Media Contact:
Alex Mensing, California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, alex[@]ccijustice.org, 415.684.5463
August 29, 2024
For Immediate Release
Community Members Rally Outside San Francisco ICE Office in Support of Detained Immigrants on Labor and Hunger Strike
Protesters called on San Francisco ICE Acting Field Office Director Polly Kaiser to meet strikers’ demands
Livestream and photo and video materials available for media use.
San Francisco, CA – Over thirty community members, including people released from immigrant detention, rallied yesterday outside the San Francisco offices of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to call on the new Acting San Francisco ICE Enforcement & Removal Operations Field Office Director, Polly Kaiser, to meet with and address the demands of people inside Golden State Annex and Mesa Verde ICE detention centers in Kern County, California, who have been on labor strike and successive hunger strikes since July 1, 2024. The most recent hunger strike began on August 1st, initially with 62 participants between both facilities. This Monday, August 26th, the group of detained immigrants announced they were pausing the hunger strike due to serious health risks caused by an ongoing COVID-19 outbreak at the facility.
Protesters chanted “say it once, say it twice, we will not put up with ICE!” and held signs reading “closing ICE detention is good for communities!” and “END THE ICE CONTRACT, FREE THEM ALL!” as well as a large banner listing detained strikers’ five demands, which include ending the ICE contracts at Golden State Annex and Mesa Verde.
Both detention centers are operated by the for-profit prison corporation GEO Group (GEO) through a contract worth $1.5 billion. Conditions are abysmal, leading people detained there to launch labor or hunger strikes during each of the past three years, Members of Congress to sign multiple letters calling for the termination of these ICE contracts, lawsuits, two recent civil rights complaints, and more.
During the rally, Oscar Ernesto Lopez Santos, who has been detained at Golden State Annex for about a year, spoke to the crowd via phone amplified through a megaphone about the abhorrent lack of medical attention and COVID-19 outbreak at Golden State Annex.
“I’ve had COVID-19 twice since I’ve been detained here. This last time [within the past month] we had six people in Golden State Annex A4 dorm test positive for COVID. They didn’t start testing people until two detainees went to the ER because they had really strong symptoms. They cleared out one dorm and ordered the quarantine of six COVID positive individuals. After five days of isolation, they were cleared without being tested again. It is inhumane for ICE and GEO to treat us as if we are nothing. They fail to keep the safety of this institution and the safety of the detainees. I was in bed for about two to three days with a fever, cough, shivers and a bloody nose and all they gave me to take was tylenol. This is a call for outside help because we matter also. ICE and GEO facilities cannot continue to mistreat us and give us poor medical attention.”
Some protesters wore signs telling the stories of people detained at Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex and had tape over their mouths to symbolize ICE and GEO’s attempts to silence them. One such sign read:
“I’m Loba and I experience transphobia and homophobia in ICE detention. I’ve been placed in solitary confinement for speaking up for my rights, discriminated against and excluded from participating in the work program because of my gender expression. To ICE I’m only an A#, to GEO I’m $.”
Towards the end of the rally, a delegation of advocates approached the ICE office entrance to deliver a letter to San Francisco ICE Acting Field Office Director Polly Kaiser to urge the official, who is responsible for the two detention centers, to meet with the strikers and address their demands, but were turned away and ICE refused to receive the letter.
Jose Ruben Hernandez, who was formerly detained by ICE for over a year at both Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex and participated in previous labor and hunger strikes, reflected over a megaphone that “while we’re disappointed that FOD Polly Kaiser did not come down, we are not surprised. DHS and ICE have a track record of delaying and ignoring our demands for answers. ICE and GEO have proven they are not committed to improving conditions, and things are only getting worse. The only real solution is to end detention.”
After the rally, several advocates and formerly detained individuals visited the offices of Senator Alex Padilla to deliver copies of recent complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties over excessive force, sexual abuse and other violations at the facilties, and to ask the Senator to call for an end to the ICE contracts at Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex, which are coming up on a renewal period in December of this year.
The strikers’ demands for Acting San Francisco Field Office Director Polly Kaiser and ICE Director Patrich Lechleitner are:
End the ICE Contracts for Golden State and Mesa Verde
Freedom
End Solitary Confinement
Stop Violating Your Own Standards
Free Phone Calls to call loved ones and lawyers
Livestream and photo and video materials available for media use.
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