Editor’s note: This article is from our sister bilingual publication, El Tribuno del Pueblo (tribunodelpueblo.org). The information was provided by La Resistencia, a grassroots, volunteer, undocumented-led group fighting alongside people detained at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), a privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Tacoma, Washington. La Resistencia fights to end all detentions, all deportations, and to shut down NWDC.
SEATTLE, WA — After four years of being targeted by Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE) for her work to dismantle the enforcement agency, immigrant rights defender and organizer Maru Mora Villalpando has been granted prosecutorial discretion by the Department of Homeland Security. La Resistencia leaders celebrated this victory against ICE in a public action and demanded that prosecutorial discretion be granted to all people detained and not detained. [Prosecutorial discretion means the enforcement agency involved may choose not to take action against a person. In this case this ended the deportation proceedings against Mora Villalpando.]
Mora Villalpando was one of hundreds of immigration organizers singled out by ICE during the Trump administration — targeted for her political action. One high-ranking ICE officer described her as an “instigator” in an internal email. Another responded that Mora Villalpando was a “well-known local illegal alien,” and suggested that deporting her might “take away some of her ‘clout.’” A few weeks after those emails, ICE placed Mora Villalpando, who was born in Mexico, in deportation proceedings.
The organization Mora Villalpando helped found, La Resistencia, fought back against the Trump administration’s punitive and inhumane immigration, deportation, and detention policies — including retaliation against organizers both inside and outside of ICE’s hold — leading to delayed hearings for Mora Villalpando, leaving her fight against deportation and for U.S. residency hanging in the balance.
Since 2014, La Resistencia’s work has focused on shutting down the Northwest Detention Center (also known as NW ICE Processing Center). Their work led to the successful passing this year of HB1090, an act that prohibits private for-profit prisons and detention centers for adults in Washington State.
La Resistencia, along with supporters and community members, held a press conference Sept. 23 at the ICE Seattle office to discuss government retaliation against organizers, demand that ICE grant prosecutorial discretion to all people in deportation proceedings, and review Mora Villalpando’s experiences with her deportation hearings. Speakers included leaders of La Resistencia, State Representative Lillian Ortiz-Self, State Senator Rebecca Saldaña, Alejandra Gonza Director of Grassroots Advocacy, and others.
In the midst of ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks in detention centers, La Resistencia also joined a national call to action to demand that the Biden administration protect people in their custody who are living in deadly conditions. At NWDC alone, nearly 270 people detained have been infected by the virus since June.
As people across the country continue to unite for affirmative relief and a clear pathway to citizenship, the Communities Not Cages National Day of Action called for urgent action to demand an end to deportation, the closure of all detention centers, and the release of all people in immigration detention.
