Women in Hutto announced to Texans United for Families last week that they would begin a rolling strike that would move through the center section by section. They said this means that one section, which locks up 40-50 women, will strike for several days before ending the strike as it is taken up by the next section. The women have said they will continue the rolling hunger strike indefinitely, they said.

ICE has also begun the transfers of women who have participated in the strike to other detention centers far from their attorneys and supportive community. Two women were moved to a detention center in Pearsall, near San Antonio, that has been at the center of sexual abuse allegations. The Pearsall facility is operated by private prison corporation GEO Group. At least 4 women who had been on hunger strike at Hutto were moved to the Laredo Processing Center, which is operated by Corrections Corporation of America.

“ICE denies retaliating against the women,” said Virginia Raymond, an Austin-area immigration attorney who represents one of the women who has faced retaliation.  “One deportation officer told me my client was put in isolation because she has a history of disciplinary issues, and that she has ‘aggressive and belligerent’ nature.  A second officer told me that she was isolated for ‘medical observation.’  Then ICE told me that she was moved to a different detention center — hours away from legal assistance and emotional support — not as punishment for participating in the strike, but so that someone who hadn’t yet had an asylum interview could take her place at Hutto.  In response to all these stories, I asked for documentation — and ICE says it ‘respectfully declines’ to provide any records, because it doesn’t have to.”

Upon arriving at one of the detention centers, one women reported that a guard told her, “your vacation is over.” Both the Laredo and Pearsall detention centers  are higher security facilities than Hutto.

One woman reported to Texans United for Families that a Hutto guard telling her shortly before the move, “God does not decide your fate here, ICE does.”

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Grassroots Leadership is an Austin, Texas-based national organization that works to end prison profiteering and reduce reliance on criminalization and detention through direct action, organizing, research, and public education.

As a hunger strike inside the Hutto immigrant detention center in Taylor, Texas spreads throughout the facility, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are ramping up retaliation and abuse against women participating in the protest. 

Reports emerged from inside Hutto this afternoon that at least six more women who are participating in the hunger strike are being rounded up for transfer inside the facility, even as ICE continues to deny that women are on strike.  Demand that all retaliation against women on hunger strike stop and that all women on hunger strike are immediately released.

Three women have already been targeted for individual retaliation: one woman was put in solitary confinement in Hutto and two were transferred to a majority men’s facility in South Texas, where at least one is being held in solitary confinement conditions.

We need to make it clear that this retaliation is not acceptable. Will you make a call to release the three women who have been targeted?

Who to call:

National DHS office: Leave a message for Esther Olavarria, 202-732-3000
Local field office: Enrique Lucero, (210) 283-4711

What to say: 

“I’m calling to request that the the three women who have faced retaliation for their participation in the hunger strike, Insis Maribel Zelaya Bernardez (A#206872250), Francisca Morales Macias (A#098652351), and A.A.L. (A#206715851) be released on parole immediately.”

Who has faced retaliation:

Insis, a Honduran Garífuna woman who is fleeing domestic violence and gang violence, has been in detention for 10 months and was placed in solitary confinement in a freezing room from Saturday afternoon until Sunday evening in retaliation for her participation in the hunger strike. She suffers from sickle cell anemia, as well as other serious medical conditions, and has fainted three times while in the detention center. Detention is not a safe place for someone with such serious medical conditions, so I ask that Insis be released to join her sister in the U.S. and begin to recover from the trauma she has experienced.

Francisca, a woman from Mexico who is a survivor of domestic violence and has been in detention for 7 months, was moved to the mostly male South Texas Detention Complex on Monday in retaliation for her participation in the hunger strike. She is reportedly being detained there in solitary confinement. She has two Dreamer children, a legal resident husband, and other family members with legal status in the U.S. It is an injustice that a woman who has suffered so much is being separated from her family who legally reside in the U.S., and I ask that she be released immediately to join her family.

A.A.L., a woman from Honduras who is a survivor of domestic violence and has been in detention for more than 6 months, was transferred on Monday to the mostly male South Texas Detention Complex in retaliation for her vital role in the hunger strike. She also has family who reside in the U.S., with an uncle ready to care for her upon release. I ask that she be released to her family immediately.

On day 6 of the hunger strike at the Hutto Detention Center, sources inside report that the hunger strike has grown dramatically within the detention center, including at least one section where all women are participating.

Women in the facility reported that retaliation is well under way. Women have been deprived of going outside to the recreation area in the evening, are being given disciplinary reports for refusing to leave the dorms at meal times, being presented with food in the dorms and pressured to eat and drink in front of guards, and guards are personally following or assigning other detained women to surveil the women on hunger strike.

Two women, Francisca and Amalia, were suddenly moved to a different detention center this afternoon. This is a common intimidation tactic used by immigration officials against people participating in a hunger strike.

One woman, Insis, was placed in solitary confinement from 3pm on Saturday until Monday morning as punishment for her participation in the hunger strike and publicly denouncing conditions of her detention. They placed her in a freezing isolation room under the guise of needing medical supervision.

Here is her letter describing the retaliation she has faced:

They have separated me from my friends they have me in a very cold room and alone they follow me as if I had committed a crime I feel like they are treating me like a criminal it’s an injustice someone behind me like a shadow following me since yesterday on Saturday 10/31/15 at 3 in the afternoon they have me in punishment they are very cruel and evil

Will you make a call to demand that Insis, Francisca, and Amalia are released from detention immediately?

Norma Lacy, Special Assistant, ICE San Antonio Field Office # 210 283-4711

“I’m calling to demand that Insis Maribel Zelaya Bernardez (A#206872250) be immediately released from the T. Don Hutto Detention Center, where she was placed in solitary confinement from 3pm on Saturday until Monday morning in retaliation for participating in a hunger strike and publicly denouncing conditions in the detention center. Insis, a Honduran Garífuna woman who is fleeing domestic violence and gang violence, suffers from sickle cell anemia, and has fainted three times while in the detention center. Despite her illness and compelling humanitarian case, she has been in detention for 10 months. I ask that you use your prosecutorial discretion to immediately release her without the necessity to pay bond by the end of the week.

We also demand to know where Francisca Morales Macias (A#098652351) and Amalia Arteaga Leal (A#206715851) have been moved and demand their immediate release. We demand that all deportations and transfers from Hutto be stopped until the women’s demands are met. I ask that you use your prosecutorial discretion to immediately release them without the necessity to pay bond by the end of the week.”

Asylum-seeking women report that hunger strike is expanding within the detention center, retaliation continues

(AUSTIN, Texas) — On day 6 of the hunger strike initiated Wednesday night by 27 women, women inside the detention center have reported that the hunger strike is spreading rapidly and in at least one section of the T. Don Hutto Detention Center, nearly all women are now participating.

Women detained at the facility also reported retaliation against the hunger strikers has intensified. Insis, a Garífuna woman from Honduras participating in the hunger strike, reported being held in solitary confinement since 3 p.m. on Saturday until Monday morning.  She reports being held in a medical confinement room in extremely cold conditions as punishment for engaging in the hunger strike and boldly denouncing conditions of her detention. Read her handwritten statement detailing the this retaliation against her here.

Other forms of retaliation that hunger strikers report include:

• Threats of transfer to other facilities
• Threats of deportations
• Disciplinary reports filed for women who refuse to leave their dorm at meal times
• Intense surveillance of women perceived to be leaders of the hunger strike
• Removal of evening outside recreation time and restricted mobility within the facility
• Attempts to force women to eat and drink in front of guards

The T. Don Hutto detention center is a for-profit detention center operated by private prison corporation Corrections Corporation of America in Taylor, Texas.  It is the nation’s only all-women’s detention center, and nearly all of the more than 500 women detained there are seeking asylum in the United States after fleeing violence and persecution in their countries of origins.

Hutto came under intense scrutiny as the nation’s largest family detention center between 2006-2009.  Hutto has been the subject of two federal sexual abuse investigations and a class-action lawsuit filed in 2011 on behalf of immigrant women who alleged they were sexually assaulted while in the custody of ICE.

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Grassroots Leadership is an Austin, Texas-based national organization that works to end prison profiteering and reduce reliance on criminalization and detention through direct action, organizing, research, and public education.