Immigrants launch hunger strike at Adelanto detention center
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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Immigrants launch hunger strike at Adelanto detention center
At least 20 people held at the Desert View Annex, an ICE processing center in Adelanto CA, have gone on hunger strike. The strikers are demanding access to better medical care, adequate meals, clean water, and clean and mold free facilities, among other demands.
In a press conference held early on May 20th, family members of hunger strikers and advocates from local immigration organizations said the strikers were motivated by extreme medical neglect and lack of adequate, healthy meals.
Private prison company GEO Group runs Desert View Annex. The company declined to comment on conditions at the facility. GEO Group referred comment to DHS, who flat out denied that people at Adelanto are on hunger strike.
Action item: check out this toolkit for ways to support the Adelanto hunger strikers.
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Immigration activists whose homes were raided accuse federal agents of intimidation campaign
Federal agents in southern California have raided the homes of leaders of a volunteer-led immigrant advocacy group, VC Defensa. The activists allege that this is merely the latest escalation in an administration campaign of harassment and attempted intimidation. VC Defensa coordinates rapid response and ICE watch in the area. Federal agents raided at least three homes, but made no arrests.
The group’s lawyer, Reem Yassin, said that over the past year federal officers have targeted more than 50 people associated with VC Defensa. These attempts at intimidation have come in the form of agents making arrests, raiding homes and businesses, ramming volunteers’ cars, pepper-spraying volunteers, and following them home.
A March New York Times report uncovered a DHS taskforce investigating VC Defensa as part of a push to build cases accusing protesters of organizing radical leftist conspiracies. Across the country, hundreds of protesters have been arrested on charges of assaulting and impeding federal officers during immigration-enforcement operations. However, government prosecutors have struggled to secure convictions, with officers’ testimony frequently contradicted by bystander video.
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Did DHS just stop processing green cards? A closer look
In a memo that became public last week, DHS expresses their intention to transform the process of applying for a green card. Specifically, according to this memo, those intending to apply for legal permanent residency (aka a green card) may be forced to leave the country to do so.
While this is just a memo, not a policy, it underscores the xenophobia at the heart of DHS. A white nationalist, immigrant-hating administration will continue to spread rumors, sow fear, and create obstacles for the collective health of immigrant communities. This memo expresses a desire to achieve that end by threatening to make it extremely difficult for those who enter the country with temporary visas to then apply for long-term residency.
This comes as no surprise. ICE and DHS have always existed to scare people, touting a mythical “right way” to naturalize while changing the actual rules based on arbitrary, racist whims.
It should be noted that so far, this is a memo. No new policy has yet been made. If you or someone you know is likely to be affected, it’s best to contact a trusted immigration lawyer.
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The struggle between the lawless regime and the efforts of judges to require that the law be followed continues. As far back as December of last year, courts recognized that the regime’s practice of making Kavanaugh stops and arresting anyone with the wrong skin color was illegal.
Unfortunately, a court ruling does not come with much in the way of enforcement powers. When the regime ignored Judge Beryl Howell’s ruling to cease arresting people simply because they suspected the person was Hispanic, the people went back to court. In February of this year they sued, getting an injunction ordering the immediate halt to arrests based on the racist standard set forth in a memorandum from Todd Lyons, former Acting Director of ICE.
In the words of Shana Khader, deputy legal director for We Are CASA, “These rampant, unlawful warrantless arrests have terrorized our communities”. We hope that the courts continue to provide an important bulwark against such government-sponsored terror.
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Judge tosses Kilmar Abrego Garcia charges, calls Trump administration prosecution 'vindictive'; All charges against Chicago protesters dropped in latest ICE case to unravel
Two court cases that never should have happened have nevertheless provided wins this week and blows to the current administration.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose story we have been tracking over the course of the last year, was acquitted of human smuggling charges by a federal judge in Tennessee. The judge said that the government’s case had a “retaliatory taint,” meaning (among other things) that it never should have been filed.
Another clear case of vindictive prosecution is found in the case of the Broadview Six. These were non-violent protestors who ICE tear-gassed shot with pepper balls in Broadview, Illinois, near Chicago. The six protestors who were charged included Kat Abughazaleh, a congressional candidate whose platform has always included the call to abolish ICE. The judge in this case dismissed the charges “with prejudice,” which means the government’s politicized prosecutors cannot appeal or re-file the charges. Those same prosecutors are now in the hot seat, accused of tampering with the grand jury convened for the case.
Action items
- Toolkit to support the Adelanto hunger strikers.
- View our newly-ratified Palestine-Israel statement.
- ChatGPT is one of the biggest donors to the Trump regime, among many other harms. There is a growing movement to QuitGPT--check it out here.
- Salah Sarsour, the President of Wisconsin’s largest mosque and pillar of the Islamic community in the state and beyond, was kidnapped by ICE three weeks ago. Donate to Sarsour’s justice fund here.
- Support the Minnesota Habeus Project
- Six Steps for Researching the Corporate Enablers of ICE - Little Sis
- Ready to get involved with Never Again Action? Already involved, and want to share this newsletter and our work with others? This page is a great way to do both!
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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for next week’s roundup, drop us a line at neveragainaction@gmail.com.