Immigrant Rights Organizations Submit FOIA Request Seeking Information on “Batavia” NY Detention Center
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 30, 2022
NEW YORK—Today, on behalf of Justice for Migrant Families Western New York, Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, and Rapid Defense Network (RDN), Justice Action Center, RDN, and pro bono counsel Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for records on its policies and practices at the Buffalo Service Processing Center, known as “Batavia”—the largest immigration detention center in New York State. The facility has gained notoriety among advocates for its egregious conditions of confinement, lack of transparency, and release practices, with outcomes of serious injury and even death.
IMMIGRANT WOMEN FILE COMPLAINT AGAINST EGREGIOUS LIVING CONDITIONS, MEDICAL NEGLECT AT RENSSELAER COUNTY JAIL IN TROY, NY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2021
Contact: Julie Mente, Communications Manager, press@brooklynbailfund.org
Troy, New York — On behalf of women held in ICE custody at the Rensselaer County Jail,Catholic Charities Community Services, Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, and Justice forMigrant Families, with the support of half a dozen advocates and lawyers, filed a Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) Complaint against ICE and the Rensselaer County Jail in Troy, NY.
The Complaint calls for an immediate investigation into ICE’s physical abuse of one woman, “Ms. Q,” investigation of egregious living and medical conditions at the Rensselaer County Jail, and the immediate release of all women from ICE custody at the facility. “ICE detainees shouldn't be treated differently because we're still human and we have feelings too. We shouldn't be treated like animals. We should be allowed to take a shower and make phone calls to our families on a daily basis. We shouldn't be in lockdown for 14 days at a time, not knowing what is going on with our families,” says Ms. Q.
The Complaint recounts the physical abuse Ms. Q endured while in transit to ICE custody. An ICE official violently tugged on Ms. Q’s shackles, causing her ankle shackles to get caught on a grate, and causing Ms. Q to fall. Because Ms. Q’s wrists, hips, and feet were shackled together, she was unable to break her fall with her hands, and she landed on her head. Ms. Q reports later being told to clean herself in the sink inside her cell, despite being covered in blood.
Medical neglect is a systemic problem at the Rensselaer County Jail. Ms. Q reports not receiving adequate treatment for her ankle injuries. Another woman, “Ms. M,” reports being told she would receive surgery for a keloid on her ear, but was later denied that surgery by Rensselaer officials, despite being in pain. The Rensselaer County Jail also denied Ms. M access to medicine and a medically appropriate diet needed to treat a chronic condition.
Finally, another woman, “Elizabeth,” reports having fainted in the facility and was unconscious for thirty minutes. While she was unconscious and even after she woke up, no officials from Rensselaer County Jail came to check on her. Elizabeth says “someone could die in their cell [at Rensselaer], and they would never know.”
Supported by direct testimonies of Ms. Q, Assia Serrano, and several other women who wish to remain anonymous, the Complaint also details filthy living conditions, including littered floors, clogged toilets, and barely operable sinks. The women report not having access to cleaning supplies to sanitize their cells. Women report lack of access to sanitary pads during their menstrual cycles. All women have reported denial of access to showers for upwards of 10 days at a time.
“I was transferred to Rensselaer Jail in May 2021. I was vaccinated and already tested negative for COVID-19 but when I got to Rensselaer, they isolated me. I only got one call to tell my family where I was. I had my last meal of the day around 4:30pm but after that I had nothing to eat and no one to communicate with. There was no hot water. I was in isolation for 14 days and had to go a whole week without showering. It was terrible,” says Assia Serrano, who was previously held in ICE custody at Rensselaer County Jail.
“The Rensselaer County Jail for too long has operated as a quasi-black site for immigrant women. Far away from their families, their attorneys, and communities, these women’s rights are trampled upon by ICE and the Rensselaer County officials. It is high time that the Department of Homeland Security actually investigate and inspect this facility, and we strongly urge the Department to end its contract with the county,” says Sophia Genovese, Pro Bono Supervising Attorney, Catholic Charities; Counsel for Ms. Q.
“The approach for immigrant women in ICE detention in New York State has predominantly been one of keeping a minority group in detention deliberately invisibilized and even further removed from resources and their communities than the overall population. The result is injustice on top of injustice and this is exemplified by their tenure in Rensselaer County Jail, under the direct control of a sheriff known for his bigotry. The experience of women in ICE detention in New York State needs to be heard and seen, and the only appropriate remedy is their freedom.” said Jennifer Connor, Executive Director, Justice for Migrant Families.
“Time and again ICE has proven itself incapable of meeting the most basic needs of the people they choose to detain. And what's worse, it appears ICE would rather subject people to cruelty and indignity instead of safely releasing them so they can access resources that support their well being until their immigration cases are resolved. New York must end its contracts with ICE—with Rensselaer County and across the state—and ICE must free Ms. Q and others subjected to the inhumanity of detention,” says Tania Mattos, Director of Advocacy & Policy, Brooklyn Community Bail Fund
www.justiceformigrantfamilies.org | www.brooklynbailfund.org | .catholiccharitiesny.org
Mass Hunger Strike in Buffalo Federal Detention Facility
Thirty-six hunger strikers in Batavia, NY on day 4 of hunger strike to demand release from immigration detention; one in critical condition on day 26.
March 30th, 2021
Batavia, NY- There has been a mass, coordinated hunger strike in the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY with at least 36 hunger strikers demanding release, as of Friday, March 26th. They join with hunger strikers across the United States to advocate for an end to the cruelty and violence of immigration detention and demand immediate release from the facilities.
Starting on March 24, at least 36 people in at least two units who are detained and held in the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY organized and joined a hunger strike that some have been on for weeks. The longest current hunger striker, Wilson Pena-Lojo, is on day 26 of his hunger strike. He states that he is striking in response to abuse he has faced while in ICE detention, specifically the abuse he faced while in EssexCounty, where he was physically and sexually abused by multiple guards. Wilson has been transferred between multiple facilities over the past year, undergoing hunger strikes in each. He has also already caught COVID-19 two times while detained.Currently, on day 26, Wilson is in critical condition. He reports seeing stars when he moves and instability when he tries to walk. With a weakened immune system and a recent COVID-19 outbreak in the facility, it is crucial that he be released and given the proper medical attention. Wilson, as well as the other hunger strikers, are demanding release from immigration detention and putting their bodies on the line until these demands are reached.
In reaction to hunger strikes, officials within the facility have placed people into solitary confinement and threatened force feeding, instead of meeting the demands of those striking. While hunger striking leaves people with weakened immune systems that require more medical attention, the officials have placed people into solitary confinement with little to no oversight, leaving the hunger strikers in a dangerous position if and when they pass out. There have been reports of multiple hunger strikers passing out already. The use of solitary confinement for hunger strikers is inhumane as is the denial of adequate medical attention and treatment.
One hunger striker, David states: “My Name is David Hyfa Lorenzo John. I'm a citizen of St. Vincent & The Grenadines. I've lived in the United States of America for 23 years. I've been convicted and served my time for a a drug sale, that I've regretted for so many years. I came to Batavia Federal Detention Facility on August, 18, 2019. I've been ordered deported November 13, 2019, which the final order came down for my deportation March, 5, 2020. I have never fought against being deported due to the fact I made peace with the crimes I've committed. I only asked why I'm being held permanently, as well as enduring worse treatment than prison in such inhumane conditions. I ask the public to speak out on our behalf, we're human beings as well aren't we? Why have all my basic rights been stripped from me?”
“The hunger strikers are risking their lives to make a statement. Those with the authority, like ICE Field Director Thomas Feeley, have the responsibility to listen and meet their demands. This pandemic has gone on for over a year and health conditions within the facility have only gotten worse. Instead of meeting basic health standards, the BFDF has met the hunger strikers demand for release with punitive and inhumane treatment. We stand in solidarity with the hunger strikers and are calling on Thomas Feeley to meet their demands and free them all,” stated Madi McEwen, a volunteer organizer with Justice for Migrant Families.
The hunger strike is ongoing and it is up to ICE officials to meet the demands of release and the public to demand humane response from their government. Justice for Migrant Families WNY calls on ICE Field Director Thomas Feeley and Acting Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, Corey Price, to take action to meet hunger striker demands and release all those who are detained.
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Covid Outbreak, Hunger Strike in Buffalo Immigrant Detention Center
Community calls for Humanitarian Response
BATAVIA, NY --A second COVID-19 outbreak is creating a public health crisis inside the Buffalo Federal Detention Center and the failed response of ICE threatens not only the detainees, but also the surrounding community. At least 26 people are confirmed to be infected, with 180 still awaiting test results, in a facility that holds approximately 250 people.
One detainee has been on a hunger strike for ten days and a second one is on day six, calling for an end to the cruelty of detention, particularly in the midst of a pandemic. Mitigation is impossible in a detention center, and staff are not required to be tested. The detention center does not have adequate medical staff or facilities to protect people from COVID-19; even before the pandemic, inadequate medical care was a frequent complaint.
Community and faith leaders spoke in Buffalo on Tuesday in support of the hunger strikers, repeating their calls for detainees to be released for their own safety, and to stop another outbreak in Western New York. “Both we as a community but also our Federal government has the moral imperative, the opportunity, and the practical means and resources to safely and supportively release people into the care of community, and we believe that is is in the interest of public health to do so.” said Jennifer Connor, Executive Director of Justice for Migrant Families WNY.
ICE, at the direction of Field Director Thomas Feeley, has employed solitary confinement as standard medical practice at the detention center since March of 2020. Whether a person requests medical care, needs to quarantine, or decides to partake in a hunger strike, they are placed in solitary confinement. ICE’s attorney, US Attorney Adam Khalil, specifically cited fear of solitary confinement as the reason people did not report symptoms earlier, leading to the outbreak.
“They don't need to be locked up until an immigration decision. This is a justice issue as well as a health issue,” stated Rev. John Long, Presbyterian minister in Buffalo and immigrant rights advocate.
Transfers between detention facilities with known COVID outbreaks have continued and conditions have not changed enough within the facility since the first outbreak. In the units where the COVID outbreak started, there are still many medically vulnerable people.
Genesee County resident and member of Rochester Rapid Response Network Mary Rutigliani said, “Batavia is a crossroads between Western New York and the Finger Lakes Region. We cannot pretend that ICE Field Office Director Thomas Feeley’s unwillingness to test staff puts our whole region in danger because of COVID’s asymptomatic spreading. I’m worried for our rural health care systems and the families of those working in the facility, in addition to those in the facility. The only way to stop the spread is through safe, supported release that the hunger strikers’ demand.”
“Every day, the choice of life or death is set before us. Every day, the choice to do what is right and just is set before us” concluded Reverend Nancy Rosas, pastor of Pilgrim-St. Luke United Church of Christ. “We are called to love and care for our neighbors, all of our neighbors, including our migrant neighbors is to release them to the care, health and safety that they and our community need and deserve.”
Press Contact: Jennifer Connor, Executive Director, director@jfmfwny.org
Community Protests ICE’s Retaliation to Hunger Strikers and COVID-19 Practices
Batavia and Buffalo, NY - Local community groups continue to rally around hunger strikers’ demands for humane treatment and safe COVID-19 practices by ICE across the NY/NJ region. People from Buffalo, the GLOW region and Ithaca protested in front of the Buffalo Federal Detention Center in Batavia, NY Tuesday afternoon.
“What I have learned over the past four years is that the Buffalo community, the Western New York community has been vocal in its outrage over the treatment of immigrants who are our beloved community members” said Jennifer Connor, Executive Director of Justice for Migrant Families, WNY. “We are outside of Buffalo Federal Detention Center today to uplift the voices of the hunger strikers and to again make visible the humanity of those who suffer every day in immigrant detention. Hear them, free them now.”
In recent weeks, over 140 people participated in hunger strikes at Essex and Hudson County Jails in New Jersey to demand that they be released from ICE custody so that they can reunite with their families and community, and fight their immigration cases from outside ICE custody, where they have the resources to do so. In 2020, there were two hunger strikes in ICE detention in Bergen County Jail where immigrants also demanded their release, in retaliation, ICE has transferred many of those in hunger strike to facilities as far away as the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY, the Krome Service Processing in South Florida, and the El Paso Service Processing Center in Texas.
The Worker Justice Center of NY (WJCNY) released this statement: “Worker Justice Center of NY has filed a monumental lawsuit in New York’s Supreme Court against the private, for-profit company, Akima Global Services (AGS), for its exploitation of detained immigrants here at the Buffalo Federal Detention Center in Batavia. As we condemn this private company for their practice of extracting labor without providing legally sufficient compensation, we condemn the practice of jeopardizing their very lives during this pandemic. We are appalled by the actions taken by ICE and its contractors to transfer hunger strikers among detention facilities in an attempt to hide their urgent message from public view, while increasing the risk of COVID exposure to all involved. We echo calls for their immediate release from detention.”
Those on hunger strike called attention to the inhumane treatment they receive in detention and the dangers posed by COVID-19, which have been heightened in jails, prisons, and ICE detention by lack of social distancing, proper medical care, lack of widespread testing, and denial of PPE and medicine.
Due to retaliation against hunger strikers in Essex and Hudson County Jails by ICE and jail staff, most of those on hunger strike suspended their protest as of Monday, january 11th, but some individuals have continued to carry on the hunger strikes and there are at least 5 people now on hunger strike in ICE detention at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY.
Hunger strikers are routinely threatened with violence and isolation through solitary confinement, and protest leaders on the inside have been targeted for their activities. Hunger strikers have reported being denied access to water and basic necessities for over 24 hours, having personal items confiscated without reason, and being denied access to commissary, calls with families, and legal counsel.
ICE transfers and detentions are common, and deadly practices. All women previously held in the women’s unit at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia were suddenly transferred on Friday, December 11th to the Rensselaer County Jail despite the lack of safety, proper healthcare available at the facility and notification to the women and their families.
“ICE’s use of transfers puts us all in danger. It heightens the risk of COVID in the GLOW Region unnecessarily,” said Mary Rutigliano, a member of the Rochester Rapid Response Network and Genesee County resident. “ICE Field Director Thomas Feeley is putting undue pressure on our rural healthcare systems by making social distancing impossible and not providing PPE. No one incarcerated or in detention, or who works there deserves to have their life needlessly endangered. Feeley and Cuomo need to free them all in the name of public health.”
The 5 hunger strikers in Batavia are being held in solitary confinement, and ICE is threatening to punish anyone who joins the strikers in solitary as well. Furthermore, a former hunger striker is being forced to cohabitate in a dormitory of 40 people where 5-6 people are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19. People imprisoned are doing their best to keep each other safe without the possibility of social distancing, personal protective equipment, and hand sanitation. Currently, the only alternative they are presented with is to report their cell mates to the facility’s medical team, which will result in the punitive practice of solitary confinement which cuts them off from access to phone calls with the family members. Instead of transfers, retaliation and solitary confinement, those who are detained, family members, and other advocates demand the release of all people from detention inorder guarantee their health and safety.
Advocates, Families of Detained Immigrants Hold People’s Conference at Newark and Buffalo ICE Field Offices to Demand Releases
Buffalo, NY and Newark NJ - Immigration advocates in the Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition will rally for People’s Conferences on Thursday, January 14th at 5:00pm, in front of the Buffalo ICE Field Office and at 4:00PM in front of the Newark Field Office.
Family members of detained people and advocates will gather for a collective call to demand the release of all people in ICE detention, an end to ICE transfers between facilities, and an end to the inhumane treatment of people held in detention, particularly the use of solitary confinement. In addition to those physically present, the testimony of people held in detention, including those who participated in recent hunger strikes in ICE detention at Batavia, Essex, Hudson County jails, will be broadcast.
“A People’s Conference is giving the mic to the families and the people inside to speak their truth. While institutions like ICE want to dehumanize us and take us away from our communities, we will continue to fight back to tear down walls and jails and build a collective resistance. We need everyone to be complicit in the fight to abolish ICE,” said Haydi Torres, an organizer with Movimiento Cosecha NJ.
“Even before the pandemic, people’s health suffered in detention in Batavia. Transfers are not only irresponsibly dangerous during this public health crisis, they also disrupt detained people’s connections to community, family and advocates. Transfers are being used to punish those who are trying to bring attention to the inhumane conditions inside prisons and detention centers. Immigrant detention is a grave and serious social wrong. It is our collective moral duty to free them all,” said Jennifer Connor, Executive Director of Justice for Migrant Families, WNY.
In recent weeks, 5 of the over 140 people participating in hunger strikes at Essex and Hudson county jails were transferred to the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility. Their demands: that they be released from ICE custody so that they can reunite with their families and community, and
fight their immigration cases from community settings, where they have the resources to do so. In 2020, there were two hunger strikes in ICE detention in Bergen County Jail, where immigrants also demanded their release. In retaliation, ICE has transferred many of those in hunger strike to facilities as far away as the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY, the Krome Service Processing in South Florida, and the El Paso Service Processing Center in Texas.
Those on hunger strike called attention to the inhumane treatment they receive in detention, and the dangers posed by COVID-19, which have been heightened in jails, prisons, and ICE detention by lack of social distancing, proper medical care, lack of widespread testing, and denial of PPE and medicine.
Due to retaliation against hunger strikers in Essex and Hudson county jails by ICE and jail staff, most of those on hunger strike suspended their protest as of Monday, January 11th, but some individuals have continued to carry on the hunger strikes, and there are at least 5 people now on hunger strike in ICE detention at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY. Hunger strikers are routinely threatened with violence and isolation through solitary confinement, and protest leaders on the inside have been targeted for their activities. Hunger strikers have reported being denied access to water and basic necessities for over 24 hours, having personal items confiscated without reason, and being denied access to commissary, calls with families, and legal counsel.
ICE transfers and detentions are common, and deadly, practices. All of the women previously held in the women’s unit at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia were suddenly transferred on Friday, December 11th to the Rensselaer County Jail despite the health risk, proper health care available at the facility, notification to the women and their families, and access to the few personal belongings they can have.
The 5 hunger strikers in Batavia are being held in solitary confinement, and ICE is threatening to put anyone who joins the strike in solitary as well. Furthermore, a former hunger striker is being forced to cohabitate in a dormitory of 40 people where 5-6 people are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19. People imprisoned are doing their best to keep each other safe without the possibility of social distancing, personal protective equipment, and hand sanitation. Currently, the only alternative they are presented with is to report their cell mates to the facility’s medical team, which will result in the punitive practice of solitary confinement which cuts them off from access to phone calls with their family members. Instead of transfers, retaliation and solitary confinement, those who are detained, family members and other advocates are demanding the release of all people from detention in order to guarantee their health and safety.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 3, 2020
Justice for Migrant Families WNY
Columbia County Sanctuary Movement
Please, Give Us a Voice: Batavia Detainees Speak Out on Covid
“Being detained here, we are like the proverbial lamb waiting to be slaughtered.”
The following statement was received by Justice for Migrant Families WNY through USPS on April 2, 2020, from inside immigrant detention in Batavia. The statement was authored by a group of people who are currently detained inside the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, dated March 30, 2020 and postmarked March 31, 2020, following a multi-day hunger strike in two of the units that has now concluded. This statement is a next effort to make their message heard. The original statement is transcribed below and the original PDF and envelope are attached.
PLEASE, GIVE US A VOICE
We, the detainees of the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, in Batavia, New York, in this time of fear and confusion, plea with you, give voice to our situation as Civil Immigration Detainees.
We are detained at this Facility, which has a capacity for some six hundred and fifty detainees. Many of us are simply, immigration violators. We have come to this country, some with some form of visa that we have violated, admittedly, by being overstayers.
Many of us have come, begging at the doors for Asylum, seeking to avoid being tortured, raped and murdered by different regimes, or those the regime favor. Many of us come from countries, like El Salvador, to where if we are returned, because of the label of M-13 membership, will be arrested, tortured and murdered by the Government.
Even others are from Venezuela, seeking haven in this country, from a corrupt and ruthless regime, as substantiated by the United States. We are also from India, feeling the persecution of the Indian Government against Punjabis. We are many, who have, unfortunately been convicted of crimes, who have served our time, and are now in ICE/DHS custody, in immigration proceedings. However, not withstanding any of our personal conditions as detainees, we do not deserve to be detained to die.
The coronavirus pandemic is affecting the world and this country. The news reports show hourly, the amount of new cases, the lack of medication, staff and resources available to treat those afflicted. Most frightening is the escalation in deaths, in New York State, not to mention new cases in New York and the rest of this nation.
Being detained here, we are like the proverbial lamb waiting to be slaughtered. At BFDF [Buffalo Federal Detention Facility], there are on the average, a complement of 50 Detention Officers, all employed by AGS, aka Akima Global Services, a contractor to ICE/ DHS. Additionally, there are about twelve Clinical Staff, twenty Food Workers and another fifteen or twenty Maintenance Staff/ Janitorial Staff. These are employed by a different unknown contractor.
In each housing unit, there is an assigned Detention Officer, who is relieved at various times daily, by another Detention Officer. This occurs on the day and night shift.
In order to go to the Clinic, we are escorted by other Detention Officers. In the event of a Court date, we are escorted and pat searched by another Detention Officer.
The food we are served, is prepared and packaged by the Food Service workers of AGS.
If necessary, in the housing units, the Maintenance staff enter, to repair or swap out the microwave ovens, or ice machines. They come into the units to clear clogs in the waste disposal system.
The janitorial workers come into the units to clean the ceiling vents, range hoods, televisions, etc.
This alone should indicate the volume of interaction we experience on a daily basis, with others from the outside- ANY ONE OF WHOM CAN INFECT AND CAUSE ALL OF OUR DEATHS, perhaps unconscious of being a carrier of COVID-19.
At BFDF, the rule of the day is to keep the contractors, especially AGS on the job.We are fed the company line, that in Genesee County there are not many cases. Yet, all of these individuals entering here , to include the Immigration Judges and Court Staff, are not all residents in Genesee County.
Yes, we are in immigration custody, but we are far from fools. Many of us have lived for lengthy periods of time in this country. We are well educated. Many of us were successful businessmen, medical professionals, service workers, and everything in between. We are aware that there are various other counties in Western New York-Niagara;Monroe; Erie, where many of the AGS staff live and commute to Batavia from.
None of the Security, Food Service, Medical, Maintenance or Janitorial Staff are prohibited from leaving at the end of their shifts. They go home, go out, go shopping, all normal activities.However, they are the only ones who would introduce this dread killer into our midst.
The DHS/ICE are not in the business of releasing detainees, even those within the highest risk categories. There are cancer victims, cardiac patients, diabetics, lung disease victims, those afflicted with chronic auto-immune diseases being detained here.
Are we to be left to contract this disease and simply die?We are the sons and fathers;wives and mothers;brothers and sisters; grandfathers and grandmothers; friends and loved ones of others. Would the President own our deaths. How much longer would these cruel and inhumane immigration policies and laws result in suffering and eventual death?
BFDF is only on of many detention facilities, mostly all run by these wealthy and connected contractors. How many must die before something is done about temporarily releasing us?
While the Government constantly contends that we are safer here or in detention than with our loved ones, how can that be rationalized? With the constant exposure to all these outside workers coming in, how are we safer?
The authorities persist in allowing removable individuals into BFDF, once their state sentences have been served. These individuals are brought into the facility without being tested for the Covid-19. Is this indicative of safety?
Each individual brought in from New York State incarceration is taken first, on buses, filled with other prisoners, and manned by NYSDOCCS guards. They are taken to Downstate Correctional Facility and placed in bullpens for processing. Following this, they are loaded into other buses, filled with prisoners for a two to five day trek to Wende Correctional Facility. The buses stop at other jails, discharging and picking up other prisoners, and then to Auburn Correctional Facility, where the prisoners [stay] overnight, in the filthiest cells you can imagine.
The next morning, the busload of prisoners is taken to Wende, and depending on the date of one’s release, be held for three days to be picked up at Wende, and brought to BFDF, by AGS Staff. Could the possibility of the exposure be negated by such protocol?
We should not be sacrificed on the altar of corporate greed, to placate the Security Contractors. To be left here to be exposed and suffer to death must be of consequence. The collective conscience of the Government and those administering ICE/ DHS must be awakened. The rationale that we are criminals must be discounted…Immigration proceedings are civil, and we should not be re-convicted, and sentenced, to serve a political end.
We are well aware that this Facility is a huge boon to the local economy. It provides many jobs for the area. The men and women employed here, and in all detention facilities are at risk of contracting the Covid-19. Yet, their goal is-the dollar.They will continue coming in, until one of us gets infected by one of them, and the wildfire becomes uncontrolled.
Please, publish our stories, our fear and anxiety. Let the world know how we feel. To be left to contract this disease and die, without being able to see, or say something to our loved ones is our sad reality. Put our message out. Maybe, just maybe, the correct heart may be softened and we will be released to spend some time in freedom, than to die in detention. Do not let our lives be lost because of the almighty dollar. Our lives count, as does everyone else on this earth.
WE THANK YOU FOR READING THIS AND EXPRESSING OUR SITUATION TO THE WORLD.
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