A memorial for Charles Leo Daniel is set up near the fence of the GEO-run Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. In response to the death of Charles Leo Daniel, more than 200 people were on hunger strike and multiple detainees attempted suicide.

Photo by: Kimberly Swetland

Man’s Death in Solitary Confinement at ICE Detention Center in Tacoma Triggers Hunger Strikes and Suicide Attempts

By Kimberly Swetland

On March 7, 61-year-old Charles Leo Daniel, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, died at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Washington after being held in solitary confinement for nearly 4 years. According to people detained with him, Daniel was in solitary confinement at the time of his death.

The UW Center for Human Rights (UWCHR) released the “NWDC Conditions Research Update: Charles Leo Daniels’ Death at NWDC in Context” on March 15, and in it the UWCHR found that, Daniel served the second-longest stretch in solitary confinement of any person in ICE custody since 2018, despite being identified by ICE as having a significant mental illness.

The UWCHR stated in its NWDC Conditions Research Update that, “He was held in solitary for a total of 1244 days, between April 2020 and a September 2023, divided among two stints.”

“The second of Daniel’s stints in solitary lasted 811 days at the time the data was released via FOIA in September of 2023, and as such constituted the second-longest solitary placement in ICE detention in the nation during the period covered by the dataset, despite the fact that his case was flagged by ICE segregation records as ‘significant mental illness’.”

Five out of ten of the longest placements in ICE solitary confinement between 2018 and 2023 were at Tacoma’s Northwest Detention Center, a private immigration prison operated by the GEO group.

The Washington State Standard released an article on March 8th stating that activists suspected the death was a suicide and that police said there was no indication of cause of death.

The Standard wrote that, “a detainee, Christian Duennas, heard from guards that the man appeared to have hung himself with a blanket. A Tacoma Police Department representative, William Muse, said police do not yet know what the cause of death was.”

The detainee that reported the death of Daniel to La Resistencia, a grassroots organization working to end detention, was transferred to a facility down in Texas. La Resistencia speculates that this was in retaliation for sharing that information.

In the article, Muse said, “I am aware of the fact that a lot of people are alleging that it was a suicide of some sort. There was no indication of, as I’ve been asked, if there was a rope hanging, or sheets, or something wrapped around his face or neck. There’s no indication of suicide.”

Charles Leo Daniel was found unresponsive by detention center staff during a routine check around 10:43 a.m. on Thursday and staff attempted medical aid. The Tacoma Fire Department also attempted life-saving measures and was not able to resuscitate Daniel who was declared dead at 11:35 a.m. A Tacoma police officer arrived shortly after.

In public statements, Tacoma Police indicated that the cause of death was unknown, and that they have handed responsibility for the investigation to ICE. This has raised concerns about independence and credibility of the investigation.

The last death to happen in the facility was in 2018, when a 40-year-old man held in solitary confinement died by suicide, according to ICE records.

A report released by the UWCHR on March 15, 2024, said that, “ICE documents indicate that Daniel arrived in ICE custody on March 31, 2020, after serving a criminal sentence in the Washington State Department of Corrections.”

La Resistencia has information, including ambulance footage and other corroborating witness accounts, that there were 6 attempts of suicide in the week after Daniel’s death at the NWDC.

 “ICE’s own data shows that Tacoma’s Northwest Detention Center detained people longer, on average, in solitary confinement than any other dedicated ICE facility in the nation. The more recent data released by PHR with its February 2024 report confirm that this trend of stays above the national average continues,” according to a UWCHR report.

“Data reveals that of the ten individuals who served the longest periods in ICE solitary confinement across the nation, five were held at Tacoma’s Northwest Detention Center. Of these, two cases had ‘mental illness’ flags, and one— Daniel’s— had a ‘serious mental illness’ flag.”

UWCHR reported that, “prolonged use of solitary confinement constitutes a particularly grave violation of human rights according to the UN Standards of Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the ‘Nelson Mandela Rules,’ which state that, ‘In no circumstances may restrictions or disciplinary sanctions amount to torture or other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. The following practices, in particular, shall be prohibited: (a) Indefinite solitary confinement; (b) Prolonged solitary confinement is defined… as solitary confinement for a time period in excess of 15 consecutive days.”

The International Standards place an emphasis on the, “need for particular concern about the detention of individuals with mental illness in solitary confinement. The Nelson Mandela rules state that ‘The Imposition of solitary confinement should be prohibited in the case of prisoners with mental or physical disabilities when their conditions would be exacerbated by such measures.”

In their report, The UWCHR stated that they did not have access to any records that would shed light on the quality of medical care received by Daniel during his nearly four years at the NWDC, “though our past research suggests that medical care is an area of grave concern at this facility. In recent years, research published in leading medicine and public health journals has found that lack of access to quality medical care is a key factor contributing to deaths in ICE custody.”

The UWCHR is urging that action be taken, “to ensure that his death is properly investigate by an independent body with a record of credible and transparent inquiry; that the results of that investigation are made public; and that, together, we use what we learned to inform effective policymaking, and in so doing, to prevent future deaths in ICE custody.”

UWCHR also wrote that, “Members of Congress have a unique ability to compel answers from federal agencies, not through strongly worded public letters but through written information requests of the agency’s Congressional liaison. If members of Washington’s Congressional delegation have chosen not to use this tool to date, now is the time to start.”

Detainees at NWDC Hunger Strike In Response

 A hunger strike started in the facility among the detainees on March 8th. There were reportedly over 220 people on hunger strike. On Wednesday March 13th the hunger strike was joined by two individuals on the outside in solidarity. Maru Mora Villalpando, founder and Adviser of La Resistencia, and Mike Ishii, co-founder of Tsuru for Solidarity. The hunger strike was in response to the death of Mr. Daniel and the inhumane conditions the detainees are facing inside the facility.

There have been previous hunger strikes at the facility. “Last year there were seven,” Mora Villalpando said. “And the last one lasted from November until January 1st, so It was 50 plus days straight,” she added.

“The unit that started the hunger strike wanted to be released or deported,” but she said, “nothing’s happening. The majority of the people that started the hunger strike are people that are asylum seekers, so according to ICE rules they’re supposed to state at the maximum 180 days, but they have surpassed that. And this has been going on for years.”

“Some people have been here for 4-7 months already,” according to information gathered by La Resistencia.

The deportation process has become somewhat complex and strained in the U.S. given the rise of recent undocumented immigration in recent years, but Mora Villalpando said the main reason the deportations aren’t happening faster is because GEO is a private facility. This facility is probably the most expensive one in the country. It costs anywhere from $200-$260 per day per person that this facility gets paid to have people detained here.

 “ICE always says that they don’t have enough people. Last year they were asking for $8 billion more dollars. Yet they’re the Federal Enforcement Agency with the most money in the entire country in comparison to all the other enforcement agencies combined,” she said.

“We know also that the courts are clogged right now. There’s like 3 million people waiting to have cases heard. The Officers in the Department of Homeland Security could choose how they handle that so it wouldn’t be clogged – so this is purposely made.

“When you enter into Deportation proceedings the first thing you’re supposed to get is a letter that’s called a Notice to Appear. It says, “This is why you are deporting” and you have to go to a hearing with an Immigration judge and they have to say why they believe you shouldn’t be in the country, and then they have to give you a court date, time, and location.

“When I was putting the petition proceedings in at the end of 2017, we started noticing this pattern of Notice of Appears being sent without dates. Now it’s been decided that those Notice to Appears are not valid because they don’t contain the date. So, 200,000 people are like, ‘Well this notice to appear is not valid. This is great for us.’ But that tells you how they play the game, and how sloppy they are. It’s about the money and the infrastructure that they have. This is purposely made,” Mora Villalpando said.

David S. Rubenstein & Pratheepan Gulasekaram wrote in an essay that, “Privatized immigration detention has drawn sustained criticism. Many argue that detention is unnecessary, immoral and rights-depriving,” in the March 2019  Standford Law Review Online.

Stanford Law Review essay said that, “The federal government oversees these private facilities, and its contracts generally include operational, safety, and performance standards that private facilities must meet. But the government’s oversight is blunted by political incentives, operational dependence on private detention space, and lack of transparency.”

Rubenstein and Gulasekaram wrote that, “despite these critiques, including from federal oversight bodies, government officials continue to promote privatized immigration detention through contract extensions and dubious policies. For instance, Congress has instituted bed quotes that, logistically, DHS must satisfy by outsourcing to private companies that lobbied for the quotas. Moreover, through IGSA contracting and regulatory loopholes, ICE circumvents competitive market bidding and procedural requirements that would otherwise apply under federal acquisition regulations.”

The Stanford Law Review also goes on to state the federal doctrines used by private contractors to shield themselves from subfederal regulation and liability in a fair amount of detail.

The NWDC lacks a fire evacuation plan and a recent fire forced detainees to wash clothes in sinks

There was a fire at the NWDC on March 14th, which GEO had reported as an HVAC fire. “We saw the fire on the side of the building,” Mora Villalpando said.

“They reported it as an HVAC fire.” The Fire Department reported it was a dryer. Mora Villalpando speculates that a dryer exploded or something – and it was through the ventilation that the fire got out.

During the fire, there was no effort to evacuate the building. Guards staged a fire drill on March 19th after the fire, to the confusion of the detainees. Drills have not been done in the past 3-4 months according to sources inside. “This was the first time – after the fire occurred. No sprinkler system went off. Some of the alarms were heard in units but not in others. The women could hear them and said they were being turned off and then reactivated by the smoke. It was very clear that something was happening but nobody was told anything,” said Mora Villalpando.

Another women’s unit, C3, contacted La Resistencia on the day of the fire. The woman from the unit said, “The guards told us it was you – the demonstrators that caused the fire. And that a spark flew from your encampment and hit the building and the building caught fire.’ This was captured in an audio recording with permission from the caller and a reporter from The News Tribune present. This kind of misinformation, or even lack of information, and lack of reaction – they were not evacuated to the yard area. Some people got released after the fire. And they told us that they were ready to be released, free from detention. And when this happened, instead of letting them out- they put them back in their cells. So this is their evacuation plan – put people back into the building.”

Due to the fire, detainees weren’t given new clothes to wear and instead were forced to wash their clothes in the sink or bathroom instead if they wanted to clean them.

GEO is not respecting Ramadan

Ramadan lasts from March 10th to April 9th and GEO is not respecting the religious observance of that. La Resistencia has received reports from the inside that the food is served earlier than the detainees who observe Ramadan can eat it because of their day-time fast.

ICE Contracts With Privately Run Immigrant Detention Centers

ICE’s detention system is comprised of more than 200 jails and detention centers nationwide. According to ICE data, over 90 percent of detainees are held in privately-run immigrant detention centers.

The Oversight for GEO and the NWDC has been Legally ‘Untouchable’  

There are a lot of legal battles that have been waged over the NWDC or are currently underway. In 2020 Washington passed HB 1090, copying the law from another one in California AB23, which would have prohibited new contracts and phased out private detention facilities by 2028. In May of 2023, Assembly Bill 32 was declared unconstitutional as applied to private detention contracts for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies, though the ban remains in place for private prisons in the state.

According to the LA Times, “the ban was enacted amid mounting reports of unsafe conditions and health violations at detention facilities, including moldy food, overuse of solitary confinement and dangerous delays in medical care.”

Days before the ban was to take effect ICE established new contracts with three private detention centers in the state of up to 15 years, totaling nearly $6.5 billion.

Just after taking office, President Biden signed an executive order phasing out federal use of private prisons. But the order didn’t cover immigration detention.

Then, the Biden administration picked up where Trump officials left off on the lawsuit against California’s private prison ban. Last year, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the ban violated the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which precludes states from interfering with the enforcement of federal laws.

In a June 22 filing, Washington Atty. General Robert Ferguson wrote that as long as the decision in the California case remains the law of the 9th Circuit, Washington “will not enforce” the statute against the Northwest ICE Processing Facility.

So, then the Washington State House introduced HB 1470 which passed last year, which said that “certain state agencies have authority to conduct unannounced inspections of facilities that are licensed by those agencies.”

Under HB1470, “The Department of Health (DOH) is required to adopt rules governing private detention facilities’ operations related to sanitary, hygienic, and safe conditions. The rules must address use of personal belongings; cleaning and sanitizing of living areas; laundry facilities; provision of personal hygiene items; provision of a nutritious, balanced, or special diet; food handing and hygiene practices; number and timing of meals; indoor air quality; room temperature; and an infection control program. The Office of the Attorney General (AGO) may enforce violations of these rules.

Private detention facilities with contracts with effective dates on or after January 1, 2023, or facilities that extend or modify contracts with effective dates prior to January 1, 2023, must comply with certain conditions. The conditions address issuance of clothing and footwear, price of food items in the commissary, free telecommunications services for 60 minutes daily, in-person visitation allowing children and personal contact, prohibition on solitary confinement, provision of telephones and handheld radios at no cost, invitations to outside speakers and presenters, provision of computer and internet, availability of a law library, communication in each detained individual's primary language, reporting of sexual violence and harassment grievances, provision of mental health evaluations and free culturally competent mental health therapy, prompt medical care, natural light and windows in sleeping rooms, and emergency response. The AGO may enforce violations of these conditions.”

Also under this bill, two state agencies must inspect private detention facilities – the Department of Health and Department of Labor and Industries. The Department of Health is required to do inspection of food safety and quality, sanitation and hygiene, and the testing of water and air. The Department of Labor and Industries is required to conduct inspections for workplace conditions and work undertaken by detained persons. And Private detention facilities operating pursuant to a contract with a state or local agency are subject to a Public Records Act.

GEO filed a lawsuit against the state, which claimed that HB 1470 was unconstitutional and in court documents it argued that its facility was targeted by state lawmakers. The lawsuit stated that HB1470 was, “specifically designed to target and impose unique burdens on a single facility – the federal Northwest ICE Processing Center—while specifically exempting any similarly-situated Washington state facilities.”

According to the Seattle Times, GEO cited a budget analysis produced by the Legislative saying that state lawmakers specifically excluded facilities that the state’s Department of Social and Health Services might want to contract with in the future, but that same fiscal note happens to mention that, “The bill would establish minimum requirements for private nongovernmental detention facilities operating under contract with federal, state, and local governments regarding detainee care and conditions of confinement.”

Should private facilities not have minimum requirements for the care and conditions of those confined? These are human beings. And why doesn’t GEO welcome inspections? Is it because they want to continue to hide what they’re doing, or to avoid having to step up costs to meet minimum requirements for care and conditions?

GEO Group argued that the new law violated two clauses in the U.S. Constitution – one declaring federal law the “supreme law of the land” and another barring states from passing laws “impairing the obligations of contracts.”

Attorney General Bob Ferguson said, “States have the power to ensure the health and welfare of individuals detained within their borders.”

In a statement made to the Seattle Times, Ferguson said GEO Group “continues to assert that it’s above our state laws.”

In that same article to the Seattle Times Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo asked, “How much more money do they want to make off the backs of those that are locked up?”

There was another lawsuit in 2017 where a group of detainees in Tacoma sued GEO and that lawsuit was later consolidated with a lawsuit brought by the state. The detainees and the state won in federal District Court in October of 2021. A jury found that anybody that works at NDWC, including those detained, have to be paid the minimum wage. Before the lawsuit, detainees were being coerced into working for $1 a day, which violated the state’s Minimum Wage Act.

The jury verdict awarded $17.3 million for hundreds of people who were paid $1 a day to clean, do laundry, wash dishes and work in a library or barber shop at the NWDC.

Even though GEO lost on this decision they appealed. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel said it was unclear whether the detainees counted as GEO’s employees under Washington wage law and that the Washington Supreme Court should decide the novel question.

GEO maintained that detainees at the NWDC in Tacoma were not its employees under state law, and that federal regulations permitted the company to pay them far below the minimum wage to clean, do laundry, wash dishes and staff a barber shop and library.

The appeal also challenged a separate verdict awarding $6 million to the state, which sued GEO for unjust enrichment for not paying detainees minimum wage.

The 9th Circuit also asked the Washington Supreme Court to decide whether state wage law applies to detainees at privately run state, rather than federal, facilities and whether the state was entitled to the $6 million award once the detainees were awarded relief.

“They want to follow state law when it’s convenient. They pick and choose the laws that apply to them. They’re private when it’s convenient to them. When it’s not convenient to them they say they’re not— they’re the Feds,” said Mora Villalpando.

In December the Washington State Supreme Court answered three questions:

First, it affirmed that detained workers at the NWDC are considered “employees” under the Minimum Wage Act. Second, it clarified that the MWA’s government institutions exemption did not apply to work performed in a private detention facility like NWDC. Lastly, the court ruled that a legal remedy for one party did not preclude equitable relief for another. This ruling was a landmark decision in ensuring fair compensation for labor, even within private detention facilities.

Is there a significant conflict between federal interest and state law then in the case of State Inspections?

GEO used its contractor defense in the wage law litigation and in at least one district court it was determined that the elements of the defense were not met. It was found that the relevant contract, “does not prohibit the Defendant from paying detainees in excess of $1/day,” and “specifically contemplate[d]” that the defendant comply with “[a]pplicable… state and local labor laws. Under those circumstances, the court rejected the private facility’s contractor defense for lack of a ‘significant conflict’ between a federal interest and state law.’  So that brings up the question of whether there is a significant conflict between federal interest and state law in the case of state inspections if the inspections are intended to set the minimum standard for operation?

Derivative Immunity

The Stanford Law Review states that, “The Supreme Court has long held that “[t]he United States, as sovereign, is immune from suit” unless it unequivocally and expressly consents to suit. In its purest form, federal sovereign immunity applies only to the U.S., its agencies, and its employees. Under federal common law, however, private entities may enjoy qualified “derivative immunity” based on their contractual relationship with the federal government.” Lower courts aren’t finding requirements of derivative immunity met under the circumstances and procedural posture of the cases.

Who’s In Charge Here?

ICE says that they’re the boss of GEO, yet when problems arise, they just point the finger at each other. “They never want to give you an answer, but in reality, ICE is in charge. They have a contract with GEO and GEO needs to comply with that,” says Mora Villalpando.

“And ICE is a public agency that should be accountable to the public and to congress. And at the end of the day this being a private business should be accountable to our state as well, and they just refuse to be accountable to anyone.”

Both The Biden and Trump Administrations Support Detention

According to the ACLU, “When Biden came into office, he promised to end the cruelty and inhumanity of President Trump’s immigration policies.”

And yet, according to the organization, “Almost twice as many people are detained on an average day by Immigration and Customs Enforcement than at the start of this administration, many in prisons run by private corporations that are profiting from human misery. Only two out of more than 200 ICE detention sites have been closed.”

The ACLU also said, “Today, immigration detention has become the norm, not the exception, and anti-immigrant politicians continue to seek more detention in a bald-face attempt to ensure that the U.S. government punishes people for coming here— despite their legal rights to seek asylum and other forms of relief in the United States.

Wouldn’t International Human Rights Law Supersede Both Federal and Constitutional Law?

“That’s what you would think, but not in the United States. Global Advocacy has helped us for years to make the case to the United Nations and the International Convention for Human Rights,” said Mora Villalpando.

Notably, the U.S. is the only major world power that has failed to fully ratify or adhere to many of the significant human rights instruments introduced by the United Nations or other human rights bodies. The Asean Post said that, “While the U.S. is hasty to denounce and rebuke human rights violations beyond its borders, its human rights record is definitely far from ideal and in some cases, beyond belief.”

Mora Vilallpando said there was a letter that was just sent the UN by Global Advocacy. “We have had several instances where we want them to intervene. The International Convention for Human Rights has given us three hearings where they invite the government of the United States to come together and discuss. And only one time they showed up. The next time we tried it – it was when Trump took office – they didn’t come. It was like big news because it was the first time in 20 years that the United States doesn’t show up to this kind of conversation.”

“The United States always replies to anything the United Nations, or the International Convention says. And they’ll say, Yeah, we respect your opinion but it’s not applicable to us. It’s applicable in other countries,” Mora-Vilallpando said, “but not here.”

“Yet we continue pushing because the United Nations and the International Commission have given cautionary measures particularly for this place. They have given opinions in general about conditions in detention facilities for immigrants, but they have mentioned the NWDC specifically because we have submitted so much evidence,” she said.

Private Prison Corporations Profit off the Prolonged Imprisonment of Undocumented Immigrants

Private prison corporations’ profit off of the prolonged imprisonment of Black, brown, and Indigenous immigrants is foundational to the immigration detention system.

An OpenSecrets analysis of private prison company annual reports, found that the GEO Group and CoreCivic grossed $551 million and $552 million respectively from contracts with ICE alone in the fiscal year 2021. In addition, other private prison companies with large stakes in the business of immigration detention include LaSalle Corrections and Management & Training Corporation. Local county governments also profit immensely from sheriff’s office agreements to jail immigrants on behalf of the federal government.

ICE data from June 2023, showed that the top 10 immigrant prisons and jails that hold people the longest include:

-Sherburne County Jail, MN (average 259 days)

-Monroe County Detention Center, MI (84 days)

-Moshannon Valley Correctional Center (78 days)

-Buffalo (Batavia) Service Processing Center, NY (78 days)

-Chippewa County Jail, MI (74 days)

-Department of Corrections Hagatna, GU (72 days)

-Geauga County Jail, OH (72 days)

-Saipan Department of Corrections, CNMI (66 days)

-Pike County Correctional Facility, PA (65 days)

-Tacoma ICE Processing Center, WA (64 days)

Freedom for Immigrants that the top complaint they receive from people in immigration detention is medical neglect/abuse, followed by Nutrition Issues and Prolonged Detention. Several other types of complaints fall onto the list as well.

According to TRACImmigration, as of March 10, 2024 there were 39,111 immigrants being held in ICE detention. 66.9% of ICE detainees have no criminal record. Many more have only minor offenses, including traffic violations.

As of February 20th, the Daily Average population for the Tacoma ICE Processing Center was 740 with a Guaranteed minimum of 1,181. These guaranteed minimums cost taxpayers an extra $8 million a month according to an article in Acadania Advocate. It’s a “controversial funding mechanism that compels the federal government to pay private prison firms a minimum for beds that may not be filled in NOLA ICE detention centers.”

“A 2021 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog that investigates federal spending and performance, found that the immigration detention system has become a multi-billion-dollar-a-year enterprise for years.”

There are alternatives to detention that are not being more widely adopted

For the last two decades, there has been increasing interest in the United States and abroad to create and expand alternatives to detention of noncitizens who would otherwise be send to immigration detention centers. This is due to an increasing understanding that detention is fundamentally harmful and inhumane (especially to immigrants of color), that there are alternatives that can achieve similar objectives to those the government is pursuing, and that there has been very little meaningful reform of immigration detention itself.

For example, the current standards that govern the conditions of most immigrant detention centers, the Performance-Based National Detention Standards, were explicitly based on criminal pre-trial detention and were written in 2011, with minor updates made in 2016 and no updates in the years since then. Study after study has shown that alternatives to detention programs are generally more humane and more cost-effective than immigration detention.

There are alternatives to detention such as the SmartLink Phone App which currently is being used by over 100,000 noncitizens. Other alternatives to detention are also laid out this journal article by the American Immigration Council, however some of them like ATDs (ankle monitoring devices) can cause similar trauma.

The United States is not the only nation struggling with how to humanely treat migrants. Over the past few years, a set of best practices for alternatives to detention has emerged internationally. These higher-quality ATDs are ones which do not also increase the surveillance and monitoring of immigrants and are community-based, meaning they are operated in the community where participants reside by organizations or entities that are closely tied to the community and its resources. Additionally, many include a “case management model,” which generally involves providing a migrant with wraparound social and legal services intended to facilitate the client’s ability to meaningfully participate in their immigration proceedings while having their needs met.

Furthermore, a maximum duration must be specified, at the end of which the detained person shall be freed. Such detention should never be used as a dissuasive measure. It must be ordered by a judge and be subject to regular judicial review of its lawfulness and reasonableness as required by the provisions of article 9, paragraph 4, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The detention of a person pending expulsion should never be indefinite or of excessive or unreasonable duration.

Immigration is a Civil Matter Not A Crime That Should Be Addressed With Imprisonment

The biggest problem with detaining someone in a prison-like setting is that it’s the equivalent to treating them like a criminal. The detainees in the NWDC are asylum seekers who either have no charges or have already served their sentence.

It is not a crime to be an undocumented immigrant in the United States. The ACLU says, “The act of being present in the United States in violation of the immigration law is not, standing alone, a crime. While federal immigration law does criminalize some actions that may be related to undocumented presence in the United States, undocumented presence alone is not a violation of federal criminal law.”

“This is the civil system” there should be no detention period. “It’s like when you get a divorce, you’re not going to go to the police. You don’t have to be detained for divorce proceedings,” said Mora Villalpando.

Putting People in Cages Is Inhumane

Mora Villalpando said that detaining these undocumented immigrants in prison-like settings is inhumane and torture. “First of all, I don’t believe humans should be caged. You know I think that most people agree nowadays that animals should not be caged. We know that’s torture. Right? Especially here in the Seattle/Tacoma area. I see a lot of people that love their pets and would never ever want to see them in cages. Why would we have human beings in cages? Prisons don’t work and we have seen the results. And it’s expensive, and it’s torture – and that’s the criminal system.”

La Resistencia and Other Activist Groups Continue to Argue For The Release and Freedom of Detainees

La Resistencia and other Immigration Activist groups argue that detainees should be released to their families and communities since this is purely a civil matter and that undocumented immigrants have strong incentives to show up to court to become documented.

Mora Villalpando said, “The rate for people showing up for court is the highest because people want to stay. Nobody wants to go on living in the shadows. No one wants to live undocumented. Because once you live undocumented, forget it, everything is much more expensive, everything is much more difficult.”

“You will always hear these contra-narratives against us that make us look like we actually enjoy being undocumented. We don’t like the thrill. We want a peaceful life. Many immigrants just want to be able to get a good job and send money back home. That’s the ultimate dream.”

What about the undocumented who have served criminal sentences in the U.S.?

As for the people in detention centers with criminal backgrounds – they’ve already served their sentence, so putting them into detention after release is just a form of double imprisonment.

Crime Among Undocumented Immigrants Is Low Compared to Native Born Citizens

While there’s a lot of media attention on crime coming across the border, research tells a different story.  According to an article from February 29, 2024 published for the Washington Post by Glenn Kessler— Criminologists Graham Ousey at William & Mary and Charis Kubrin at the University of California at Irvine, surveyed more than two decades of research on immigration and crime for their 2023 book “Immigration and Crime: Taking Stock.” The results varied depending on survey design and scope, but generally they found ‘that long-standing concerns about immigration as a major source of crime are unfounded.’ In fact, communities with more immigration tend to have less crime, especially violent crimes like homicide. They also found that immigrants are less involved in crime as both offenders and victims compared with native-born, including the children of immigrants.

Tacoma City Council authorized contingency funds for AIDNW to support access to phone services for detainees.

At the March 5th City Council meeting, Tacoma City Council members voted to pass Resolution 41378 authorizing the one-time use of Council Contingency Funds in the amount of $10,000 for (AIDNW) Advocates for Immigrants in Detention Northwest, to support access to phone services for detainees in the Northwest Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Processing Center.

The fund provides detainees in the NWDC access to phone services. Currently, GEO requires detainees to utilize a private for-profit phone service to place phone calls. Low-income individuals detained in the NWDC risk being unable to afford to pay for phone access, and face reduced access to legal support and poor mental and emotional health impacts from isolation. The allocated funds will be used by AIDNW to distribute phone funding in $20/month increments for up to 105 low-income detainees. The funds can be used by detainees to call friends, family, and legal advocates as needed. If the funds were maximally utilized by 105 detainees they would last just shy of 5 months.

AIDNW is calling for continued community support and donation of phone cards and other resources, such as warm coats, puzzles, books, and art supplies for detainees.

Several Tacoma City Council Members also made statements regarding the ongoing human rights abuses at the NWDC and the death of Charles Leo Daniel:

 “As a Council Member, it is vital to me that the City of Tacoma is welcoming to all individuals and everyone residing here has access to basic human rights, including detainees in the Northwest ICE Processing Center. Every loss of life is a tragedy, and it is made harder when we do not have access to all the facts about what occurred or the condition of the facility it occurred in. I am staunch in my continued support and advocacy of greater levels of oversight at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, and I urge the federal government to direct ICE to collaborate with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and Washington State to allow for health and safety inspections of this facility.” – Council Member Joe Bushnell

“For the past several years, City Council Member Catherine Ushka and I have been in close contact with community members and immigrant rights advocates about the Northwest ICE Processing Center. We have heard far too many stories about how detainees are suffering from inadequate medical care, the use of solitary confinement, food safety issues, and many other serious problems. It is deeply distressing that this facility is failing to meet the basic human needs of the detainees and ensure they are treated with dignity. That is why, in 2023, we advocated for the passage of HB 1470, concerning private detention facilities, which gives the WA Department of Health authority to monitor health and safety at the facility. We will continue to stay engaged in that rule-making process as it moves forward. The City of Tacoma has very little authority to press for corrective action because this facility is owned and operated by a private corporation. However, we are continuing to do what we can to advocate for the health and safety of detainees, and to seek assistance from our state and federal legislative delegations. Our city is proud to be an immigrant-friendly and welcoming community, and I am frustrated and saddened that this facility runs counter to our city’s core values.”  – Council Member Kristina Walker 

“I’m deeply saddened by the recent death and subsequent distressing incidents that have happened within the Northwest ICE Processing Center. I am dismayed to learn about the horrific lengths of time people can be indeterminately held in solitary confinement. This practice is inhumane and should not happen anywhere, especially Tacoma. While we have limited jurisdiction as a city, I am exploring our jurisdictional options to eradicate such harm to detainees in Tacoma and identify what options are available to local governments for prohibiting these indeterminate lengths of solitary confinement. In the meantime, I will also be asking the federal government to do an independent investigation of this incident. Every person should be treated with fairness, dignity and humanity. Additionally, in coordination with my Council colleagues, we are constantly looking for more ways to help those inside the Northwest ICE Processing Center until the federal government acts on comprehensive immigration reform.” – At-Large Council Member Olgy Diaz

For More Information:

You can follow La Resistencia on IG: @laresistencianw

La Resistencia’s Website: https://laresistencianw.org/

The UW Center For Human Rights Reports are here.

AIDNW website: https://aidnw.org

Also, Be Sure To Check Out Our Other Articles Related to the NWDC this week.