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| Protesters support striking detainees. Photo: Tacoma Action Collective |
Largely
ignored by the mainstream media, hunger
strikes are continuing among immigrant detainees at the Northwest Detention
Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Washington. Outside support for the detainees is being
coordinated by a local group, NWDC
Resistance/Resistencia al NWDC .
Hunger
strike resumes at immigration detention center
By
Keith Eldridge, KOMO News
April 25th 2017
TACOMA,
Wash. -- A hunger strike has resumed with immigration detainees claiming the
conditions inside remain deplorable. This comes as demonstrators take their
actions to Tacoma City Hall to fight against any possible expansion of the
facility.
The
hunger strike resumed at noon Tuesday inside the walls of the Northwest
Detention Center. The NWDC Resistance group says 40 detainees are refusing to
eat to protest what they call a deterioration of the food and health care
inside.
About
750 people ended their hunger strike recently after what they considered
successful negotiations with GEO, the private company that runs the prison for
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But Resistance members said the
company went back on its word. NWDC Resistance member, Wendy Pantoja, said
"Because they say GEO is lying about the conditions, the food is
worse."[…]
Read
the full article:
For
Immediate Release:
April
25, 2017
Contact:
Maru
Mora Villalpando, 206-251-6658
Wendy
Pantoja, 253-468-5822
Detainees Begin Third Week on Hunger Strike because GEO
Lied in Negotiations, Call on City of Tacoma to Address Worsening Conditions
What:
Rally and testimony Calling for Revocation of GEO’s license to run NWDC
When:
4 pm Rally, 5:15 City Council Public Hearing
Where:
Tacoma Municipal Building; City Council Chambers; 747 Market Street, First
Floor; Tacoma, WA 98402
Tacoma,
WA – People detained at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) have been hunger
striking since April 10 to call attention to worsening nutrition and sanitation
conditions. Their unmet demands included properly cleaned laundry, adequate
medical care, reasonable commissary prices, raising the $1 per day prison wage,
more nutritional cafeteria food, and contact visits "so parents can hug
their children." The NWDC, which is located on a Superfund site, is the
largest immigrant detention center on the West Coast, caging over 1,500 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. The abysmal conditions point to the ongoing
danger the NWDC to the public health, safety and welfare of the individuals
involved, as well as the community as a whole.
GEO
Group representatives promised to improve food to meet basic nutritional
standards after the first week on strike. Instead, the food has gotten worse
and GEO has retaliated against hunger strikers. They believe that GEO and ICE
retaliated against hunger strikers by transferring at least four hunger
strikers to NORCOR corrections facility in Oregon. They announce that 40 men
will go on hunger strike today, calling on GEO and ICE keep their
promises.[...]
Read
the full press release:
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