Issue 22: "Are we to be left to contract this disease and simply die?"
Welcome to this week’s edition of IMM Print Weekly, a newsletter that showcases the stories of detained immigrants and their allies.
We seek to shine a light on how immigrant prisons and jails impact human beings and communities, celebrate the work of those advocating for detention abolition, and provide resources on how to get involved.
In this week’s edition: immigrants detained two separate immigrant prisons describe life under COVID-19, in their own words.
Freedom for Immigrants is continuing to raise money for our National Bond Fund. Since we launched our bond fund, we have bonded out over 260 people, paying over $1.6 million. If any of the stories we’ve published in IMM Print have moved you, please consider donating here.
"May God bless our souls and protect us from this harmful virus."
An anonymous group of people detained at Jackson Parish Correctional Center in Louisiana have leaked audio outlining all that ICE is failing to do in order to protect them from COVID-19. The audio was leaked to Voces Unidas: Louisiana Immigrant Rights Coalition, a member of Freedom for Immigrants’ visitation network.
“Today we find ourselves obligated to start a general hunger strike. Almost all detainees, both men and women, accounting for almost 300 people, have decided to not eat in protest for the dire conditions in which we find ourselves. Some we can mention are:
1) Lack of general sanitation
2) Lack of cleaning supplies, such as bleach and alcohol, to sanitize our areas
3) We have received neither gloves nor masks
4) It is impossible to abide by the social distancing measures of 6 ft. Our dormitories measure approximately 20 x 20 meters and have capacity for 100 people. The dining area measures 10 x 10 and similarly 100 people eat there.
5) There is not a window for fresh air, as recommended by the World Health Organization
6) Neither the security officers nor medical personnel wear gloves
7) Our temperature is only taken once a week when it should be taken much more frequently, if not daily”
Listen and share the full audio here.
“Please, Give Voice to Our Situation”
A group of people detained at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility sent a letter to Justice for Migrant Families WNY through USPS on April 2, 2020. In the letter, they describe the level of fear and uncertainty that plagues everyone incarcerated there.
“The coronavirus pandemic is affecting the world and this country. The news reports show hourly, the amount of new cases, the lack of medication, staff and resources available to treat those afflicted. Most frightening is the escalation in deaths, in New York State, not to mention new cases in New York and the rest of this nation. Being detained here, we are like the proverbial lamb waiting to be slaughtered.”
Yesterday, four people detained at the facility tested positive for COVID-19.
Read their full letter here.
Get involved:
Freedom for Immigrants has launched the COVID-19 Detention Hotline. Information reported to the hotline will be collected and stored in an internal and secure database. Some of the information collected through the hotline will also be added to our interactive map on U.S. immigration detention so that we can publicly track and record ICE’s response to COVID-19, including medical neglect, abuses, and confirmed cases of COVID-19 in immigrant jails and prisons. Please click here to access our toolkit containing information, graphics and printable materials related to our COVID-19 hotline and help us spread the word!