Protest eases at immigrant detention centre
Detainees at U.S. facility in Tacoma have been on hunger strike over poor conditions
SEATTLE — A hunger strike to protest conditions at the 1,500-bed Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma has significantly abated, the U.S. federal agency that oversees the contract facility said Friday.
All but one of the original protesters resumed eating regular meals, Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in an email. “The sole detainee who is continuing to refuse meals has been allowed to remain in the general population, but the facility personnel are monitoring him closely,” Kice wrote of the strike that began Monday.
Kice said about one-third of the civil detainees — who are awaiting immigration hearings or deportation — refused meals but, citing fluctuating numbers, did not provide exact numbers of those who participated in the strike. As of Friday morning, the population count at the facility was 1,401.
Maru Mora Villalpando, a spokeswoman for the anti-detention group NWDC Resistance, said as many as 750 detainees had been refusing meals at the privately run detention centre operated by the GEO Group.
On Thursday, about 40 female detainees at the centre joined the action and began refusing meals, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement. The number had dropped to 22 on Friday, with all still having access to the commissary.
Staff planned to meet with the women to discuss their concerns and counsel them about the medical risks associated with refusing food, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement statement.
“They will also be advised about the protocols that will be instituted should the threshold for a hunger strike be met,” the statement said, referring to the 72-hour period to refuse food or nine meals in row that trigger a hunger-strike protocol and a medical response.
Negotiations have taken place between Immigration and Customs Enforcement, GEO and the detainees, who reportedly have been protesting the quality of food, facility hygiene, access to medical care, lack of recreation and what they allege are exorbitant commissary prices. The detainees also are seeking an increase in the $1 a day they are paid for performing menial jobs around the detention centre.
The strike has been led by the NWDC Resistance, which seeks to end all immigration-related detentions.
Kice said in an email that her agency would “like to think our ongoing dialogue with the detainees contributed” to the drop in participants.”
Villalpando said she heard detainees were offered more menu options but attributed the drop, among various things, to threats to transfer inmates to other facilities and take away the commissary.