Vol. 81/No. 18      May 8, 2017

 

Jailed immigrants’ hunger strike won support
in Washington

 
TACOMA, Wash. — “Here they treat us worse than a prison. It’s supposed to be just detention for immigration, but it’s a prison,” said Cristian Lopez, speaking by phone from inside the Northwest Detention Center April 10 to a crowd of supporters outside the gates of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement prison. More than 100 prisoners began a two-week hunger strike that would grow to 750 by midweek and is now over.

The prison is owned and operated by the international GEO Group, the second biggest private-prison outfit in the U.S. The facility is one of the largest immigration prisons in the country.

“I am leaving already,” Lopez, who faces deportation, said. “I do this for my people and for the people that are still going to be here, be they dark skinned, light skinned or Hispanic, be they what they may. There is no other way for us, we are here supporting each other.”

A group called NWDC Resistance set up an encampment outside the prison during the hunger strike.

The detention center has an official capacity of 1,575, but prisoners who work in the kitchen say there are closer to 1,700 currently detained there, Maru Mora Villalpando, a leader of the group, told the Militant. The prisoners say that’s how many meals they prepare.

“When prisoners complained that the food was limited to little but rice and beans and that portions were being cut,” Mora said, “GEO authorities told them, ‘there are too many of you.’”

Striking prisoners are demanding more and better food, lower prices in the commissary, a raise in wages for work to more than $1 a day, and improved conditions.

Another important demand is that GEO stop placing obstacles in the way of prisoners’ legal efforts to fight against being deported. Access to the center’s law library is limited, as is access to the printer.

Temporary transfers to the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Center in The Dalles, Oregon, are a big problem. “When you check out from the facility, GEO takes all your history from the computer,” Oscar Escobar said. When you come back, “you have to start over from zero.”

Mora said that in order to spread the word among the segregated units of the prison, male detainees asked her to talk about the hunger strike on the radio. “That‘s how the women found out about it,” she said. “Then they contacted us to say that some of them were joining the strike.”

Some prisoners told protesters camped outside that ICE had promised to make some of the changes they’re demanding. “We want to make sure that whatever ICE promises them is followed through on,” Mora said.
 
 
Related articles:
Socialist Workers Party: Amnesty for immigrants!
All out for May 1 protests! No deportations!
 
 
 
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