During the month of January, NWDC reported 121 COVID cases; more than half of these resulted from spread among detainees
TACOMA, WA – Immigration authorities responsible for the now-infamous Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) have recklessly allowed for COVID to spread among an already-weak population of detained immigrants. In the month of January alone, 121 cases of COVID-19 were registered inside NWDC: 65 among detained people, including one hospitalized person, 49 guards working for prison contractor GEO Group, and 10 Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees, including those working in the medical wing. Testimonies from other prisons and detention centers suggest these numbers may understate the real count, given administrative disregard. For perspective, there are currently 346 detained people inside NWDC, meaning that nearly 19 percent of the incarcerated population suffers from COVID; the rest are in danger of being next.
The public has access to this data thanks to the work of grassroots advocacy organization La Resistencia, which pushed the issue at the beginning of the pandemic. The end result was pending litigation and a federal judicial arrangement by which NWDC is forced to reveal all new COVID cases to a district court. Conditions inside the privately run facility are so harrowing that last year, the Washington State Legislature passed a measure to forbid private for-profit prisons and detention centers in the state, setting up NWDC to be closed by 2025. In the face of various human rights abuses, however, activists demand the closing of the facility by this September when the federal contracts are renewed based on Congressional approval of the budget. Says La Resistencia’s Mora Villalpando, “The mounting COVID cases at NWDC signal is time to shutdown this facility for good. There is no way to improve conditions in this prison. Our congressional delegation should work on this and help us pressure President Biden to meet his promise to shut down private detention centers now.”
Immigrants held inside NWDC have mobilized consistently to challenge the injustices committed against them, with hunger strikes dating back to at least 2014. For years, La Resistencia worked with detained people to denounce the labor exploitation faced inside NWDC, where detainees were only paid $1 a day for their cleaning and maintenance work. The result was a victory forcing NWDC to pay minimum wage to their workers as well as to provide compensation to past exploited workers.
A Ukrainian national detained at NWDC facing deportation while the threat of war occurs in his country of origin said to La Resistencia during a phone call, “I’ve been detained for over two years now, I had COVID in prison where I finished my sentence, then last year again I had COVID here in NWDC, and this month I was moved to isolation again due to another COVID exposure. I have underlying medical conditions yet ICE refuses to release me. My country is at the brink of war, and this place has made me sick, what else do they [ICE] want from me?”
La Resistencia is a grassroots organization in Washington state led by undocumented people in solidarity with detainees at Northwest Detention Center who are fighting for the closing of the facility and for an end to all detentions and deportations.
Fact: The $800B PayCheck Protection Program ended up being yet another handout for the wealthy elite. Research conducted by David Autor, an MIT economist, revealed that more than $366 billion of COVID-era PPP relief went to the top 20% of earners. And, most of the funds never made their way to workers’ paychecks, but rather into the pockets of the country’s wealthiest.
