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BREAKING: Immigrants detained in the Mesa Verde detention center just announced a labor strike:
"Mesa Verde runs off of our labor. We are the ones who prepare and serve the food, who clean the bathrooms and the dorms. We are paid $5 per week for our official jobs..." 1/x
"Mesa Verde runs off of our labor. We are the ones who prepare and serve the food, who clean the bathrooms and the dorms. We are paid $5 per week for our official jobs..." 1/x
, and the rest we do for free. We will not work and we will not collaborate with @GEOGroup. We refuse to make it easier for you to continue unnecessarily caging and murdering us.” 2/x
There's a simultaneous hunger strike in the Yuba County Jail. In communication with one another, the people detained in Yuba's immigration pod and the people in Mesa Verde have drafted unified demands, in solidarity with one another: 3/x
The hunger and labor strikers addressed demands to @GavinNewsom and @XavierBecerra:
1. Stop transferring people who are released from California custody into ICE detention centers;
2. Halt the expansion of immigration detention facilities in the state...
(cont) 4/x
1. Stop transferring people who are released from California custody into ICE detention centers;
2. Halt the expansion of immigration detention facilities in the state...
(cont) 4/x
3. Immediately inspect all ICE facilities in the state to oversee the standards of care in these facilities and independently investigate the deaths that have occurred there during the pandemic.
For background: 5/x https://www.sfweekly.com/topstories/why-wont-the-governor-take-on-ice/
For background: 5/x https://www.sfweekly.com/topstories/why-wont-the-governor-take-on-ice/
They also issued the following demands to @ICEgov, @geogroup, and the Yuba County Sheriff's Department:
6/End
6/End
There are multiple active lawsuits against private prison companies that allege that these $1-a-day type jobs in ICE detention amount to forced labor. More here: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/coronavirus-ice-detention-soap/
