立即发布:2020年6月4日

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被拘留的移民发起绝食抗议，敦促州长. 保护黑人移民的生命, others in ICE detention amid COVID-19 threat

Hunger strike opens in honor of George Floyd and Breonna泰勒, 
声援“黑人的生命也很重要”抗议活动

贝克斯菲尔德, CA and statewide –  Dozens of immigrants detained at ICE’s Mesa Verde Detention Center launched a Hunger Strike today, 敦促加州政府. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra to take concrete action to save lives as the threat of COVID-19 worsens in ICE detention. 

该组织表示:“We begin our protest in memory of our comrades George Floyd, Breonna泰勒, 奥斯卡授予, 还有托尼·麦克达德. Almost all of us have also suffered through our country’s corrupt and racist criminal justice system before being pushed into the hands of ICE.” The hunger strike comes after the Governor failed to respond to a set of demands from detained people and advocates to use his executive power to help save lives. The full statement from community members participating in the hunger strike reads:

We, A宿舍被拘留的人, B, C在梅萨维德移民和海关执法局拘留所, are protesting and on hunger strike in solidarity with the detained people at Otay Mesa Detention Center. We begin our protest in memory of our comrades George Floyd, Breonna泰勒, 奥斯卡授予, 还有托尼·麦克达德. Almost all of us have also suffered through our country’s corrupt and racist criminal justice system before being pushed into the hands of ICE. We are protesting the deaths of our comrades Carlos Mejia, 在奥泰梅萨被ICE拘留期间死亡的人, 和郑雄安, our friend who died in ICE custody at this detention center. We are protesting the inadequate medical care in all ICE detention facilities. We are also protesting the lies that ICE has told in court to federal and immigration judges about the conditions of these facilities. What they have done is not nearly enough to prevent the virus from endangering us, 我们要求立即解除这些状况. It is still impossible to practice social distancing within this facility, and ICE and Geo Group’s practices are not protecting us from this virus. We will continue our protest until further attention is brought to these conditions, and until the Governor and the Attorney General of California begin an official investigation into all ICE detention facilities in California.

Incarcerated immigrants and advocates are increasingly calling out the ways that policing and incarceration, 通过设计, have criminalized Black people and communities of color – including Black immigrants and other immigrants of color. A 2016 报告 by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration found “while Black immigrants make up only 7.占美国非公民人口的2%.S.，它们组成了20个.3% of immigrants facing deportation … on criminal grounds.”

被拘留在圣地亚哥奥泰梅萨的移民, the site of the largest COVID-19 outbreak in any ICE facility, 表示支持绝食抗议, 有几个人加入. 

安东尼·亚历山大, who was previously on hunger strike for 12 days at Otay Mesa, spoke about his experience as a Black man in America by phone. “我没有国家. I can’t go back to Haiti because it’s very scary to go back there, and I can’t be here. 他们正在杀害非裔美国人. 他们根本不想让我在这里. 那我现在该怎么办呢?” Mr. Alexandre needs access to the phone to seek legal help and would not have phone access in solitary, where he would almost certainly be taken in retaliation for hunger striking, so he is not participating in the current hunger strike but supports it.

Fonua, 一个汤加人, told advocates over the phone: “I’m on hunger strike, and I’m asking for the Governor to come investigate over here, 做他们该做的事, 释放我们, 但他们不想把我们从这里放出来.” Expressing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, he decried that: “ Blacks are dying at the hands of the police.”

Coalitions across the state have been urging concrete action for months, highlighting the Gov’s legal authority and the moral imperative to act. Yet the Governor’s office has refused to take action and only provided empty words.  社区对政府的要求. 纽森和贝塞拉包括: 

  • Stop all transfers from California prisons and jails to ICE detention
  • Lead an independent investigation and hold detention centers and their for-profit operators accountable for putting lives at risk during the pandemic.
  • 停止在加州扩大拘留范围. 

This comes as the total number of COVID-19 cases confirmed in ICE detention reaches 1,579, with cases now confirmed in 3 of the 5 detention centers in California. All three are operated by private, for-profit companies. At Otay Mesa, the CoreCivic Corporation also detains people on contract for the US Marshall Service. These community members are not reflected in ICE’s data, but are at equal risk of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, a parallel crisis is unfolding in the state’s prison system, with cases now at 1,984. 此外, transferring people from one tinderbox of infection to another worsens the crisis; in addition to calling for a halt to transfers to ICE, immigrant advocates are also endorsing broader calls for decarceration. 

在ICE拘留所里, 就像其他形式的监禁一样, 人们被设计得紧密地聚集在一起, 不可能保持距离. Detained people have also denounced the lack of masks and soap. Medical neglect makes it easy for COVID-19 to spread, which puts both detained people and the surrounding community at risk. ICE systematically deprives thousands of immigrants of liberty each day, 严重的医疗疏忽. Yet prison companies are shamefully turning a profit off of the suffering of community members — at the expense of community well-being and resources. 

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