Even After Hunger Strike Ends, Retaliations Continue Against Texas Detainees
Demands from the Detainees at Joe Corely Detention Facility
- That deportations and the resulting separation of families cease immediately;
- That detainees be given fair treatment;
- That detainees be provided true and transparent information on each of the cases, including how many detainees are forced to sign their deportations under duress and how many detainees have been without resolution of their cases for more than a year;
- That the number of detainees per cell be reduced given that it is currently an unhealthy situation
- That detainees should not be judged twice for things that happened before and were resolved in different state and county courts given that many of the cases already received final judgment and were closed several years ago, in some cases over 15 – 20 years ago. Many of the detainees are coming from local state and federal jails where they have completed their sentences and are transferred over to immigration to be processed;
- That local and state police stop cooperating with immigration enforcement;
Since the hunger strike began there has been escalating retaliation against those speaking out. ICE has intimidated 20 hunger strikers into signing the voluntary departure, and 15 of those 20 have already been deported. Manuel, one of the hunger strike leaders, was deported the morning of April 3rd, and another, Ruben has received various threats of deportation.
The hunger strike participants have described the following incidents to their supporters and their families
- Hunger strikers continue to be placed in solitary confinement as punishment for their protest.
- One hunger striker’s wife reports from her husband that of the eight strikers who were in the cell with him, four men have disappeared and no one will tell him where they have been taken;
- Detainees are being denied visitation rights solely for their participation in the hunger strike;
- Despite confirmation from lawyer’s visits and phone calls to family members, detention officials continued to state that there is no strike;
- Two hunger strikers are extremely sick with one vomiting blood due to kidney problems.
Immigrants in detention should not have to go to such extreme lengths to blow the whistle on mistreatment within ICE’s vast and largely privatized immigration detention system. GEO Group, the for-profit prison corporation that operates Joe Corley Detention Facility and Northwest Detention Center, has a well-documented track record around Texas of canceled contracts and scandal-ridden facilities, including at several prisons for immigrants in Texas.
To ensure that Homeland Security carries out their national standards of practice, please join us in urgently requesting that there be a meeting between the hunger strikers and/or their chosen representatives, detention officials at Joe Corley Detention Facility, ICE Houston Assistant Field Director Matthew Baker to immediately implement the Hunger Strikers demands. We are also urging a thorough independent investigation into the conditions stated.
The former leaders and suspected leaders at the Joe Corley Detention Center continue to experience retaliation. Please sign below to stop the deportation of the following individuals facing threats of deportation:
To: ICE Field Director Matthew Baker;
Norma Lacy, San Antonio Field Office Public Advocate
I am writing because I am concerned about the removal of Mr. Hugo Castro Perez (A 205-908-999). Mr. Castro Perez has lived in the United States for most of his life, for over 31 years. He is a Salvadoran gay man, who is also HIV positive and fears returning to his country of birth. He has been in custody at the Houston Contract Detention Facility for over 8 months, and could be deported soon. I understand that he has some negative factors in his case, including non-violent misdemeanor convictions, however, the positive equities in his case, including the danger he faces if deported, the 31 years he has been in the United States, and his strong ties to the community. Please consider using prosecutorial discretion to stop his deportation.
Thank you
To: ICE Acting Director Daniel H. Ragsdale;
To: ICE Field Director Matthew Baker
To: Senior Vice President, GEO Corrections and Detention, John M. Hurley
I am writing in support of Rubén Rodriguez Bonilla (A#097740518) currently detained at the Joe Corely Detention Facility in Texas. I am writing because I am very concerned that Mr. Rodriguez Bonilla may be deported in retaliation for his participation in the on-going hunger strike at the detention center. According to his wife, when prison officials tried to get him to sign voluntary departure papers, as they have done with many participants of the hunger strike who have already been deported, he has refused.
Mr. Rodrigues Bonilla has no criminal record. He is only in ICE custody for a prior deportation in 2010. He and his partner are raising two children, and he always sends money to his parents to support him. In addition to not being deported as retaliation, I urge ICE to review Mr. Rodriguez Bonilla’s case for positive exercise of prosecutorial discretion, so that he can be released and continue to support his family.
Thank you,
To: ICE Acting Director Daniel H. Ragsdale;
To: ICE Field Director Matthew Baker
To: Senior Vice President, GEO Corrections and Detention, John M. Hurley
I write to you in support of the hunger strikers at the Joe Corley Detention Facility. I am alarmed and disturbed by the detention conditions they have described, the escalating retaliation against those speaking out, and the unnecessary detention and ongoing deportations at the Joe Corley Detention Facility.
To ensure that Homeland Security carries out their national standards of practice, I urgently request a meeting with the hunger strikers and/or their chosen representatives, detention officials at Joe Corley Detention Facility, ICE Houston Assistant Field Director Matthew Baker to immediately implement the Hunger Strikers demands. I also urge you implement a thorough independent investigation into the conditions stated below. Lastly, I request an immediate halt to any retaliation towards the hunger strikers.
On March 18th 2014 five hundred immigrants detained at Joe Corey Detention Facility in Conroe, TX initiated a hunger strike. These men are risking their health and their lives protesting the inhumane conditions under which they are being held at the for-profit detention center owned and operated by the GEO Corporation and demanding the end to deportations, and family separations overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
I am gravely concerned by the escalating retaliation tactics that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the GEO Corporation have chosen to employ against hunger striking detained immigrants.
The hunger strikers are civil rights leaders taking a brave stand against inhumane treatment. It is time for ICE and GEO Group to recognize the detainees’ demands instead of engaging in retaliation. Detained immigrants should not feel obligated to sacrifice their bodies to shed light on the extreme mistreatment within ICE’s vast and largely privatized immigration detention system. As the for-profit prison corporation GEO Group continues operating both Joe Corley Detention Facility and Northwest Detention Center, hunger strikers illuminate the well-documented track record of GEO Group abuses in Texas prisons and immigrant detention facilities.
Thank you,
