Close the camps. Abolish ICE. Free them all.

Welcome to our news segment: TL;DR of Immigration News, for when the news is Too Long and you Didn’t Read it.

This is a weekly collection of immigration-related news stories. These bite-size summaries will keep you up to date without overwhelming your inbox.
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This week, we are focusing mostly on hunger strikes and solidarity actions in detention centers across the nation. The decision by an individual or group to go on hunger strike is never taken lightly, and these strikes serve to highlight the ongoing inhumane conditions in these camps. Several of these stories, especially at Delaney Hall in New Jersey, are unfolding rapidly, and we will continue to do our best to monitor them and bring you updates in future editions.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the news and want to skip straight to taking action, you can find Action Items at the bottom of our first story and at the bottom of the newsletter.

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ICE Prisoner Solidarity: What’s Happening At Delaney Hall

In the past two weeks, people imprisoned in ICE detention centers in Adelanto, CA and Newark, NJ have organized themselves in an effort to get free. Read a letter from striking prisoners inside Delaney Hall.

This past weekend, protestors have shown up consistently in front of the New Jersey ICE prison where a hunger and labor strike was initiated by up to 200 people inside. Protestors called on elected officials as ICE officers unlawfully assaulted protestors, beating them with sticks, throwing tear gas at them, and generally using violence on unarmed people. Before the weekend was over, NJ Governor Mikie Sherrill ordered ICE to stand down and ordered New Jersey state troopers to take their place, which she promised would be “safer” for protestors. As the weekend progressed, unarmed protestors faced escalated violence as those on the inside suffered retaliation from guards for refusing food and refusing to work.

What can we learn from these actions both inside and outside Delaney? The militarized violence of ICE is no different than the violence of state sanctioned law enforcement. Whether it’s ICE officers retaliating against imprisoned folks or people on the outside peacefully protesting and getting beaten by state troopers, the violence is the same. Abolish ICE. Abolish detention centers. Abolish prisons.

Action items:

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Hunger Strikes Over Abuse, Inhumane ICE Conditions Spread To At Least Four States

As of the time of writing, detained immigrants are on hunger strike in Delaney Hall in New Jersey, at the Adelanto detention center in California, at the North Lake detention center in Michigan, and at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania. The demands from every group of strikers are, at their core, the same: treat us like human beings.

Detention Watch Network’s press release quotes Nanci Palacios Godinez: “The hunger strikers at Adelanto and Delaney Hall are bravely calling attention to a long-known truth: Immigration detention as a whole is unnecessary, rife with systemic abuses and completely arbitrary – full stop. People in immigration detention are describing it as ‘hell on earth’ because it is. ICE’s immigrant detention system deprives people of freedom, isolates people away from loved ones, and subjects people to abysmal conditions, including inadequate medical care and mental health services, inedible food, and racist abuse… No one should suffer in these conditions. Immigrants are our family members, neighbors, friends, and coworkers – worthy of dignity and respect regardless of where they came from or how they arrived in the U.S.”
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Demonstrators Hold 24-Hour Fast in Solidarity with Hunger Strike in Adelanto ICE Facilities

Demonstrators gathered in front of the Edward R. Roybal Federal building in LA are fasting to show solidarity with the detainees who are participating in a hunger strike at Adelanto ICE Processing Center and Desert View Annex. They are demanding: bond reform, improved conditions, adequate medical and mental health care, nutritious food, accountability for deaths, the right to organize and communicate, and to shut down Adelanto.

“They’re risking their own health, because their complaints… aren’t being heard. This isn’t normal and we shouldn’t accept it as normal,” Bladimir Argueta, a fast participant, told LA TACO in Spanish.

Action item: Check out this toolkit for ways to support the Adelanto hunger strikers.
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‘Dire’ conditions at ICE facility severely violate human rights, lawsuit claims

At Camp East Montana, in Texas, a coalition of organizations have launched a class-action lawsuit with four detainees named as plaintiffs suing on behalf of themselves and everyone imprisoned in the largest detainment facility in the US. We have featured descriptions by detainees of the horrific abuses they have experienced at Camp East Montana before in this newsletter. The allegations in the complaint paint yet another truly horrifying picture.

As quoted by the Guardian, the lawsuit alleges: “[a]bhorrent medical and mental health care”; “inappropriate use of force”; “indiscriminate use of solitary confinement”; “terrible, rotten, spoiled and inadequate” food; “outbreaks of disease”; “unsanitary living conditions”; “sexual harassment by guards.”

ICE spokespeople categorically deny any wrongdoing or prisoner abuse, a position which seems ever more out of step with all of the available evidence (and remember, ICE often lies). Even in their denials, they were forced to admit the measles outbreak that occurred in the camp earlier this year.
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Judge: Former Milwaukee teacher’s aide must be allowed to return to US

Here is good news, won by the hard work and courage of immigrants and immigrant rights advocates in Milwaukee. Beloved Milwaukee Public Schools teacher Yessenia Ruano, who was forced to take voluntary departure to her native El Salvador with her young twin daughters last June, will be allowed to return to the US.

Last year, Ruano came under deportation orders despite her pending visa application as a victim of sex trafficking. Ignoring such human rights provisions is consistent with the current functioning of the Department of Homeland Security.

Hundreds of people, including local Never Again Action leaders, turned out to support Ruano during the frigid winter of 2025. Immigrant rights advocates continued to work to support her case while Ruano and her family tried to adjust to their new homes.

Though the court ruling allows only a temporary return, Ruano and her supporters will continue to fight for her right to remain. In a recent text exchange, she talked about her gratitude and about how excited her daughters are to come back to school and the friends they were forced to leave behind in Wisconsin.
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Action items:

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for next week’s roundup, drop us a line at neveragainaction@gmail.com.

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