ATLANTA — A coalition of immigrant rights and progressive organizations held a press conference Tuesday outside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Atlanta in support of hundreds of detainees participating in a mass hunger strike at the Folkston ICE Processing Center.
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Detainees at the southeast Georgia facility reportedly launched the hunger strike to protest prolonged detention and living conditions inside the facility.
The demonstration was called by the Party for Socialism and Liberation and endorsed by several advocacy groups, including ICE Breakers, the Immigrant Rights Alliance, Shut Down Folkston ICE Processing Center and Community Estrella.
Axel Vera, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, criticized both federal immigration authorities and private prison operators involved with detention facilities.
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“No one should have to suffer at the hands of ICE or for-profit prison companies like GEO Group,” Vera said in a news release. “Asylum seekers and immigrants come to this country seeking protection and have been locked up for as long as three years in a flagrant disregard for their human rights. Trump 2.0’s anti-immigrant agenda seeks to scapegoat immigrants and asylum seekers as the cause of rising costs and lack of jobs, but the true cause behind these crises is the billionaire class and the politicians that serve them!”
Vera also stressed shared struggles between immigrant asylum-seekers and domestic workers.
“The same system that causes people to flee from their home country and seek asylum is the same one that oppresses workers in this country,” Vera said.
Channel 2 Action News has reached out to ICE for information about the hunger strike.
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