Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published by La Resistencia through a newsletter sent on February 13, 2024.
46th Annual Remembrance Day Sparks Seattle Protest Against ICE Detention Center
WHO: Tsuru for Solidarity, The Resistance
WHEN: Friday, February 16, 2024 at 9:00 a.m.
WHERE: Seattle Federal Building, 915 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA 98174
VISUALS: Large signs, thousands of folded cranes (tsuru), descendants of Japanese-American imprisonment
WHAT: Members of Tsuru por la Solidaridad y La Resistencia will hold a press conference outside the Seattle Federal Building to demand the closure of the only ICE detention center in Washington. This event will kick off a week of action around the 46th annual Day of Remembrance, which will be observed by survivors and their descendants on February 18.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, February 16, 2024 — Japanese American survivors and descendants of those imprisoned during World War II will kick off Remembrance Day, Week of Action, with a press conference outside the Federal Building to protest the repetition of a history of forced removal and incarceration of communities of color, from Japanese Americans to immigrants and asylum seekers currently incarcerated at Tacoma’s Northwest Detention Center (NWDC). Japanese-American organizers from Tsuru for Solidarity will join local immigrant rights group La Resistencia to call for the closure of NWDC and protest the continued human rights abuses occurring there. The tireless work of La Resistencia and other immigrant rights organizations has brought to light the devastating conditions inside the facilities, but only the support and assistance of our government officials can end Washington’s complicity in these abuses. That’s why we will begin our Week of Action at the Federal Building, where our Senators and agencies like ICE and DHS can hear our call to action.
This will be the first in a series of actions surrounding Remembrance Day on February 19, the anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 that authorized the forcible transfer and mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. In solidarity with the numerous hunger strikes organized by detainees within the NWDC, we will demand the permanent closure of the only ICE detention center in Washington State, an end to the collaboration between the Department of Corrections and ICE, and a complete end of private and for-profit detention centers in Washington state.
Joe Okimoto, Seattle, Poston survivor, “The experience I had in the [U.S.] concentration camp really raised my awareness of what was happening on the southern border with children in cages, and I was and still am outraged by the treatment that the government gives to immigrants. “So I feel strongly that I need to speak out as much as I can, which I’ve been trying to do since I retired.”
The NWDC is one of the largest immigration prisons in the country, with the capacity to hold up to 1,575 immigrants per day. Each month, up to 200 people, many of whom are seeking asylum, are transferred from the US-Mexico border to the NWDC. Other detainees at the NWDC have lived in the United States for years, in some cases for most of their lives. In 2023, detainees within the NWDC went on multiple hunger strikes, lasting up to 53 days, to protest the conditions to which they are subjected. This includes inedible food, unsanitary conditions that put detainees at risk of contracting COVID or other diseases, lack of access to medical care, punishment through solitary confinement, and other abuses.
Testimony on February 8 from a hunger striker from the NWDC, “Well, the strike is taking place because they have limited our freedom for an indefinite period and the processes have not advanced even a little bit. What we want is for them to let us follow those processes outside of here so that they let us go to our court hearings from there… We have our families and many other commitments out there, so we don’t want to be locked up and treated like criminals. Plus we are getting sick, we have health problems and the food is not good.”
As survivors and descendants of Japanese American incarceration, we understand the devastating effect that indefinite detention, isolation from the public, and dehumanizing conditions can have on an entire community. We demand the closure of NWDC because our goal is to be the external allies that our community did not have during World War II.
The demonstration and press conference on February 16 will include speeches from members of La Resistencia and Tsuru por la Solidaridad. It will officially launch our Week of Action, including our Remembrance Day celebration on February 18, beginning at the Puyallup Fairgrounds and ending at the Northwest Detention Center. We expect a high participation in this event.
About the organizers
Tsuru for Solidarity is a nonviolent, direct action project of Japanese-American social justice advocates and allies working to end detention sites and support frontline immigrant and refugee communities that are being targeted. of racist and inhumane immigration policies. They are organizing a National Close the Camp Pilgrimage June 5-7 in Washington DC, as well as other regional actions across the United States. Learn more at www.tsuruforsolidarity.org
La Resistencia is a grassroots organization based in Washington state that works to end immigration detention and stop deportations. Originally founded in 2014 to support a hunger strike initiated by people detained in Tacoma, Washington, to protest their confinement, members of La Resistencia support and collaborate with people detained at the Northwest Detention Center who are organizing for their own survival and in protest against detention and deportation. regime. We are a multiracial, multistate, multigender group that organizes across the prison barrier. Our goal is to close NWDC and end all detentions and deportations in Washington state. Learn more at www.laresistencianw.org/
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