Vol. 78/No. 13      April 7, 2014

The prison is privately owned by GEO Group, Inc., and under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house immigrants pending deportation.

Prisoners’ handwritten list of demands was presented at the action. It included, “halt deportations, bond so we can fight our cases at home with our children; no deportations for parents or spouses of citizens”; and “faster resolution” of immigration cases. They also demanded better food, an end to abusive treatment, more than $1 a day pay for prison work and lower commissary prices.

Maru Villalpando, founder of Latino Advocacy, said protests last month blocked a bus and two vans of immigrants being deported from leaving the facility.

Some 750 of the 1,300 inmates refused food beginning March 7, according to a statement from immigration officials.

“It’s time to tell the world what’s happening here,” German Ruvalcaba, 36, a construction worker from Mexico, told the Militant. He spent 18 months at the jail after being picked up for a speeding ticket. His case is pending. “Inside we were always in struggle, but finally there is enough support inside and outside to have a hunger strike.”

“I told my children I would come here today to support all the hunger strikers,” said Maria, a fast-food worker whose husband is among the strikers.

“We are out here to add to the voice of those inside,” Nadia Bucio of El Comité Pro Reforma y Justicia Social (Immigration Reform and Social Justice Committee), told the Militant. “We have seen deportations of 2 million under this president.”

Juan Jose Bocanegra of the May 1 Action Coalition in Seattle said prison authorities have threatened to force-feed those on hunger strike.

“I’m proud of my dad,” said Anthony Garcia, 19, a college student who had just visited his father inside. “It takes a lot of courage to do what he did. I think they are going to win something.”

“People in detention can’t wait any longer,” said Sandy Restrepo, an attorney representing several hunger strikers. “They are human beings, not criminals, and they deserve better treatment.”

On March 15, supporters of the inmates held another rally outside the immigration jail. Three detainees were still on hunger strike by the ninth day, March 17. That day inmates at an immigration facility in Conroe, Texas, initiated a hunger strike.  
 
 
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