Private Prison Guards Threaten Women in Immigration Detention with Pepper Spray and Solitary…
Press Contact: Christina Mansfield, Co-Executive Director, CIVIC
CMansfield@endisolation.org; (802) 999–1025
Adelanto — On Wednesday June, 14, 2017, a group of nearly 30 women detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Adelanto Detention Facility have commenced a hunger strike to protest conditions and their poor treatment at the largest for‐profit immigration detention facility in the country.
The following are the women’s demands:
1) The women want better medical care.
The women state that they are systematically facing medical neglect at the facility, operated by the private prison corporation, GEO Group. The facility has a long record of medical neglect of immigrants, which has been acknowledged by Congress in a letter to ICE in 2015 claiming that “egregious” medical errors caused a death at the facility in 2012.
Three people have died at the facility since January, and at least 10 people have passed away in immigration detention nationally, indicating that medical neglect is a systemic problem in the immigration detention system.
One woman, Norma Gutierrez, has had multiple strokes during her time at the facility and her condition has not been properly treated. Instead, she was placed in solitary confinement.
2) The women are protesting unreasonably high bond amounts set by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with no regard for a person’s ability to pay.
High bond amounts prevent many women from reuniting with their children and families while their immigration case proceeds, which ensures a steady stream of profit for the private prison contractor, GEO Group.
3) The women demand basic respect from the facility guards and ICE
Sara Salcido, one of the hunger strikers states:
“We want them to speak to us like we are humans, not animals. We don’t want to be disrespected and cursed at.”
4) The women, many of them mothers, want to be reunited with their children and families.
Some women who are currently detained are still breastfeeding, an indication of how ICE’s enforcement priorities have expanded under the Trump Administration. The women understand that they are being separated from their children because their incarceration is profitable for contractors like the GEO Grop, not because they are any danger to society.
This is the second hunger strike at the Adelanto Detention Facility in the same week. Another group of men began a hunger strike on Monday. The men are part of a Refugee Caravan of asylum seekers who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in May and were mandatorily detained in immigration detention. After officially beginning their strike with a demand letter, the men were beaten by facility guards, drenched in pepper spray, and placed in solitary confinement.
Now the women, who today began their hunger stirke to protest the very same conditions named by the men, are facing similar threats of violence. This morning, GEO guards and ICE officials threatened to confiscate the women’s property and place them in solitary confinement. They also were told if they don’t follow orders, they will be pepper sprayed.
A recent report by Human Rights Watch and Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) documents medical neglect in immigration detention, including the case of Raul Ernesto Morales-Ramos who died of organ failure and widespread cancer while in ICE custody at Adelanto in 2012. Independent medical experts have determined that he likely suffered from symptoms of cancer starting in 2010, but that the symptoms essentially went unaddressed for two years, until a month before he died.
“This facility has a well-documented and egregious record of substandard medical care and abuse. It is no surprise, given the facility is run by a for-profit company. The facility must be shut down and we must end our cruel, profit-driven immigration detention system, nationwide,” says Christina Mansfield, co-executive director of CIVIC.
Mansfield has been in touch with the hunger strikers who want their names to be known to the public and press, hoping this will provide them with protection from retaliation.
Norma Gutierrez
Maria Valdovinos
Xochitl Frias
Adriana Aguilar
Amelia Lopez
Patricia Lopez
Daymira Valdez
Sara Salcido
Rosa Torres
Magda Chitica
Maria Torres
Araksy Tokramadzhyan
Maria Martinez
Maria Lariss
Herinda Equihua
Lourdes Figueroa
Sandra Campos
Rosa Morfin
Suleyna Guzman
Gloria Ramos
Rosa Trujillo
Gabriela Vazquez
Raquel Marcia
Kerwin Hernandez
Stephanie Quintanilla
Adriana Prieto
Eldiah Davila
Brenda Manzanarez
Maria A. Hernandez
Josephina Duarte
Maria de Garcia
Jessica Garcia
Jessica Sandoval
UPDATE: June 15, 2017:
The women have communicated to CIVIC that they have ended their hunger strike today. They feel ICE and the jail staff are meeting some of their demands. Many women who were previously denied medical visits are now being seen, and jail staff have agreed to treat the women with respect and respect their religious freedom.
However, ICE is still being untruthful to the women — they told them they have no power over bond decisions and that only immigration judges grant bonds and set bond amounts. This is not the case.
Guardias de Prisión Privado Amenazan a Mujeres en Detención de Inmigrantes con Gas Pimienta y Aislamiento al Entrar en el Primer Día de una Huelga de Hambre en el Centro de Detención de Adelanto
Para publicación inmediata — 14 de junio de 2017
Contactos de prensa: Christina Mansfield, Co-Directora Ejecutiva, CIVIC
cmansfield@endisolation.org| (802)-999–1025
Adelanto — El miércoles 14 de junio de 2017, un grupo de casi 30 mujeres detenidas por la Oficina de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE) en el Centro de Detención de Adelanto han iniciado una huelga de hambre para protestar contra las condiciones y malos tratos en el mayor centro de detención de inmigrantes con fines de lucro en el país.
Las demandas de las mujeres son las siguientes:
1) Las mujeres desean mejor atención médica.
Las mujeres afirman que se enfrentan sistemáticamente a la negligencia médica en el centro de detención que es operado por la corporación de prisión privada, GEO Group. El centro de detención tiene un largo historial de negligencia médica de los inmigrantes detenidos.
Tres personas han muerto en el centro de detención desde enero, y al menos 10 personas han fallecido en la detención de inmigrantes a nivel nacional, lo que indica que la negligencia médica es un problema sistémico en el sistema de detención de inmigrantes.
Una mujer, Norma Gutiérrez, ha tenido múltiples accidentes cerebrovasculares durante su tiempo en el centro de detención, pero no han tratado adecuadamente su condición. Al contrario, la han puesto en una celda de aislamiento.
2) Las mujeres están protestando por los montos de las fianzas excesivamente altos establecidos por la Oficina de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE) sin tener en cuenta la capacidad de pago de una persona.
Los altos montos de fianzas evitan que muchas mujeres se reúnan con sus hijos y sus familias mientras que sus casos de inmigración prosiguen, lo que garantiza un flujo constante de ganancias para el contratista privado de la prisión, GEO Group.
3) Las mujeres exigen el respeto básico de los guardias del centro de detención y del ICE.
Sara Salcido, una de las huelguistas de hambre, afirma:
“Queremos que nos hablen como si fuéramos seres humanos, no animales. No queremos ser despreciadas y insultadas.”
4) Las mujeres, muchas de ellas madres, quieren reunirse con sus hijos y sus familias.
Algunas mujeres actualmente detenidas todavía están amamantando, un indicio de cómo las prioridades de la aplicación de la ley de ICE se han ampliado bajo la Administración de Trump. Las mujeres comprenden que están siendo separadas de sus hijos porque su encarcelamiento es rentable para contratistas como el GEO Group, no porque sean un peligro para la sociedad.
Esta es la segunda huelga de hambre en el Centro de Detención de Adelanto en la misma semana. Otro grupo de hombres comenzó una huelga de hambre el lunes. Los hombres son parte de una caravana de refugiados de solicitantes de asilo que llegaron a la frontera de los Estados Unidos y México en mayo y fueron detenidos obligatoriamente en la detención de inmigrantes. Después de iniciar su huelga oficialmente con una carta de demanda, los hombres fueron golpeados por guardias del centro de detención, rociados con gas pimienta, y colocados en celdas de aislamiento.
Ahora las mujeres, que hoy comienzan su huelga de hambre para protestar las mismas condiciones nombradas por los hombres, se enfrentan a amenazas similares de violencia. Esta mañana, los guardias de GEO y los funcionarios de ICE amenazaron con confiscar las pertenencias de las mujeres y colocarlas en celdas de aislamiento. Se les dijeron que si no siguen las órdenes, serán rociados con gas pimienta.
CIVIC is the national immigration detention visitation network, which is working to end U.S. immigration detention by monitoring human rights abuses, elevating stories, building community-based alternatives to detention, and advocating for system change. We have been visiting and monitoring the Adelanto Detention Facility since 2012. For more information, visit www.endisolation.org.