[Pnews] ICE/GEO Hunger Strikes Spread to Texas Detention Center

[Prisoner News]

  BREAKING: Hunger Strikes Spread to Texas Detention Center

March 17, 2014
Tags: conroe <http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/tag/conroe/>, geo 
group <http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/tag/geo-group/>, hunger 
strike <http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/tag/hunger-strike/>, tacoma 
detention center 
<http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/tag/tacoma-detention-center/>, 
texas <http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/tag/texas/>


      /*Systemic Abuse by GEO Group and ICE Exposed in Multi-State
      Effort by Detainees in Private Facilities*/

Tacoma, WA, Conroe, TX -- After a massive hunger strike inside the 
Tacoma Detention Center <http://bit.ly/nwhungerstrike> reached its 11th 
day, detainees found their effort spreading to other facilities inspired 
by their demands. Last night at midnight, immigrants held at the Joe 
Corley Detention Center in Conroe, TX initiated their own fast in 
protest of their treatment at the facility run by the same company, the 
GEO Group, and as part of the nation-wide call for an end to 
deportations <http://notonemoredeportation.com>.

Immigrant rights activist Maru Mora Villalpando sees momentum building 
for reforms but expressed concern over the reaction of ICE and the GEO 
Group: "The hunger strikers are civil rights leaders taking a brave 
stand against inhumane treatment. At the Northwest Detention Center, GEO 
Group and ICE have retaliated by putting leaders in solitary confinement 
and threatening to force-feed others.  With the strike spreading to 
Texas, it's time for ICE and GEO Group to recognize the detainees' 
demands instead of engaging in retaliation."

Bob Libal, Executive Director of Grassroots Leadership in Austin, Texas 
added, "Immigrants in detention should not have to go to such extreme 
lengths to blow the whistle on mistreatment within ICE's vast and 
largely privatized immigration detention system.  GEO Group, the 
for-profit prison corporation that operates both these detention 
centers, has a well-documented track record around Texas of canceled 
contracts and scandal-ridden facilities 
<http://grassrootsleadership.org/blog/2013/08/geo-group-celebrating-its-independence-oh-irony>, 
including at several prisons for immigrants in Texas."

In the recent White House budget proposal to Congress, the 
administration sought funding for a quota of more than 30,000 
individuals to be held in detention on a daily basis 
<http://detentionwatchnetwork.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/obama-administration-includes-arbitrary-number-of-detention-beds-in-fiscal-year-2015-budget-endthequota/>, 
upholding what has been an unprecedented practice of subjecting 
immigration enforcement to an arbitrary line item.  Detainees say that 
the treatment they receive is a result of the profit-seeking element 
that has inserted itself into the detention system. An attorney who 
confirmed the strike this morning after visiting the Conroe, TX 
facility, communicated the hunger strikers demands to be:

1- That deportations and the resulting separation of families cease 
immediately
2- That detainees be given fair treatment
3- That detainees be provided true and transparent information on each 
of the cases regarding

a. How many detainees are forced to sign their deportations 
under pressure and lies
b. How many detainees have been without resolution of their cases 
for more than a year

4- That the number of detainees per cell be reduced given that it is 
currently an unhealthy situation
5- That detainees should not be judged twice for things that happened 
before and were resolved in different state and county courts given that

- Many of the cases already received final judgment and where 
closed several years ago, in some cases over 15 -- 20 years ago. local, 
state of federal jails, and are sent to immigration to be processed
- Many of the detainees are coming from local state and federal jails 
where they have completed their sentences and are handed over to 
immigration to be processed

6- That local and state police stop cooperating with the 
immigration department

and said the detainees wanted it known that they were inspired by the 
on-going Washington State efforts.

An eight-page handwritten letter from the Washington State hunger 
strikers explaining their demands is available upon request. The letter 
states, in part, "[W]e join ourselves to that effort and demand that the 
Federal Executive (Mr. President Barack Obama) use his presidential 
authority and order a total stop to the unjust deportations that are 
separating families, destroying homes, and bringing uncertainty, 
insecurity and unhappy futures to our children, our loved ones."

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