Photo/ Video Still The Intercept
Women asylum seekers in ICE custody at the for-profit jail in the small rural town of Jena, LA are desperate due to the Coronavirus. “We are afraid because we know we will die inside here . . . We don’t have a way to protect ourselves. . . They are in charge of protecting us and they are not protecting us. We know the virus is killing many people . . . Once one of us is sick [infected], all of us will be sick,” said the women in a CBS video. Concerned about the lax social distancing and hygiene practices, women started screaming that things are wrong. “So they opened the door and some of us decided to go out the door and call the ICE agents and doctors and the agents here and tell them they need to attend to us and answer our questions,” they said. Officials then pepper sprayed women, saying they were disruptive and confrontational.
Groups throughout the country are calling for the release of all detainees, inmates and prisoners because of the coronavirus. La Resistencia in Washington state organized a caravan rally to support hunger strikers inside the NWDC to amplify the demands for release, said activist Maru Mora-Villalpando. The Youth Justice Coalition organized a car protest in downtown Los Angeles because of the “horror stories from people inside who say there is no sanitation or care, and there is fear people will die.” Protests took place in Chicago, and in Philadelphia, by car, text and tweets. “Now is the time to end the pandemic of mass imprisonment,” said Edgar Reyes of Pueblo Sin Fronteras.
Women asylum seekers in ICE custody at the for-profit jail in the small rural town of Jena, LA are desperate due to the Coronavirus. “We are afraid because we know we will die inside here
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Children detained in migrant shelter test positive
At least 37 children plus two staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus at the Heartland Alliance facility, a migrant shelter in Chicago. Groups and some politicians continue to pressure government to release immigrants from custody during the virus, but unconscionably, it has not yet happened.
http://peoplestribune.org/pt-news/2020/05/national-alliance-against-racist-and-political-repression/
Eyewitness account: Migrants tell of fleeing atrocities in Mexico
