Target: Markwayne Mullin, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security
Goal: Investigate and stop alleged widespread abuses at ICE facilities.
A hunger strike at a New Jersey Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility underscores the growing concerns about alleged human rights abuses not just at this facility but at similar structures across the country. Allegations include significant delays in medical care that led to deaths, forced labor, horrendous water and food quality, and obstruction of pending immigration review cases. When detainees protested these conditions, they claim they were met with pepper spray and violent restraint, thus the hunger strike…a strike the Department of Homeland Security denies is even happening, despite many reports to the contrary.
The Delaney Hall facility is far from the outlier. Since the president’s aggressive deportation campaign began, dozens of detainees have died in custody, many due to alleged failure to provide proper medical care. In addition, the suicide rate inside these facilities has soared to ten times its prior average. Detainees report efforts to secure proper care that are either dismissed or countered with outright hostility. Of the reported hunger strike, one detainee outlined the following response: “the people after the beating that they gave us in here… some of them gave up.”
Meanwhile, the Senate has passed a bill that ensures ICE funding – and the potential abuses that go along with it — that far surpasses any other agency for years to come. Sign the petition below to demand the department tasked with protecting the homeland stop inflicting terror within the homeland.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Mullin,
Statistics do not lie. The number of human beings – the vast majority of whom have no criminal records — who have died in ICE custody during the past year far surpasses any other point in this agency’s history. Serious allegations of assault, forced labor, and denial of urgent medical care cannot and should not be met with sneers and angry rhetoric. These alleged abuses defy every value for which the United States claims to stand.
Stop invoking the actions of notorious forces of years long past. Act like the protector of a homeland that is supposed to embody dignity, freedom, and value for human life. End ICE abuses now.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Gerald L. Nino
