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Detention

Shifting Policies Led To One Of The Deadliest Incidents For Immigrants

May 2, 2024 Perla Trevizo, ProPublica. , , , ,
Stefan Arango, a 31-year-old Venezuelan husband and father, felt immediately nauseated by the smells of sweat, urine and feces when Mexican guards ordered him into the cinder block cell in the border city of Ciudad Juárez. The tile floor was strewn with trash, and several men inside lay on flimsy mats that were incongruously covered in rainbow-colored vinyl. The windows were so small that they didn’t allow in much light or air. And, perhaps mercifully, they were so high that the men couldn’t see they were just a short stroll from El Paso, Texas, the destination they had risked everything to reach.

ICE Under Fire For Solitary Confinement Of Immigrants

March 22, 2024 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. , , , ,
The 61-year-old man who was recently found dead of suspected suicide at a privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prison in Washington state served the second-longest stretch in solitary confinement of any person in ICE custody since 2018, according to a new analysis by human rights experts. Charles Leo Daniel, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, was found dead while in solitary confinement on March 7 after being incarcerated at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) near Tacoma for about four years. Between April 2020 and September 2023, Daniel was held in solitary confinement for a total of 1,244 days divided between two stints.

Is Former De Facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry Now A De Facto Prisoner?

March 20, 2024 Kim Ives, Haiti Liberte. , , , ,
Ariel Henry, 74, once the king on Haiti’s chessboard, has now become a pawn of the U.S. in its increasingly desperate bid to send a proxy intervention force into the rebelling Caribbean nation. This is the picture Haïti Liberté has received from a well-placed source with intimate access into and knowledge of the U.S. government. Washington is now scrambling for way to send a “quick reaction force” into Haiti, and Ariel Henry remains one of their most important bargaining chips, the source says. After his chartered jet landed in Puerto Rico on Mar. 5, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interrogated Henry for three days, according to our source.

Former Ambassador Craig Murray Detained Under UK Terror Laws

October 19, 2023 Kit Klarenberg, The Grayzone. , , , ,
On the morning of October 16, counter-terror police in Glasgow Airport detained journalist, whistleblower, human rights campaigner, and former British diplomat Craig Murray upon his return from Iceland. After grilling him intensively about his political beliefs, officers seized Murray’s phone and laptop. Murray, a proud Scottish nationalist, flew back to Glasgow after several days in Reykjavik, where he attended a popular Palestine solidarity event, and also met with high-ranking representatives of the Assange Campaign, which raises awareness about the plight of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Hundreds Set To Launch Hunger Strike Inside Stewart Detention Center

September 7, 2023 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
Last weekend, hundreds of people detained at the Stewart Detention Center announced plans for a hunger strike in response to inedible food and inhumane conditions inside the notorious Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in rural southwest Georgia. Though detainees have continued to eat while they negotiate with the facility’s staff, as many as 800 people are set to refuse food starting this week if their demands are not met. On the morning of Saturday, Aug. 26, roughly 300 people held inside the Stewart Detention Center were brought out of their holding cells for their morning meal.

DHS’s Secret Reports On Ice Detention

August 22, 2023 Freddy Martinez and Nick Schwellenbach, POGO. , , , ,
Previously confidential records from within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) confirm years of inadequate medical care, extensive use of solitary confinement, mistreatment of transgender individuals, shortcomings in rape and sexual assault prevention and response, inaccessible services, and other problems disclosed by people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is making dozens of these reports public after a nearly five-year Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) legal battle ended with a judge ordering the department to release the records.

ICE Detainees’ Hunger Strike Is Part Of A Long Fight For Freedom

July 7, 2023 James Anderson, The Real News Network. , , , ,
At two Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers in California’s Central Valley, a cycle of resistance and retaliation has been intensifying over the past three years. Detainees at the facilities, which are operated by for-profit prison company GEO Group, have organized against abysmal conditions, prompting detention center authorities to respond with increasing levels of punitive action. A motion was filed with the Eastern District Court of California on May 18 as part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit against GEO pertaining to the facilities. The filing marked a major escalation in a multipronged campaign being waged by current and former detainees, and outside advocates, to hold ICE and GEO accountable for their mistreatment.

Protests Erupt Across Florida As Senate Bill 1718 Goes Into Effect

July 3, 2023 Arturo Dominguez, Unicorn Riot. , , ,
Across Florida, protests are taking place to mark the beginning of an immigrant labor stoppage that is scheduled to last until at least July 3rd. Large crowds are being reported in Orlando, Tampa, and various areas in South Florida and as far away as Chicago and California. As SB 1718 goes into effect, the anger and economic concerns felt by many across the state forced Republican legislators to backpedal earlier this week. (See more about the new law in our last report.) Despite spin from elected state officials claiming the law “has no teeth,” thousands of undocumented immigrants and mixed-status families have already fled the state, leaving job sites and agricultural fields nearly empty.

Palestinians Continue Boycott Of Israeli Military Courts

January 28, 2022 People's Dispatch. , , ,
Around 500 Palestinians currently incarcerated in Israel under the illegal policy of administrative detention have been boycotting Israeli military courts to protest their detention since January 1. The detainees have since refused to appear for court hearings and sessions regarding the approval or renewal of their administrative detention orders. They are also boycotting appeal hearings, including those in higher courts. According to Palestinian prisoners’ rights groups, among those participating in the boycott are three minors and one woman. All of them are being detained without charge or trial by the Israeli authorities. Detainees in several prisons and detention centers in Israel launched this novel form of protest against the illegal administrative detention policy on January 1.

Journalist Banned From US, Detained In Mexico On The Way To Nicaragua

November 7, 2021 Popular Resistance. , , ,
Steve Sweeney, the international editor of the British socialist newspaper, was detained in Mexico City on Friday as he traveled to Nicaragua to cover the presidential election being held today. Sweeney is anti-imperialist and a founder of Media Workers for Palestine. His detention follows a multi-platform social media ban on independent journalists, activists and websites in Nicaragua, as detailed by Ben Norton of The Grayzone. There is also a corporate media disinformation campaign targeting Nicaragua and the current election. Sweeney's detention must be viewed in this context as an effort to prevent readers in the United Kingdom from having access to factual reporting.

End Migrant Warehousing

April 5, 2021 Lee Hall, Counterpunch. , , ,
The Biden-Harris administration is opening multiple detention camps to warehouse migrant kids. Thousands of unaccompanied children will go to military barracks at Fort Bliss, as the president seemed proud to announce to the press. The McAllen border patrol outpost where the Trump administration infamously separated families is currently closed—but not forever. For renovations. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has custody of 11,800 minors, at more than 100 sites nationwide. HHS receives children from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a component of the Department of Homeland Security. The HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement quarantines unaccompanied minors, and then holds these kids until they turn 18 or are deported, unless relatives or other sponsors can be found to house them for the duration of their immigration court cases.

The Border Patrol Is The Crisis

March 30, 2021 Jenn Budd, Medium. , , ,
It’s no surprise that there are claims of a new crisis on our border. A new year, a new administration, new policies in regard to who can cross and how they are processed will always bring a crisis claim from one side or the other. Depending on which side you are on politically often determines how you feel about migrants coming to our country. Conservatives usually feel we allow too many migrants to enter; liberals believe we should allow more. That is a generalized statement of course. There are all sorts of nuances about our immigration policies and what we believe to be the best course of action. In my activism, I have come across few who believe we should have completely closed or completely open borders. Most want humane immigration laws, but with some reasonable amount of precautions to protect Americans from truly dangerous people.

Life Of Palestinian Hunger Striker In Immediate Danger

October 25, 2020 Yoav Haifawi, Mondoweiss. , , ,
Maher al-Akhras, who has been on a hunger strike since his administrative detention on July 27, is waging a battle against the mighty Israeli occupation apparatus.  Every day brings him closer to death, as Israel seems to be trying to prove through his case that the life of Palestinians, like their freedom and human rights, are worth nothing. But the formidable insistence of his hunger strike against the principle of administrative detention, and his determination that the strike will end only once he is free or becomes a martyr, is mobilizing more and more people to his support.
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