La Resistencia announces hunger strike outside Washington detention center to stand in solidarity with 300-person hunger strike within the prison, following one migrant death, two suicide attempts, and a court decision to strike down WA state law.
Tacoma, WA — A 300-person hunger strike inside Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) has reached its sixth (6th) day, amid isolation and threats on the part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and GEO Group, the prison profiteers who operate the prison. The strike follows the death of one detainee, Trinidadian national Charles Leo Daniel, as well as suicide attempts on the part of two more prisoners. In response to this crisis, and the indifference of the government, La Resistencia announces a solidarity hunger strike, beginning this evening, on the encampment they set up yesterday. Two people will kickstart the action: La Resistencia founder Maru Mora Villalpando and Tsuru for Solidarity’s Becca Asaki, from NYC.
Maru Mora Villalpando had previously been targeted by ICE for deportation due to her activism on behalf of NWDC detainees. She appeared on Democracy Now, where she stated that, “We are in this midst of horrible, horrible situations in detention centers, at the border, in the countries where people need to flee, because it’s working for corporations and for governments. That’s why we’re not waiting for the government to solve this. We have to save ourselves.”
The solidarity hunger strike is being done in conjunction with a larger, more vulnerable hunger strike inside NWDC featuring 300 hunger strikers. The inside hunger strike, latest in a long string of similar actions, follows the death of 61-year old Trinidadian immigrant Charles Leo Daniel, who died at the prison’s cruel solitary confinement unit. Two suicide attempts of young Punjabi men followed the death of Mr. Daniel.
The determined hunger strikers inside NWDC report being met with cruelty and punitive actions. Long-time inside organizer Chidi Emmanuel Megwa said that yesterday at 6 PM, ICE Officer Santiago arrived at Unit A3 wanting to talk to detainees – only to be ignored by all strikers. Chidi reports then being taken to an intake unit from 6 PM to 9 PM, presumably to help communicate with hunger strikers, though he was only made to wait. Chidi suspects this was a form of intimidation.
Another detainee said that GEO Group arrived this morning to take away the people who had organized the strike onto another pod, B3, where they were coupled with more hunger strikers. Their personal commissary items were put in trash bags. GEO Group is isolating all hunger strikers.
On the outside, La Resistencia’s encampment has already been the target of harassment on the part of GEO Group, who approached them this morning. Two employees – identified as Moon and Johnson – threatened the encampment and asked for permission to be there. The organization reminded them that they were private employees without authority outside the detention center. Tacoma police agreed with La Resistencia, as officers stopped by and told the group that so long as they didn’t block any services, the encampment was permitted.
The encampment and hunger strike are being done to show solidarity with detainees, as the group is overseeing any wrongdoing by ICE and GEO Group. The actions are also a response to a preliminary injunction on the part of the U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle, siding with GEO Group against Washington state in denying state authorities to carry supervisions of the facility as established by state law H.B. 1470. This decision allows for the operations of NWDC’s violations of detention guidelines – including deplorable food and soiled clothing – to carry on unfettered without impunity. Furthermore, it contradicts an earlier ruling on the part of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stating that even as states could not shut down federal-level detention centers (as mandated by Washington state’s now-struck H.B. 1090), they could nonetheless regulate them (as done by H.B. 1470).
La Resistencia states, “We demand ICE and GEO be held responsible for Mr. Daniels’ death, for all deaths that have occurred here under their watch, for all the attempted suicides, all the medical neglect, inadequate diets, lack of hygiene, lack of mental health support, the racism and mistreatment, and the ongoing human rights violations. We demand Congress end this contract and get everyone out before they die.”
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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