1.

'YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN' VIGIL WITH DETAINEE FAMILIES AND FRIENDS AT NW DETENTION CENTER

PR Newswire
July 11, 2008

Original source: PR Newswire

SEATTLE -- A vigil takes place this Saturday, July 12th, from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) at 1623 East J Street, on the tide flats of Tacoma. Family members and friends of detainees currently in detention are expected to attend the vigil.

"We're standing in solidarity with detainees and their families and friends," says Shana Roth-Gormley, community advocate for OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone). "We want them to know they're not forgotten."

Community to Community Development, a grassroots support organization for immigrants based in Bellingham, joins OneAmerica in providing family members and friends entering and leaving the facility during visiting hours information on the process of detention, how to find attorneys, and "Know Your Rights" information.

The findings of Voices from Detention: A Report on Human Rights Violations at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) will be released Tuesday, July 15th at 10:00 a.m. at the Seattle University School of Law in the first floor lobby on the southeast corner of Sullivan Hall, located at 12th and Columbia.

This is the first in-depth study of conditions at the NWDC in Tacoma and is a collaboration of the Seattle University School of Law International Human Rights Clinic and OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone). Findings of the report include overcrowding in a facility designed for short term stays while detainees are held up to 4 years; violations of international law and due process; guard and federal marshal misconduct; inadequate access to medical care, emergency care and mental health care; lack of sufficient food and poor quality of food.

OneAmerica, with Justice for All, advances immigrant, civil and human rights by building power within immigrant communities in collaboration with key allies.

Visit on the web at www.WeAreOneAmerica.org

2.

[From Tim Smith]

MELT I.C.E.! PEACEFUL PROTEST AND VIGIL FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

24 hr. Vigil beginning 4:00 p.m. Friday, July 11th and ending 4:00 p.m. Saturday, July 12th
Northwest Detention Center
1623 E. "J" Street, Tacoma, WA 98421
For more information call Rogelio Montes (509)930-2279

Now more than ever we need to oppose the presence of this prison and the immigration law enforcement policies that are being used to fill it with hard-working decent immigrant workers.

3.

PREGNANT WOMEN MISTREATED AT THE NORTHWEST DETENTION CENTER
By Andrew Bacon

** We received this letter from an anonymous source, a relative of a former prisoner at the Northwest Detention Center. The writer details the attitude with which this private prison-for-profit treats its prisoners, specifically in this case, four pregnant women who have been detained, undernourished and neglected in terms of medical care. **

Tahoma Organizer
July 7, 2008

http://www.tahomaorganizer.org/pregnant-women-mistreated-at-the-northwest-detention-center/

To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing this letter to inform you what is happening in the Northwest Detention Center (NDC) in Tacoma, WA 98421. The NDC has done many illegal activities against the immigrants in this place. These innocent people have been treated like criminals and the only crime that I know that has been committed is coming to the United States for a better future for their families. Many people here have fled from their countries to save their lives because of death threats, poverty, and violence.

In this Detention Center, they have pregnant women being treated in a bad way such as giving them bad food or not enough food, the women sleep in hard beds with a thin mattress. A few days ago, May 30th, two women were taken to the emergency room at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tacoma. One woman had symptoms of abortion [sic -- miscarriage] while the other was in a very advanced stage of pregnancy of seven months. The stress of being locked up, the insufficient medical attention, the hard beds, and not eating well enough caused these two women to end up in the hospital.

These two women were taken to the hospital in chains on both their feet and hands, even though they were having symptoms, the officials taking them in didn’t care. Both of the women told the officials: “Please do not chain our feet, we might fall.” The officials answered that they didn’t have a need to worry, that they wouldn’t fall because they would be holding them. When it was time to be checked by the doctor, they didn’t want to take the chains off, only when the two women undressed, but were immediately cuffed again. When the women asked for privacy with the doctor, the officials refused. The same way these women were brought to the hospital, that same way they were taken back.

This experience was a very humiliating one for these two women. While being sick, they were still chained, and the people at the hospital were staring at these two women in a very uncomfortable way. What is immigration waiting for? For these pregnant women to have an abortion [sic -- miscarriage] or get really sick to understand that pregnant women shouldn’t be locked up this way? The babies inside these women have not been born yet, but I believe they have a right to do so here in the United States.

Immigration has stated that they don’t care that these women are pregnant or sick. Immigration has told them: “You will be deported to your country.” And one of the women asked: “In this condition that I am in? I will not be able to travel like this.” And with cruelty they respond: “It doesn’t matter; you have to leave this country regardless if the doctor says that you cannot travel.”

NDC also has women sick of diabetes here, and a couple of days ago, a man died in this facility because of the lack of immediate medical attention.

I am a person that has suffered in this place and I personally have seen the suffering of many women, too. I will also give you the names, detainee #’s, and the months of pregnancy of these four pregnant women.

Name Detainee # Months of pregnancy
Ruth Chirino Sanchez A99580378 6 Months
Wanda L. Solis A76847464 7 Months
Maria Veronica Guzman A70781819 5 Months
Guillermina Bucio Elias A88736338 4 Months

My desire is for these people to be treated with more respect and dignity. I have seen the injustice in this place, and I am a victim of this. They have wife and husband separated here without being able to write a letter or to speak with them or have any communication whatsoever. They do not care of the families that we have left behind, our children. I beg that you come and investigate this please! I ask that you please interrogate [sic -- interview] these four women that I have named. Many people are afraid to speak out, to take action. I want to help all of these people, but being in here does not allow me to [sic]. But I know that you can and your service will be very much appreciated.

Sincerely Yours,

{Name Withheld by Request}

Editor's Note: The Northwest Detention Center is located at 1623 East J Street, Suite 2, Tacoma, Washington 98421-1615. The telephone number is (253) 779-6000. The Northwest Detention Center is owned and operated on a for-profit basis by The Geo Group.

4.

LOCKED AND LOADED
By John Herbert

** GEO Group will incarcerate more immigrants. **

Weekly Volcano (Tacoma, WA)
July 10, 2008

http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/2008-07-10/mudroom-main/2417/

Tacoma officials have confirmed that Florida-based private prison corporation the GEO Group has plans to expand a prison for immigrants on the Tacoma tide flats by 50 percent, providing capacity for more than 1,500 prisoners.

With capacity for 1,000 prisoners, the Northwest Detention Center is already the largest GEO private prison on the West Coast. Aggressive, ongoing efforts to expel illegal immigrants from the United States have created an overwhelming demand for private prisons, which generally charge the federal government about $100 per day to keep immigrants locked up while awaiting deportation.

The Northwest Detention Center opened quietly in 2004, under contract with the United States Department of Homeland Security. The prison operation was later transferred to the GEO Group, which also operates prison facilities in Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Private prisons for immigrants awaiting deportation are a cash cow for companies such as the GEO Group. According to organizations such as the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the phenomenal growth of the immigrant prison business is driven by operations launched by I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in 2003. Dubbed “Operation End Game,” the effort to deport all undocumented migrants by 2012 is part of the largest police operation in United States history. Since July 2007, raids have increased the number of detained migrants from 18,000 to 26,000 nationwide. Prisoners headed to the Tacoma facility are taken mostly from Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and Washington. According to the Detention Watch Network, the U.S. government detains more than 280,000 people a year in a hodgepodge of more than 400 facilities at an annual cost of more than $1.2 billion.

“The widespread detention of individuals because of civil violations of immigration law is one of the clearest examples of how our current immigration system is failing,” says Northwest Immigrant Rights Project Director Jorge L. Barón in a public statement denouncing expansion of the facility. “Although many people in our community do not realize this, a significant proportion of the individuals detained at the Tacoma detention center have resided in the United States for many years and have either no criminal record or a record composed of only traffic offenses. Detaining these individuals while their cases are processed before the immigration court results in the needless separation of family members and makes it harder for people to obtain legal representation.”

Local activists have called for closure of the facility on grounds that it doesn’t meet fundamental safety standards, and hasn’t produced required evacuation plans or documents. City officials contend they have no right to limit the expansion of the facility because it meets essential public facility standards as outlined in the state’s Growth Management Act. Groups such as Tacoma Smash I.C.E. and the Bill of Rights Defense Network Tacoma [sic] continue to oppose the facility’s presence, claiming that conditions there are unhealthy and that some prisoners are abused, while others are denied medical care while detained.

Stories offered by human rights advocates from inside the center do not paint a pretty picture. The Detention Watch Network, for example, tells the story of a couple taken and imprisoned in the facility this past May. The daughter of the couple claims that her mother relayed stories of pregnant prisoners being denied proper medical care, and were forced to sleep on hard, thin mattresses and eat prison slop. The woman, whose name was not provided, told her daughter that people in the facility have died because their jailers refused to answer requests for medical care. Two pregnant prisoners experiencing medical complications were taken to the emergency room and examined in chains, on orders from accompanying prison officials.

The woman relaying the tales was later released, having been imprisoned for months.