Detained immigrants launch hunger strike at two California facilities

Each time Maria del Rosario Gomez will get to have a 15-minute name together with her son, Jose Ruben Hernandez Gomez, she asks him, “My treasured son, what did you eat immediately?”

Despite the fact that it is difficult, she tries to ship him $150 a month in order that he can eat one thing higher than what he’s served on the Mesa Verde Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Middle, and share a few of that meals with others.

However the weekend earlier than Lent began, Jose Ruben instructed her, “Because the phrase of God says, ‘One doesn’t dwell by bread alone,’ ” quoting Matthew 4:4, the place Jesus tells the satan within the desert, “One doesn’t dwell by bread alone, however by each phrase that comes forth from the mouth of God.”

On Feb. 17, 82 folks started a starvation strike at two central California immigration detention facilities, protesting the amenities’ situations and demanding their closure. Since then, numbers of starvation strikers have fluctuated as new folks have joined and others have stopped because of well being considerations.

The starvation strike on the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Middle in Bakersfield and the Golden State Annex in McFarland follows a 10-month-long ongoing labor strike demanding that detained staff who undertake duties corresponding to cleansing dormitories and eating halls be paid California minimal wage as an alternative of $1 a day.

In December, the California Division of Occupational Security and Well being fined the GEO Group, the personal jail firm that operates Mesa Verde and the Golden State Annex, $104,510 for six violations of state codes on the Golden State Annex.

Minju Cho, a workers lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, instructed NCR that in response to the labor strike, “ICE and GEO reacted with an depth that belies the concept [the voluntary work program] is definitely voluntary. If it have been actually voluntary, then of us might select to cease collaborating in it at any time with out consequence.” The ACLU is a part of a coalition that’s supporting advocacy efforts led by detained folks.

All through the labor strike, individuals have alleged they’ve confronted retaliation, together with being positioned in solitary confinement and receiving what they describe as “sexually abusive pat-downs.”

On Feb. 23, 5 starvation strikers filed a category motion lawsuit in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and GEO Group. Within the lawsuit, the starvation strikers say that since they started their strike they’ve been denied entry to worship providers, household visitation and the detention heart yard, and have been threatened with solitary confinement, or saved in dorm rooms that have been painfully chilly.

By the starvation strike, individuals are asking they be paid California minimal wage for the work they’ve accomplished, for safer working situations, that they’ve free and accessible methods to speak with family members, that the “sexually abusive” pat-downs finish, and for GEO to adjust to ICE’s detention requirements, together with these concerning receiving new clothes and footwear, immediate medical consideration, and recent and top quality meals.

Requested for remark concerning the strike and the lawsuit, an ICE spokesperson instructed NCR the company doesn’t touch upon ongoing or pending litigation.

In 2022, Mercy Sr. Joan Marie O’Donnell from Burlington, California, took half in an interfaith pilgrimage to each immigration detention heart in California. She instructed NCR it was highly effective to listen to the tales of witnesses who got here again to talk exterior the amenities the place they have been detained.

On the Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex detention facilities, O’Donnell stated, “What they’re describing is expired meals at meal occasions. They’re required to pay astronomical costs for objects that they purchase of their commissary. They obtain insufficient medical care. They lack visitation alternatives with their family members.”

O’Donnell stated she continues to be motivated to wish and advocate for immigrants in her retirement due to Isaiah 61’s promise of freedom for prisoners and the decision within the structure of the Sisters of Mercy to collaborate in acts of mercy.

Gomez, Jose Ruben’s mom, is fearful about the opportunity of his deportation to Mexico. Jose Ruben got here to the U.S. when he was 3 years previous.

With Jose Ruben in detention, Gomez says he’s not the one one who suffers. “I endure a lot that you simply can’t think about it,” she stated. Jose Ruben used to take her to Mass. Now, she prays continually that God will handle him.

When requested concerning the religious lifetime of detained Catholics within the two detention amenities, Chandler Marquez, spokesperson for the Diocese of Fresno, instructed NCR that the diocese has not been allowed to supply chaplaincy providers within the two amenities because the starting of the pandemic. The diocese had not identified concerning the starvation strike and isn’t concerned within the strikers’ advocacy.

A deacon who’s a chaplain for each detention amenities stays involved with the amenities, and he has not been instructed he’s allowed to return to serving Catholics detained in them, stated Marquez.

When NCR requested why chaplaincy was restricted and when the Diocese of Fresno would be capable of present chaplain assist once more, a spokesperson for GEO group wrote, “We strongly reject these allegations.”

“Each the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Middle and Golden State Annex have devoted facility chaplains on workers who administer non secular programming and facilitate interactions with exterior/volunteer ministry personnel who’re allowed to go to in compliance with the CDC’s COVID-related visitation tips,” stated the spokesperson.

The GEO group spokesperson additionally stated that their amenities present entry to authorized providers, leisure facilities, and “around-the-clock entry to medical care” and that three meals a day are primarily based on dietary menus which might be accepted by a registered dietitian.

Relating to the allegation of retaliation, the GEO group spokesperson pointed to their grievance course of and 0 tolerance coverage for employees misconduct. “Any alleged misconduct by GEO workers is promptly investigated and addressed,” they stated.

Gomez stated she is praying for Jose Ruben as he continues his starvation strike. “I do know my son has an excellent coronary heart and that he does not do it only for himself, however for others, in order that the conditions in these detention facilities change,” she stated.