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sans-serif;font-size: 13px;color: #333"><span class="e2ma-style"
style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">November 16, 2018 <br>
<br>
</span><span class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(0, 0, 0)">Contact: Maru Mora Villalpando, <a
data-name="maru@latinoadvocacy.org" data-type="email"
href="mailto:maru@latinoadvocacy.org?subject="
style="font-weight: normal;font-weight: normal;color:
#333;text-decoration: underline;color: #333;text-decoration:
underline;color: rgb(44, 92, 255)">maru@latinoadvocacy.org</a>,<br>
</span><span class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(0, 0, 0)">Angélica Cházaro, <a
data-name="achazaro@gmail.com" data-type="email"
href="mailto:achazaro@gmail.com?subject=" style="font-weight:
normal;font-weight: normal;color: #333;text-decoration:
underline;color: #333;text-decoration: underline;color:
rgb(44, 92, 255)">achazaro@gmail.com</a>, </span><br>
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#333;text-align: center"><strong><span
class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 20px"><span
class="e2ma-style" style="color: rgb(0, 0,
0)"><span class="e2ma-style"
style="font-size: 18px">Asylum Seeker on
Hunger Strike Dies at Northwest
Detention Center </span><br>
</span></span></strong><span
class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 15px;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">40-year-old Amar
Mergensana’s Death Follows 86 Days of Refusing
Food and 11 months in Immigration Detention</span>
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<div class="e2ma-p-div" style="display:
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sans-serif;font-size: 13px;color:
#333;font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif;font-size: 13px;color:
#333;text-align: left"><strong></strong><span
class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 14px;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><strong>Tacoma, WA —</strong>
Members of the Northwest Detention Center
Resistance have received word that Amar
Mergensana, a 40-year-old Russian asylum
seeker, died in the detention center on the
afternoon of Thursday, November 15th. NWDC
Resistance received a phone call from a person
currently detained in the solitary confinement
unit of the now-infamous Tacoma immigration
detention facility, stating that he had been
held next door to Mr. Mergensana, and had seen
paramedics unsuccessfully attempt to revive
him, and had seen his body taken out of the
detention center with blue hands and feet.
Members of NWDC Resistance observed both
paramedics and Tacoma Police Department
vehicles at the facility yesterday afternoon,
and Mr. Mergensana was described as
“unavailable” for a legal visit by NWDC
authorities. <br>
</span><br>
<span class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 14px;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Mr. Mergensana had
arrived in the US last December, seeking
asylum after crossing the US-Mexico border.
With his attempts at securing asylum proving
unsuccessful, he joined a hunger strike at the
NWDC on August 23rd, as part of a larger
national prison strike that ran from August
21st to Sunday, September 9th. Even after the
hundreds of detained immigrants on hunger
strike at the NWDC ended their protest, Mr.
Mergensana continued to refuse meals, vowing
to continue to starve himself until he either
died or was released, given his fear of being
deported to Russia. Mr. Mergensana was
profiled by the news outlet Crosscut 50 days
into his protest. Federal district court judge
Benjamin Settle granted ICE’s request to force
hydration into Mr. Mergensana this past
September, and Mr. Mergensana faced threats of
forced-feeding throughout his hunger strike. </span><br>
<br>
<span class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 14px;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“We are horrified and
saddened by Amar Mergensana’s death. He died
protesting his detention and imminent
deportation in the only way that was left to
him. His death makes clear that ICE and GEO
Group cannot guarantee the health and safety
of people they cage. The more than one dozen
hunger strikes by people detained since 2014,
in which hundreds have taken part, speak to
the need to shut down these cages for
immigrants once and for all,” stated Maru Mora
Villalpando of NWDC Resistance. “In the last
written statement he gave us, Amar described
being left in a cold locked room, naked, and
with nothing but a bed sheet and a thin
blanket. We demand that ICE and GEO Group be
held accountable for their role in Amar’s
death,” Villalpando continued. </span><br>
<br>
<span class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 14px;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Mr. Mergansana’s death
follows reports of extreme medical neglect at
the facility. Most recently, Saja Tunkara was
deported from the facility and separated from
his US citizen wife and children days after
the Seattle Weekly published a story about the
facility’s medical failures, in which Mr.
Tunkara was prominently featured. This year
has also been marked by multiple outbreaks of
chickenpox and mumps among people detained.
Between 2003 and 2018, 185 people have died in
ICE custody, with many deaths connected to
medical neglect, and ten deaths this past
fiscal year alone. Mr. Mergansana’s death may
be the first death of a hunger striking
detained immigrant. </span><br>
<br>
<span class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 14px;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">NWDC Resistance will be
holding a vigil and rally at the facility to
commemorate Mr. Mergansana’s life and honor
his protest. Details will be available at <a
data-name="https://www.facebook.com/events/196594297896475/"
data-type="url"
href="https://t.e2ma.net/click/rayplp/nv30oq/vdbx3tp"
style="font-weight: normal;font-weight:
normal;color: #333;text-decoration:
underline;color: #333;text-decoration:
underline;color: rgb(44, 92, 255)">https://www.facebook.com/events/196594297896475/</a>.
Audio of Mr. Mergansana, as well as a
handwritten note by him are available upon
request. </span><br>
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normal;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:
13px;color: #333;font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif;font-size: 13px;color: #333;text-align: center"><span
class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0,
0)"><strong>###</strong></span><br>
<br>
<span class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0,
0, 0)">NWDC Resistance is a grassroots collective led by
undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens located in Tacoma,
Washington. <br>
<br>
</span><span class="e2ma-style" style="font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(0, 0, 0)">It is an unincorporated association formed for
the purposes of confronting human rights violations at the
Northwest Detention Center and dedicated to ending the
detention and deportation of immigrants.
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.nwdcresistance.org">www.nwdcresistance.org</a></span> </div>
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415 863.9977
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