URGENT: 140 People Are on Hunger Strike Inside Tacoma’s ICE Detention Center

About 140 people detained at the ICE facility in Tacoma are currently participating in a hunger strike, according to reports citing immigrant-rights organization La Resistencia.

They are protesting conditions inside the facility, amid longstanding concerns about medical care, sanitation, food and the treatment of people held there.

And this is happening right here in Washington.

On Saturday, Rep. Emily Randall visited the facility as the hunger strike continued. The visit comes as scrutiny of the detention center and conditions inside it continues to grow.

This is not some isolated complaint that appeared overnight.

The Northwest ICE Processing Center is a privately owned detention facility operated by GEO Group under contract with ICE.

Washington has spent years fighting for the ability to inspect conditions inside. Just last month, a federal judge granted preliminary injunctions requiring GEO Group to allow Washington Department of Health inspectors into portions of the facility after the company had resisted state inspections.

There is also a history of hunger strikes inside these walls.

Earlier this year, detained people organized strikes over their treatment and conditions. In May, advocates accused ICE of retaliating against organizers by transferring hunger-strike leaders away from the Tacoma facility. At the time, La Resistencia said hunger strikes at the facility had already dramatically increased.

Now, once again, people inside are using one of the few forms of protest available to them: refusing to eat.

Think about what that means.

When you are locked behind a wall, separated from the public and given extraordinarily little control over your own life, refusing food becomes a way to make yourself heard.

Around 140 human beings have reportedly reached that point in Tacoma.

That should be treated as an emergency.

Washington cannot look away

This is happening in our backyard.

We cannot spend years describing Washington as a place that protects immigrants and human rights while people detained within our borders are pleading for attention through hunger strikes.

The state fought for the right to inspect this facility. Members of Congress have demanded greater oversight. Advocates have documented complaints coming from inside for years.

Now those detained there are escalating their protest.

Their voices need to leave those walls.

Local officials, members of Washington’s congressional delegation and the press should be demanding transparency about exactly what is happening inside the Northwest ICE Processing Center right now: what conditions prompted this strike, what medical monitoring the participants are receiving, whether anyone involved has faced retaliation, and what ICE and GEO Group intend to do in response.

This story cannot disappear after a single news cycle.

People are putting their bodies on the line because they believe the rest of us need to know what is happening to them.

So we need to listen.

Cup of Culture will continue following this developing story and updating our community as more information becomes available.

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Stay loud. Stay informed. And don’t look away.

- Sean