Detention Watch Network

Campaigns

• Stop Force-Feeding & Release Hunger Strikers in ICE Detention

  Two men detained at ICE’s El Paso Service Processing Center remain on hunger strike in protest of their prolonged detention, due process violations, and the threat of deportation to the country they fled. As of September 16, 2019 the men in El Paso are on the 70th day of their hunger strike. Through an open-ended court order obtained by ICE, the men in El Paso are being force-fed for weeks at a time, in violation of medical ethics and human rights standards. A third man was deported after being medically cleared despite being on hunger strike for 63 days. In federal court, one man challenging this torture testified about the pain of having a naso-gastric tube inserted into his body. Despite the pain, he asserted he would continue on hunger strike. "I want my freedom," one man said. "After that, I will drink any protein shake or eat anything that's given to me." Individuals held in detention should have the right to refuse food as a form of protest. The World Medical Association says that force-feeding hunger strikers is "unethical" and "never justified." Force-feeding procedures used in immigration detention are extremely painful—often intentionally so to break the protest—and can constitute cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law. Hunger striking is often the only form of peaceful protest people in immigration detention have available to them to bring attention to what’s happening behind the walls of these immigration jails. These facilities create further obstacles to pursuing immigration relief, trapping people in a nearly impossible situation where they are detained with no end in sight and no possibility for release. ICE has the discretion to release anyone in their custody. Urge members of Congress to take immediate action to demand that ICE stop force-feeding these individuals and release them now from detention to their sponsors and supporters here in the U.S. If they are not released soon, their death is imminent.

  591 of 600 Signatures

  Created by Margaret Brown Vega, AVID
• ICE and GEO: Stop Retaliation against hunger strikers in Adelanto Detention Center!

  Just after a hunger strike launched by nine detained asylum-seekers in Southern California made headlines across the country on Monday, they were brutally attacked by guards of the private prison company GEO Group (GEO). After they delivered a letter stating their demands to prison staff, GEO guards drenched the #Adelanto9 with pepper spray, beat them, handcuffed them, and transferred them to segregated housing. Some of the strikers were slammed against walls and floors and one was beaten severely enough that a dental crown was knocked out. Afterwards, strike participants reported that guards forced them to shower with hot water, which reacts with the pepper spray to greatly increase the pain, and that they were humiliated and insulted by prison staff. Despite their mistreatment, the #Adelanto9 are still on hunger strike three days later, and a group of 33 women also detained at Adelanto just announced that they, too, have begun a hunger strike! Like the 9 men whose hunger strike began on Monday, the women have demanded: 1. Adequate medical care: Adelanto is infamous for substandard medical care and is now the deadliest detention center of 2017, where three detained immigrants have died so far this year. 2. Treatment with respect: Guards for the private prison company which runs Adelanto, GEO Group, have brutalized hunger strikers and threatened others with assault, but this is just the most extreme form of daily humiliations reported by detained immigrants on a regular basis. Sara Salcido, one of the hunger strikers declares: “We want them to speak to us like we are humans, not animals. We don’t want to be disrespected and cursed at.” 3. Immediate release: Adelanto is currently holding detained immigrants on unreasonably high bonds, in the tens of thousands of dollars, which strikers have called “a humiliating joke” and not so different from the extortion demands that many of the asylum-seekers are fleeing. We call on ICE and GEO to investigate the use of force and threats by guards against hunger strikers, make the findings public, hold the guards as well as their chain of command accountable, and release all 42 hunger strikers immediately SEND A LETTER OF SUPPORT: Send a personal letter of support to the hunger strikers in Adelanto! Include a personal message in the "Comments" box at the top-left of this page (it can be in English or Spanish) and we will deliver your message to the hunger strikers as a letter to let them know they have support from around the country and around the world.

  708 of 800 Signatures

  Created by Mary Small
• #DefundHate NJ

  In his 2018 proposed budget, Trump has requested A LOT more money to fund the detention and deportation of immigrants, including: • funds to hire new ICE and Border Patrol agents to terrorize our communities, • more local police to focus on immigration enforcement, • a massive increase in immigrant detention—the equivalent of locking up the entire population of New Orleans over the course of a year, • $1.6 billion to build a southern border wall, and • further border militarization including aircraft and surveillance technology At the same time, the administration is seeking drastic cuts to vital housing, education, nutrition, and health care programs that help communities grow and thrive together. Trump has also already made the decision to take away DACA, putting at risk hundreds of thousands more to detention and deportation. Congress is taking action on this budget right now. The bill which recently passed the House of Representatives gives Trump almost all of what he asked for, even though ICE and CBP have put the detention and deportation machine on steroids, regularly lie, hide information from the American public, and retaliate against anyone who speaks out. It's now up to the Senate to make sure that Trump does not get the resources to launch his hate-fueled attacks on immigrants. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is a leading voice in the Senate and advocate for progressive immigration, criminal justice, and education reform. We believe he is in the position to be a progressive champion in opposing the immigration enforcement budget and to influence how much taxpayer money will end up going towards Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. We are asking you to sign this petition in order to tell Senator Booker that his constituents in the state of New Jersey want: 1) For Senator Booker to publicly call for significant cuts to the detention and deportation machine. 2) For Senator Booker to be a voice within the Senate for divesting from the detention and deportation machine and investing in healthcare, education, and housing programs and other vital programs.

  4 of 100 Signatures

  Created by Mary Small