on civil society in other countries. “Share photos and information about what’s going on please, we want people and organizations in the US to contact Senator Cantwell. We demand that they conduct an independent investigation and that the senator make a public statement. Daniel died two weeks ago and she has not said anything. I’ll stop my strike when she makes a statement. It would help us a lot to send emails, we have a website that explains everything, people can easily translate it with your browser and phone (for the moment only possible from the United States). We want GEO and ICE that are responsible for the death to face consequences.”
Instead of acknowledging the protest from the detainees, ICE and GEO Group are trying to silence it. On the one hand, the authorities have tried to force the detainees to eat and break the protest. On the other hand, those who witnessed suicide attempts have also begun to be released, according to a hunger striker with knowledge of recent releases. The plight of hunger strikers is reflected in the story of an anonymous protester, who has now spent two years in the detention centre simply for seeking asylum. After trying to win his case, the anonymous protester agreed to be deported back to his home country, despite the deadly threats waiting for him there. Yet ICE has not granted him asylum or deported him, leaving him in legal and administrative limbo.
Through its camp and its work of tracking ICE flights, La Resistencia has evidence that in the midst of these crises, the authorities of the Tacoma Detention Center continue to admit new immigrants and deport others. The organization has recorded the arrival of two new flights commissioned by ICE for today, one from Dallas and the other from Phoenix. These flights can carry more detainees or make a stopover to load deportees.
In addition, La Resistencia witnessed an unusual deportation bus movement during the last hours of March 15 to the 16th. Instead of parking the buses in their usual place, near the La Resistencia camp, a bus was taken to the cargo area. On the morning of the 16th, a group of detainees were quickly taken to the bus, and authorities tried to hide the operation from the migrant activist camp.
These two events, Saturday’s flights and bus cargo, are incredibly unusual, as these operations usually take place on Tuesdays. The way government authorities transport immigrants and, in some cases, release witnesses, suggests hidden attempts to respond to the current political crisis within the prison.
The protest actions are also a response to a preliminary court order by U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle, The protest actions are also a response to a preliminary injunction by U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle, siding with GEO Group against the state of Washington in denying state authorities to conduct oversight of the facility as required by state law H.B. 1470. This decision allows the Tacoma Centre to violate detention guidelines, including providing awful food and soiled clothing, and proceed unrestricted and without impunity. It also contradicts an earlier ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that even if states could not close detention centres at the federal level, as mandated by the now repealed Washington state H.B. 1090, they could regulate them.
La Resistencia promises to continue its hunger strike until politicians assume responsibility for the situation
The Resistance promises to continue its hunger strike until politicians assume responsibility for the situation. Their demands include the closure of the Northwest Detention Center, an end to solitary confinement in all parts of the Detention Center, an independent investigation into the deaths of Mr. Charles Leo Daniel and all those who have suffered damage from ICE and GEO actions and an accountability and reparation process.
The section of the International Network Papers For All in Valencia, Spain, have produced videos of support, sent letters to Senator Cantwell and the local Campaign to close detention centres has been requested to dedicate a moment of its next demonstration last Tuesday of each month, March 26, at 7 pm, to make visible the situation in the Tacoma Detention Centre, and in solidarity with the hunger strike of inmates and undocumented migrants of La Resistencia. Likewise, the Allied association in Valencia calls for solidarity in Spain by organizing actions at the American embassy and sending emails to Senator Cantwell.