By Lorraine Gabbert. San Jose Spotlight. Bay City News.
Tears were streaming from the eyes of the mother of a detained immigrant who has been on a hunger strike for 14 days.
Eighty-four detained immigrants, including four from Santa Clara County, are continuing their hunger strike in protest of abhorrent treatment at the Mesa Verde Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center in Bakersfield and the Golden State Annex in McFarland. Nearly two dozen advocates in support of the detainees protested outside Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren’s San Jose district office on Friday.
The hunger strike comes on the heels of a 10-month labor strike by detainees who are paid $1 a day to work at the facility. The strikers want better living conditions and fair wages, the release of detainees and the closure of detention centers.
In September, Lofgren and other lawmakers sent a letter to ICE after receiving a complaint of disturbing conditions and abusive behavior toward detainees at the Mesa Verde Detention Center and Golden State Annex, requesting an investigation.
Lofgren said she called for the closure of for-profit prison companies used by ICE because they have a history of abusing detainees. They also charge exorbitant fees, she said.
"We are asking that these individuals be vetted and, at a minimum, that their security and humane treatment adhere to the requirements outlined by the Department of Homeland Security itself," Lofgren told San José Spotlight.
Jesus Ruiz, coordinator of Pangea Legal Services' rapid response network, said the striking detainees are physically and emotionally devastated. As they struggled to improve living conditions, he said they suffered retaliation by being prevented from leaving their cells and being blasted with cold air.
Many have been detained for more than a year because they are undocumented, Ruiz said.
“These people who are detained are human beings,” Ruiz told San Jose Spotlight. “We are here to shed light on what is happening inside. What ICE wants is for no one to find out about the mistreatment and for no one to find out about the injustices and the hunger strike. We want to give voice to that pain and that struggle.”
Gabriel Manrique, a community organizer with LUNA, said forcing detained immigrants to work for a dollar a day is slavery.
"We are here in solidarity," Manrique explained. "We are here to pressure Zoe Lofgren, but also the federal government for immigration reform and freedom for our brothers inside."
Non-profit leaders from Friends of Guadalupe joined the fight to demand the closure of the detention centers.
“There is a lot of injustice in the detention centers,” said Misrayn Mendoza, a community navigator for Amigos de Guadalupe. “It’s not a detention center, it’s a concentration camp. People told us that they are fed rotten food, bread and water.”
Cecilia, who declined to give her last name, broke down in tears as protesters listened to a call from a detainee at the Golden State Annex. She is the mother of one of the detainees.
“We deserve to be home with our loved ones… not here, being assaulted, abused, deprived of medical needs,” the detainee said by phone. “It’s just not right what they’re doing.”
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