The following article was originally published by La Resistencia through a newsletter sent on March 20, 2024.
The day after immigrant advocates met with the staff of Senators Murray and Caldwell, indifference and repression continue facing hunger strikes inside Northwest Detention Center, while on the outside, La Resistencia’s founder reaches a week without food.
Tacoma, WA — It has been nearly two weeks since the death of 61-year old Trinidadian migrant Charles Leo Daniel at the now-infamous Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), a tragedy that prompted a multitude of detainees inside the prison to refuse all meals and engage in a hunger strike. From 170 strikers yesterday, the protest has now expanded to include 226 people. The hunger strike’s escalation follows worsening conditions inside, repressive patterns on the part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and GEO Group, and a disappointing meeting between immigrant advocates and the staff of Senators Murray and Caldwell.
One of the hunger strikers that recently joined the protest said that they were inspired both by their fellow prisoners inside and by the protest of La Resistencia’s founder Maru Mora VIllalpando, now on her 7th day of refusing all food. The hunger striker also revealed that many individuals have been waiting up to two years inside the prison without having their cases heard. They demand freedom to continue their processes from the outside,
Their grievances include:
- The absence of ICE officers to review cases, lengthening the presence of detainees inside the prison for months and even years.
- A lack of clean clothes. Since a fire broke out last week in the facility, NWDC has not been providing clean uniforms.
- Foul food, delivered two hours late in recent weeks.
- Bad medical attention.
- A lack of cleaning and hygiene. Per the hunger strikers, communal spaces are only cleaned sporadically, and for that matter, only for ten minutes at a time.
- Sinks are often clogged and have broken faucets.
It is worth underscoring that these demands fall in line with issues around food,hygiene, and medical neglect that NWDC has faced for years. The vulnerability of detainees was underscored by the fire that broke out on March 14th at the facility, for which GEO Group – the private operators of NWDC – failed to evacuate any detainees and which was only addressed when La Resistencia called firemen to the prison.
According to one detainee, GEO Group is now coordinating “fire drills” that nonetheless reveal their lack of preparedness. Today at 8:20 am, a fire drill unit was done in unit C1, in which a guard told detainees, in English and with a calm voice, that they should “go out of the unit when there’s a fire.” Most of the 100 women who reside in the unit do not speak English, forcing the detainees to interpret for each other. One brave woman, per the witness, spoke up against GEO, stating, “This is a drill but it’s only a farce to pretend they did something when the fire happened last week.” Other guards arrived and showed displeasure at the woman’s comments, subsequently ordering them all to leave the unit and form a single file on the hallway against the wall. GEO guards counted them and moved them back to the unit. Such was the extent of the “fire drill” organized inside NWDC.
Retaliation has also followed the hunger strikers – again, part of a longer pattern on the part of GEO Group and ICE. Following the death of Mr. Daniel, five suicide attempts took place inside NWDC. Witnesses of said attempts are now being transferred to other facilities, as far away as Texas, for speaking out. Furthermore, GEO Group is now denying outdoor recreational time to detainees to keep them from speaking to La Resistencia’s hunger strike encampment, right outside the facility. Yesterday, Unit A2 of the prison gave up on their hunger strike after ICE threatened them with denying their bond requests if they continued their political activity.
Muslim detainees have also complained about indifference towards their faith during the month of Ramadan. Food trays during Ramadan are supposed to be delivered half an hour before the sunset, all food has been provided late – conflicting with their religious obligations.
Yesterday, Maru Mora from La Resistencia and Mike Ishi from Tsuru for Solidarity, a Japanese-American organization fighting to end detention, met with the staff of Senators Caldwell and Murray to ask that they make clear, public statements on the death of Charles Leo Daniel and the brutality facing detainees inside NWDC. In a post-meeting press conference, La Resistencia’s founder Maru Mora Villalpando stated that per ICE’s own records, Mr. Daniel was held in solitary confinement for the single longest period in ICE history. This information, provided by the office of Senator Murray, confirmed an earlier report from the University of Washington Center for Human Rights.
The report showed that NWDC “detained people longer, in average, in solitary confinement than any other dedicated ICE facility in detention.” Furthermore, “data reveals that of the ten individuals who served the longest periods in ICE solitary confinement across the nation, five were held at Tacoma’s Northwest Detention Center.” With respect to the mentally ill, NWDC places people with mental illness in solitary confinement at lengths twice to thrice the national average.
Other aspects of the situation inside NWDC were not known by the senators’ offices. Villalpando disclosed that the senators’ offices were unaware of the fire that broke out at the facility last Thursday, and even more alarmingly, that members of Senator Murray’s office were on site at NWDC at the exact time that Daniel’s body was being moved out of the facility, and were not informed by GEO staff. “It’s ridiculous that we, people from the community, immigrants, have to spend our time investigating ICE, or [the senators] don’t get this information,” Villalpando stated.
Villalpando confirmed her commitment to remain on indefinite hunger strike, with Mr. Ishi joining in a solidarity fast routine, until Senators Murray and Cantwell make a public statement on Daniel’s death, the numerous suicide attempts inside NWDC, and the hunger strike that detainees have been participating in.
Maru Villalpando stated, “If I end up in the hospital, it’s on them, it’s their lack of response…We’re asking so little. Say something, say something about Mr. Daniel, why won’t you?”
La Resistencia is a grassroots organization in Washington state led by undocumented people in solidarity with detainees at Northwest Detention Center, fighting for the closing of the facility and an end to all detentions and deportations
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