Tacoma, WA – A wide spectrum of migrant rights activists are rallying at the Northwest Detention Center today through Tuesday, March 11th, in support of the 1200 people detained at the Tacoma facility fasting to protest their treatment and for an end to the weekly deportations. In an interview, one of the strike leaders stated, “We are doing this for our families and for our children. We don’t want to be separated from them.”

Immigrant rights activist Maru Mora Villalpando summarized the growing support. “We are concerned for their welfare and we support their brave stand against inhumane treatment. We are gravely concerned about retaliation, particularly against the hunger strike leaders. We invite everyone to join us. The more attention the strike receives the more limited the retaliation will be.”

A lawyer who first learned of strike when visiting clients at the facility, says that the fast was  inspired when the detained immigrants saw the action outside the gates of the facility that stopped the regularly-scheduled weekly deportation run on February 24. They began the fast on Friday because that is the day that the guards segregate those who will be deported on Monday morning.

A photo of the strikers’ handwritten demands reads:

“Please contact the news.

There’s 1200 people not eating.

-Better food

-Better treatment

-Better pay

-Lower commissary

-Fairness

Yesterday radio station KDNA received a call on air from someone identifying themselves as a relative of one of the organizers of the hunger strike.