Above photo: Tacoma, Washington immigrant rights protest demands shutdown of Northwest Detention Center.
Tacoma, WA – On September 1, the International Migrant’s Alliance – USA (IMA USA) and La Resistencia hosted a rally for solidarity with immigrants and to shut down the Northwest Detention Center. The All Out for Migrant Defense rally was attended by over 850 people.
Many of the attendees traveled from Portland, Oregon as part of the closing event of the 2025 IMA USA and Tanggol Migrante Political Conference. This included a large caravan of over 50 cars and two school buses.
The Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma has become the place for many organizations to unite to fight the United States’ immigration policy. Other organizations like International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) Seattle, Bayan Washington, and the Oregon Rising Coalition also attended.
Angela Bonilla, president of the Portland Association of Teachers and member of the Oregon Rising Coalition spoke on behalf of the importance of building unity between labor unions and community-based organizations, stating, “This alliance has come together to improve the lives of the working class by taking back power and wealth that has been extracted by our communities.”
This call for unity has followed an interstate effort to end the inhumane conditions at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC). The NWDC is managed by a publicly traded company called the GEO Group that receives money from the U.S. government to imprison people during the immigration process.
La Resistencia has been documenting the conditions at the NWDC for over 11 years and has received reports from detainees that conditions are getting even worse. One of the leaders of La Resistencia reported that detainees were being kept in the detention center long after they should have been released or deported. They also said that one detainee had to survive a seven-day hunger strike to finally get deported.
The rally included further testimony of families of those detained in the NWDC. Three different families were able to speak about the horrible conditions inside of the facility. Each speech had a common theme: end the contract with the detention center and to treat all working people with dignity.
