From Not One More Deportation
Tacoma, WA – As supporters looked on, approximately 130 people held at the
Northwest Detention Center were taken from the facility this morning as part
of its weekly deportation regime. At least five hunger strikers were among
those deported, according to an attorney who visited the facility on Sunday.
A hunger strike supporter holding a vigil outside the center observed two
buses leaving at 3 a.m. under cover of darkness. Supporters who arrived at
dawn to offer witness to the deportations watched six more vehicles, marked
“GEO Transport,” (five buses and a van) leaving the center. In what has
become a new tactic since the February 24th action that stopped 120
deportations, the buses themselves were used to block supporters from seeing
people loaded in chains. Despite these efforts, supporters lined the sidewalk
as the buses pulled out, making eye contact with those inside the buses, and
chanting, “You are not alone!” and “The struggle continues!”
Hunger striker Salvador Chavez Salazar, who first arrived in the U.S. at the
age of 15, was among those deported this morning. The 29-year-old father of
two U.S. citizen children was held in the detention center for two and a half
months following a DUI arrest. In a recording made on the eve of his
deportation (audio and translation available upon request), he described his
fifteen years of labor in the U.S., which included landscaping, picking
cherries, onions, and apples, and gathering forest items in the forests
outside his Aberdeen, WA home. He explained why he participated in both waves
of the hunger strike despite knowing he would most likely be deported,
stating, “It is an injustice for all of us who are locked up in here,”
and expressing hope that his actions would benefit future detainees. He
described facing deportation with only the clothes on his back, despite
having put in a request to ICE for his family to bring him a suitcase with
fifteen days notice. He also described how the facility continues to profit
even after deportations, explaining that the money on detainees’ phone
accounts is not returned to them. His greatest grief at leaving his home was
for the harm to his 4-year-old US-citizen daughters: “Deportations, they
affect the children the most, that’s the truth. Almost everyone who is
here, all of the people here are fathers with families.”
This weekly round of deportations at the NWDC comes as Ramon Mendoza Pascual
and J. Cipriano Rios Alegria continue their hunger strike in medical
isolation, under solitary confinement sentences. The link between their
peaceful protest and their confinement became even clearer last Friday, when
Mr. Mendoza was asked if he would end his hunger strike in exchange for being
returned to the general population. He declined. He has now been on hunger
strike for 35 out of the last 39 days, protesting the on-going deportations
and the deplorable detention center conditions.
From Not One More Deportation
Tacoma, WA – As supporters looked on, approximately 130 people held at the
Northwest Detention Center were taken from the facility this morning as part
of its weekly deportation regime. At least five hunger strikers were among
those deported, according to an attorney who visited the facility on Sunday.
A hunger strike supporter holding a vigil outside the center observed two
buses leaving at 3 a.m. under cover of darkness. Supporters who arrived at
dawn to offer witness to the deportations watched six more vehicles, marked
“GEO Transport,” (five buses and a van) leaving the center. In what has
become a new tactic since the February 24th action that stopped 120
deportations, the buses themselves were used to block supporters from seeing
people loaded in chains. Despite these efforts, supporters lined the sidewalk
as the buses pulled out, making eye contact with those inside the buses, and
chanting, “You are not alone!” and “The struggle continues!”
Hunger striker Salvador Chavez Salazar, who first arrived in the U.S. at the
age of 15, was among those deported this morning. The 29-year-old father of
two U.S. citizen children was held in the detention center for two and a half
months following a DUI arrest. In a recording made on the eve of his
deportation (audio and translation available upon request), he described his
fifteen years of labor in the U.S., which included landscaping, picking
cherries, onions, and apples, and gathering forest items in the forests
outside his Aberdeen, WA home. He explained why he participated in both waves
of the hunger strike despite knowing he would most likely be deported,
stating, “It is an injustice for all of us who are locked up in here,”
and expressing hope that his actions would benefit future detainees. He
described facing deportation with only the clothes on his back, despite
having put in a request to ICE for his family to bring him a suitcase with
fifteen days notice. He also described how the facility continues to profit
even after deportations, explaining that the money on detainees’ phone
accounts is not returned to them. His greatest grief at leaving his home was
for the harm to his 4-year-old US-citizen daughters: “Deportations, they
affect the children the most, that’s the truth. Almost everyone who is
here, all of the people here are fathers with families.”
This weekly round of deportations at the NWDC comes as Ramon Mendoza Pascual
and J. Cipriano Rios Alegria continue their hunger strike in medical
isolation, under solitary confinement sentences. The link between their
peaceful protest and their confinement became even clearer last Friday, when
Mr. Mendoza was asked if he would end his hunger strike in exchange for being
returned to the general population. He declined. He has now been on hunger
strike for 35 out of the last 39 days, protesting the on-going deportations
and the deplorable detention center conditions.