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<span
style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">For
immediate release: </span>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">April
23, 2014</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Contact:
Maru Mora Villalpando (206) 251-6658</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Alex West (508) 246-8341</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span
style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hunger
Strikers Call for May 1st Rally at the Detention Center; Chicken Pox
Outbreak Alarms Those in Women’s Unit </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tacoma,
WA--Hunger strikers, continuing their strike now for more than forty
days, have called for a rally outside the Northwest Detention Center
(NWDC) on May 1st at noon, a historical day of action for immigrant and
worker rights. Ramon Mendoza Pascual and J. Cipriano Rios Alegria
remain under solitary confinement due to their participation in the
strike. Mr. Rios Alegria was taken to a legal visit on Easter Sunday in
leg shackles, which remained on throughout his visit. (see attached
picture) Nevertheless, he remains positive and hopes to hear the
support of people outside the detention center on May 1st. Mr. Mendoza
Pascual has now been on hunger strike 43 out of the last 48 days. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">An
outbreak of chicken pox has spread through the women’s area of the
NWDC, alarming the captive women. The women had seen Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) and GEO Group guards wearing protective masks
in the unit for four days, but were told that the guards were trying to
avoid the flu. Only upon preparing for legal visits on Sunday were
several women finally told that they were exposed to chicken pox and
that there was an outbreak in their unit, and instructed to wear masks
when visiting with outside legal representatives. They had not
previously been informed of this and were given no access to protective
measures or offers of vaccination. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Army
veteran Hassall Moses was released from solitary confinement this past
week, following widespread outcry at this retaliatory measure. Mr.
Moses had been accused of calling for a work stoppage and spent nearly
one month in 24-hour lockdown as a result. He has called for people to
gather outside the NWDC on May 1st, a national day of immigrant
advocacy, and hopes that supporters will not only address issues of
detainee treatment like better food and access to medical care but also
appropriate compensation for work done by the detainees inside the
NWDC, who currently are paid $1 per day of work. He says that “as you
rally outside, we'll do our best to support you from in here.”</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Momentum
has been growing across the country to support the hunger strikers in
the NWDC, as well as to push for an end to deportations and an end to
abusive prison labor practices. In Alabama, prisoners have launched a
work strike to combat what has become a slave labor system, as well as
overcrowding and lack of access to healthcare. Yesterday, three dozen
Indian asylum seekers ended a 10-day hunger strike in El Paso, Texas,
to protest what has become their six month of detention through ICE
with no foreseeable end. The May 1st rally at the NWDC will run from
noon to 1pm on May 1st, at which time participants are encouraged to
head to Seattle for an annual May Day March and Rally. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Petition
on behalf of Hunger Strikers and latest releases available at:</span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/2014/03/10/detention-hunger-strike/"
style="text-decoration: none;"><span
style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
</span><span
style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">www.notonemoredeportation.com/2014/03/10/detention-hunger-strike/</span></a></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fund
to support the families of human rights hunger strikers:</span><a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.gofundme.com/7orehg"
style="text-decoration: none;"><span
style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
</span><span
style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.gofundme.com/7orehg</span></a></p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
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