[Pnews] May 1st Rally at Northwest Detention Center - Hunger Strikers Transferred in Retaliation for Protest

[Prisoner News]

May 1st Solidarity Rally at Northwest Detention Center to Highlight 
On-Going Struggle; Two Hunger Strikers Transferred to Out-of-state 
Facility in Retaliation for Peaceful Protest


*Thursday **May 1st 12PM*

Northwest Detention Center 1623 E J St, Tacoma


Tacoma, WA -- This Thursday, from 12 - 1 p.m., a crowd will rally 
outside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma in support of the 
peaceful protesters held inside. May 1st will mark 56 days since 
detainees began a series of hunger strikes in protest of their 
conditions and of the record levels of deportations under President 
Obama. Ramon Mendoza Pascual and J. Cipriano Rios Alegria, who continue 
fasting after having been released from solitary confinement this past 
week, will address the crowd through audio messages. Audio will be made 
available to media.


The rally will also highlight the family of Bernarda Pineda of Everett, 
Washington. Ms. Pineda’s husband has been held at the Northwest 
Detention Center since December 27 2013 following a minor traffic 
violation, leaving Ms. Pineda to care for the couple’s four children on 
her own. A phone call she made last week to local police to report her 
car stolen nearly led to her own detention when police questioned her 
immigration status, and handcuffed her in front of her four children. 
Ms. Pineda will speak at the rally about the devastation immigration 
enforcement has created in her family’s life.


As supporters continue to rally support, new abuses continue to come to 
light. Miguel Armenta Olabarria, a detainee living with HIV, Hepatitis 
C, and cancer, remains detained and continues to receive inadequate 
medical care. Instead of responding to hunger striker demands, which 
include improved medical care, ICE has continued their retaliation 
against hunger strikers. This week, upon completion of their solitary 
confinement sentences (which were imposed for “participating in a group 
demonstration”), Paulino Ruiz and Juan Negrete Mendoza expected to be 
returned to the general population at the NWDC. Instead, the men were 
taken from the facility and transferred to two different prison 
facilities in Oregon that contract to hold immigrant detainees. The two 
have re-established contact with their supporters in Washington State 
and Oregon. The rally on Thursday will highlight these and other stories 
of continued struggle.


WHAT:  Rally in support of immigrants detained at NWDC

WHEN: Thursday May 1st 12PM

WHERE: Northwest Detention Center 1623 E J St, Tacoma

WHO:  Immigrant families, supporters and allies

###



Petition on behalf of Hunger Strikers and latest releases available at: 
www.notonemoredeportation.com/2014/03/10/detention-hunger-strike/ 
<http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/2014/03/10/detention-hunger-strike/>


Fund to support the families of human rights hunger strikers: 
http://www.gofundme.com/7orehg

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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