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ICE

Inmates At Privately-Run ICE Camp Go On Hunger Strike

Amidst a COVID-19 outbreak, around 100 detained migrants at a private, for-profit prison in Farmville, VA, have collectively gone on hunger strike, demanding their release on medical and humane grounds. That is according to Sanctuary DMV, a volunteer organization helping immigrants in the Washington, D.C. area. Phone lines to the dorms have been cut and visits have been suspended. Inmates claim that one dorm is under strict quarantine. “We are very concerned about the health and safety of everyone detained at Farmville and detention centers, prisons, and jails across the country,” said Madhvi Venkatraman, core organizer with Sanctuary DMV. The move comes in response to the inaction of Attorney General William Barr; Detainees at ICA-Farmville had sent him a letter March 25, pleading to be released, but received no reply.

“People Are Being Hunted Down” – ICE Launches Rights-Busting Onslaught Against Sanctuary Cities

Rights are routinely being violated as hundreds of ICE agents storm New York City and other sanctuary cities in a fresh attempt to round up undocumented immigrants. Operation Palladium has begun. Hundreds of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have entered New York and other sanctuary cities in a fresh attempt to round up undocumented immigrants.

Hundreds Of County Jails Detained Immigrants For ICE

On a typical day in 2017, for instance, Theo Lacy Facility in Orange, California, operated by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, held about 500 individuals for ICE and received US$118 per person per day, bringing in a total of $59,000 a day. More so than federally operated facilities, county jails, along with facilities operated by for-profit companies, have come to hold for ICE the lion’s share of immigrant detainees facing removal proceedings.

Over 100 People Show Up To Support Sherrie Andre Of The FANG Collective On Trial For Resisting ICE

On January 7th, over 100 people came to New Bedford District Court to support Sherrie Andre, the co-founder of the FANG Collective, as they headed to trial. Despite the fact that both Sherrie’s legal team, and the prosecution were prepared for the trial, the judge inexplicably decided to move the trial to February 26th. After the decision was announced, court officers violently and aggressively removed supporters from the court house. We won’t back down and will continue to support Sherrie and resist ICE and state violence in Bristol County.

After 68 Days, Hunger Strikers In ICE Custody Are On The Brink Of Death

New Orleans, Louisiana — With hunger strikes sweeping immigration jails across the country, two Indian asylum seekers protesting their incarceration at a remote Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jail in Louisiana are reportedly on the brink of death after refusing to eat or drink for 68 days, according to a volunteer who regularly visits the two men. The hunger strikers have a clear demand: to be released so they can pursue their asylum cases outside of jail. Medical staff at the LaSalle ICE Processing Center are force-hydrating both men, a painful and disturbing process that involves restraining the striker and forcing fluid through nasal passages with tubes, according to Michelle Graffeo, a volunteer with Freedom for Immigrants.

Anti-ICE Protester Interviewed Before She Goes To Trial

Sherrie Anne André (they/their/them) is a radical BIPOC LGBTQQIA+ activist-organizer based in Providence. A cofounder of the FANG Collective, established in 2013, they are going to trial on January 7 for participating in an August 20, 2018 blockade of the Bristol County House of Corrections in solidarity with an incarcerated workers hunger strike. The action was the launch of a larger #ShutDownICE campaign FANG has been operating ever since. We recently sat down for a conversation with them, which is presented here in a slightly-edited form.

The Northwest Turns Up The Heat On ICE

Yakima, Wash. — A man in handcuffs locked to a belt chain trudged up metal stairs, eyes fixed on the door of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter plane bound for El Paso. He turned and brightened when gusts carried the shrill tone of a whistle blown by one of a dozen activists 50 yards away. “No estas solo!” — You are not alone! — the activists yelled across the tarmac from behind chain-link and barbed-wire fencing. Awkwardly, the man with a goatee and glasses — one of 51 unidentified detainees dispatched on a recent Tuesday by ICE — twisted his right wrist to wave. Much of the focus on President Trump’s immigration crackdown has been at the U.S.-Mexico border, which has seen a surge of Central American asylum seekers hoping to cross into the United States.

Pro-Coup Venezuelan Soldiers Who Fled To The US Now Locked Up In ICE Detention Center

The Venezuelan soldiers who participated in the U.S.-backed coup attempt in April of this year and subsequently fled to the U.S. have been incarcerated in ICE detention camps ever since.  Telemundo, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, secured an interview with Major Hugo Parra, the highest-ranking of the handful of soldiers who answered self-declared President Juan Guaidó’s call to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro. After the coup ended in spectacular failure, Parra revealed that he fled the country, ending up in the United States on April 11, where he expected to be given a hero’s welcome for his part in the Trump-approved insurrection. Instead, he was immediately detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), first kept in a facility in Texas, then later transferred to the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana. He has been refused all requests for bail or appointments to see a judge, one of nearly 42,000 people, most of them from Latin America, currently locked up in ICE prisons.

D.C. Chef Arrested By ICE Officers Who Seemed To Be ‘Trying Their Luck’ In Apartment Building, Lawyer Says

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers hung around in the hallway of a D.C. residential building that many Central Americans call home, and conducted a search on the first apartment that opened its door, says a lawyer for a resident who was arrested by those officers in November. He is still detained and has yet to receive a bond hearing, his lawyer says. Ava Benach is an immigration lawyer in D.C. who was called by a prominent restaurant group to represent one of their workers, she tells DCist. She says she is not allowed to name the restaurant group or the man who was arrested...

No Music For ICE! Musicians: Pull your Music From Amazon This Holiday Season

In an escalation of our NoMusicForICE campaign, we just issued takedown notices to pull our music from Amazon’s digital platform, and you can too. We’re calling on musicians & labels who oppose ICE’s human rights abuses to join us during the holiday season. Read on for why, and how, you can join us in a collective digital takedown, in solidarity with groups fighting Amazon’s support of ICE nationwide. Mass takedowns will begin on Black Friday and continue throughout Amazon’s all-important holiday shopping season.

Immigrants Speak Boldly Despite Threats Of Violence

Recently, an email was circulated by anti-immigrant forces saying that they intended to show up “armed” to an immigrants’ rights event at a public library in Georgia, because we as the organizers of the event had dared to challenge law enforcement and “speak [our] minds.” The majority of the speakers, including myself, were immigrants. As an outspoken immigrant who is often critical of the United States government’s policies, I have often been told to go back “instead of stirring up trouble here.” Unfortunately, we have become accustomed to aggressive and hateful speech in the course of pursuing justice. But this email escalated anti-immigrant rhetoric to threats of violence. Many immigrants and refugees have left home countries where governments restricted their freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

Raising The Level Of Confrontation Against ICE

On the evening of September 19, 2019, over 200 people marched through a quiet suburb to protest at the home of Johnny Choate, the warden of a notorious Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Aurora, Colorado. Abolish ICE Denver and the Denver Communists considered Choate to be the perfect initial target in our campaign, “Confront La Migra Where They Live,” which seeks to raise the level of confrontation against immigration enforcement, to name and shame them, and to reveal the war-crimelevel injustices they commit. 

Activists Help ICE Agents Quit Their Jobs

This service is provided by Never Again Action: Atlanta, the local chapter of the national Never Again Action organization. As a Jewish-led organization, we believe we were taught to never let anything like the Holocaust happen again. We refuse to wait and see what happens with our nation’s immigration system — we know from our own history what happens next. Many of our ancestors narrowly escaped from conditions like what we are seeing today in detention centers and immigrant communities around the country. We are putting our bodies on the line because when we say never again, we mean never again for anyone. We want the same thing you do: for you to quit your job at ICE. Regardless of your reasons for quitting, we want to help you get out so there will be one less person contributing to the mass atrocities within our immigration system.

Over 1,000 Students Across 17 Colleges Pledge Not To Work At Palantir Over ICE Work

Over 1,000 students across 17 U.S. colleges are pledging to not work for software company Palantir over its work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), escalating the widespread protests against the company founded by Trump adviser Peter Thiel. The student-led campaign went public on Monday with a letter signed by over 1,200 students calling out specific colleges over their ties to Palantir. The students hail from colleges including Yale, Stanford, Harvard and the University of California-Berkley. "We the undersigned are pledging not to work at Palantir while it continues to do business with ICE," the petition reads.

‘The Moron Fascists’: ICE Fails To Properly Redact Document Proposing ‘Hyper-Realistic’ Urban Warfare Training Facility

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency which carries out the bulk of President Donald Trump's war on immigrants, is building a "hyper-realistic" urban training ground in Fort Benning, Georgia. The information was revealed in a poorly redacted acquisition form document posted online that was copy and pasted by Newsweek, revealing the camp's location and details. "They really are the moron fascists," tweeted podcast host Michael Brooks.