Third Hunger Strike Begins at the Tacoma Detention Center
Common Dreams, 3 November 2014

At least 200 people stopped eating on Fri. Oct. 31st, and more people will
join today

Tacoma, WA - Immigrant detainees are putting their bodies on the line for
the third time this year, to call attention to the inhumane treatment in the
GEO Group detention center. Geo Group, a corporate giant that profits off
the unnecessary suffering of those it imprisons for the convenience of ICE,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while their civil immigration status is
investigated. Advocates are concerned that hunger strikers will suffer
retaliation similar to the retaliation inflicted during previous hunger
strikes. Hunger strikers were placed in solitary confinement for up to 30
days and threatened with force-feeding. Last spring hunger strikers received
promises from ICE officials that have never been implemented.

Geo Group has been allowed to supplement their lavish compensation of more
than $100 per day per person with a cluster of self-reinforcing schemes to
profit even more from the people placed in their “care.” Those schemes
include:

* Unwholesome meals with insufficient nutrients
* High commissary prices for food and other items
* Using the labor of detainees paid at the rate of $1 per day to
prepare the meals, do the cleaning and laundry
* Charge fees to families to provide money to the detainees

Geo provides inadequate nourishment which creates a demand for commissary
food at inflated prices, which induces detainees to work for essentially no
pay and then profits from families’ contributions to those commissary
accounts.

Cipriano Rios, one of the hunger strike leaders, provided supporters with
the following information this weekend.

As of today regardless of the difficulties we detainees face in
communicating with each other, we began another volunteer peaceful hunger
strike starting October 31st to November 2nd. Utilizing radio, visits from
relatives and other ways, more detainees have joined the strike. Just today
35 more people joined, making a total of close to 200 detainees in hunger
strike. We are certain that if it wasn’t for all the communication
restrictions we face, more detainees would have joined, reaching more than
two thirds of the total population. Our action is in the name of justice,
hunger for freedom; therefore the hunger of the body, for most of us, is not
above the claim for justice. Not one more! Stop families destruction!

- Colectiva de Detenidos NWDC

In honor of Día de los Muertos, supporters of the detainees are holding a
four-day encampment outside the GEO Group detention center, mourning family
members who have passed, and all those who have died due to the aggressive
immigration system over the years. They also honored and mourned the loss to
their families and communities of all those deported and locked away in the
NWDC. Thus far, some 150 supporters have come from all over Washington to
join the festivities which have included a procession of the souls, music
performances, an installation of a cramped solitary confinement cell, and
altars. Opening ceremonies included a blessing by the Rev. William Bichsel,
S.J., affectionately known to many Pacific Northwesterners as Father Bix for
his active opposition to nuclear weapons and the School of the Americas
which has earned him about 50 arrests and approximately three years in
prison.

The Northwest Detention Center Resistance also participated in the Tacoma
Art Museum’s Dia de los Muertos with an altar to the great injustices at the
Northwest Detention Center. The Northwest Detention Center Resistance has
had a constant presence outside the immigration prison since March in
support of the incredible organizing and hunger strikes that have taken
place inside.

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