For immediate release
November 22, 2014
Anton Flores, 706-302-9661, anton@alternacommunity.com
Arturo Viscarra, SOA Watch, 617-820-3008, arturo@soaw.org
Hendrik Voss, SOA Watch 202-425-5128, hvoss@soaw.org
soaw.org/newsroom
Activists Protest One of Largest US Immigrant Prisons, Caravan to Fort Benning, Home of the School of the Americas
5 Human Rights Activists Arrested
On Saturday, November 22, hundreds of human rights defenders converged in the remote town of Lumpkin, Georgia, whose largest employer is the Corrections Corporation of America at the Stewart Detention Center. Stewart is one of the largest immigrant prisons in the US, currently warehousing 1,800 men for profit. These detainees' only “crime” was to flee the economic and political violence in their home countries, violence created by US policies and training like at the SOA/WHINSEC.
In the wake of President Obama’s announcement about his executive actions in regards to immigration, the activists marched 1.7 miles from central Lumpkin to the Stewart Detention Center. At a vigil in front of the prison, the activists demanded the release of the immigrants who are imprisoned at Stewart, an immediate end to mass deportations, and the closure of the Stewart Detention Center. Five activists were arrested for their nonviolent civil disobedience at the gates of Stewart: longtime union activist Maureen Fitzsimmos of Michigan; Rebecca Kanner, former SOA Watch prisoner of conscience from Michigan; Anton Flores, the vigil organizer from the Alterna community and the Georgia Detention Watch coalition; Jason McGaughey, of Washington, DC; and Kevin Caron of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition. Bail was set at $25,000 for Anton Flores, and $1,000 for each of the others, but the SOA Watch Legal Collective negotiated bonds down to $250 each.[...]
Read the full press release:
http://soaw.org/news/news-alerts/4263-media-release-immigrant-rights-activists-converge-on-georgia-immigrant-prison-
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