Support hunger strikers at Tacoma immigration detention centre
To
Dear friends,
We invite you to support this call to action from the NWDC Resistance by phoning the authorities listed below.
Thank you.
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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 deterioratedin 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 welfareof 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:
resistenciasolidarity@gmail.com and 206-251-6658 |
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