Nationwide Actions to Decry Deaths in Immigration Cages, Demand Justice
NEW ORLEANS – The Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition announced a nationwide Day of Action (12 hours) in response to the continued premature and avoidable deaths of community members held in immigration cages. Events will take place July 22-24.
Recent deaths include: Ernesto Rocha-Cuadra in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention in June, eight-year-old Anadith Tanay Reyes Alvarez in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody in May, and Salvador Vargas in ICE detention in April. During the Day of Action, families, communities and advocates will demand justice and accountability from the Biden administration, which continues to break its promise to roll back federal contracts with private prison companies. Abusive and deadly examples of private prison facilities contracted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for ICE include:
- Stewart Detention Center, where Vargas died, is one of the largest and deadliest ICE detention centers in the country run by CoreCivic in Lumpkin, Georgia.
- Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, where Rocha-Cuadra was subjected to tortuous lengths of solitary confinement, is a GEO Group-run facility in Jena, Louisiana, which was previously operated as a juvenile prison by the same company (under the name Wackenhut Corp.). In 2000, GEO Group was forced to close the facility after the U.S. Department of Justice exposed widespread abuses, including numerous sexual assaults, prolonged solitary confinement in life-threatening conditions and excessive use of force.
- Winn Correctional Center, where communities continue to decry ‘horrific’ conditions, is a LaSalle Corrections-run facility in Winnfield, Louisiana that DHS’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties recommended be emptied until its conditions improved.
- Elizabeth Detention Center is a CoreCivic-run facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where in 2007, 52-year-old Guinean father and tailor, Boubacar Bah, was detained before he died. Records later revealed that Bah suffered a skull fracture at the facility and was left in an isolation cell without treatment for more than 13 hours before an ambulance was called. Yet, this week the Biden administration indicated it will support CoreCivic in its ongoing lawsuit to keep the facility open in contradiction to widely-supported legislation to end private prison contracts in the state.
WHO: Southeast Dignity Not Detention (SDND) Coalition and Community Partners.
The SDND Coalition is a group of immigrants, children of immigrants, advocates, organizers, legal workers, justice seekers and community members who share resources, organize and take action together to end the caging and surveilling of people in the southeastern region of the U.S. This includes seeking the permanent closure of all immigration detention centers run by private prison companies and localities under the authority of the New Orleans ICE Field Office
WHAT: 12 Hours of Action — learn more here
WHEN: July 22-24 event list here
WHERE: Virtual and in the following cities (events listed in chronological order):
Miami, Florida
- July 22, Vigil at 11:00 a.m. CST, outside Krome Detention Center: 18201 SW 12th St, Miami, FL
New Orleans, Louisiana
- July 23, Vigil at 7:30 p.m. CST, outside Louis Armstrong Park, Rampart St & Dumaine St, New Orleans, LA
- July 24. Protest at 7:30 a.m. CST at NOLA ICE: 1250 Poydras St., New Orleans, LA
San Antonio, Texas
- July 23. Vigil at 7:30 p.m. CST, Main Plaza, 115 N Main Ave, San Antonio, TX
Shreveport, Louisiana
- July 23. Vigil at 7:30 p.m. CST at Caddo Parish Courthouse, 501 Texas St, Shreveport, LA
Washington, D.C.
- July 23. Vigil at 7:30 p.m. EST at Lafayette Square: H St NW &, 16th St NW, Washington, DC
Elizabeth, New Jersey
- July 23. Vigil at 7:30 p.m. EST at Elizabeth Detention: 625 Evans St, Elizabeth, NJ
- July 24. Protest at 12:00 p.m. EST at County Courthouse: 2 Broad Street, Elizabeth NJ
Atlanta, Georgia
- July 24, Rally at 11 a.m. EST at Atlanta ICE: 180 Ted Turner Dr SW, Atlanta, GA
Lafayette, Louisiana
- July 24. Vigil at 7:30 p.m. CST, Rosa Parks Transportation Center, 100 Lee Ave, LA
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