NWDC
Resistance/Resistencia al NWDC - CALL TO ACTION Hunger Strike
Continues at Northwest Detention Center As GEO Retaliates With Worsening Food Tacoma, WA 19 April 2017 – Today, over a
dozen individuals detained at Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) continued a
hunger strike to call attention to the abysmal conditions at the facility,
which have only gotten worse since Trump took office. More immigrants plan to join the hunger strike this weekend. Men and women detained at the facility
have reported the quality of the food
has deteriorated in the last few days, potentially in response to their
activism.
The NWDC, which is located on a
superfund site, is the largest immigrant detention center on the West Coast,
caging over 1500 immigrants while awaiting civil deportation proceedings. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) contracts with The GEO Group, a multinational private prison
corporation, to run the facility, and hunger strikers aimed their demands at both the federal government and the
private contractor. NWDC has been a frequent target of immigrant
activists since a March 2014 hunger strike involving 1200 detainees first
brought international notoriety to the immigration prison. Detention conditions have worsened
under the Trump administration, triggering this latest strike, which started
on April 10. Trump has staffed his deportation force with openly
anti-immigrant officials with links to white supremacist organizations,
leaving people detained with little choice but to put their bodies on the
line to fight for their basic dignity. Attorney General Jeff Session’s newly
released memorandum calling for increased prosecutions of immigrants and
their supporters, combined with a roll-out where he referred to immigrants as
“filth,” highlights the continued need for local resistance to the federal
deportation and detention dragnet We need your support!! Call the City of
Tacoma and ICE Call the City of Tacoma’s Finance Department and
urge them to revoke GEO Group’s Business License. In a March 2017 letter to
GEO, Mayor Strickland noted that the
City of Tacoma can revoke GEO’s business license if it is a “danger to the
public health, safety and welfare of the individuals [detained] as well
as the community as a whole.” ►
Finance Department, Andrew Cherullo, Finance Director, +1 253.591.5800 Call ICE and demand that 1) they meet the Hunger
Strikers Demands (see below) and 2) GEO Group not retaliate against hunger
strikers. We have reports that strikers have been threatened with transfer to
facilities away from their loved ones as punishment. ►
Acting Field Director, Bryan S. Willcox ►
Assistance Field Director (Detention): William Penaloza ►
Facility Main Telephone: +1 253 779.6000 ►
Field Office Main Telephone Line: +1 206 835.0650 Hunger Striker’s Demands ▪ Change the food menu ▪ Lower commissary prices. ▪ Improve hygiene, including the ability to
wash clothes with soap and water. ▪ Increase recreation time. ▪ Have schoolwork and other programs available
to keep detainees occupied. ▪ Improve medical attention. ▪ Increase wages for working detainees. ▪ Help speed up the legal process for
detainees Contact: Maru Mora Villalpando, NWDC Resistance: Update:
https://www.facebook.com/NWDCResistance/ |