Activists host ‘Close the Camps’ rally in Elizabeth – NJ TODAY
Protesters took to the streets on July 2, 2019, from a ‘Close the Camps’ rally in Elizabeth to a march from U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in San Francisco.
Rallies were held Tuesday around the nation to protest conditions at immigration detention centers near the U.S. southern border, as worsening conditions were revealed by a visit by a congressional delegation to border detention facilities in Texas.
At the protest in Elizabeth, Essex County Freeholder Brendan Gill called for closing of immigration facilities, despite a long and contentious refusal by officials to end the detention of innocent immigrants at the Essex County jail.
Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. has earned criticism for the controversial contract with ICE that rakes in $40 million annually for keeping immigrants locked up in horrid conditions at the county jail on behalf of President Donald Trump.
Sally Jane Gellert, of Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community (UUJEC), expressed skepticism, asking, “What actions will he take to make it happen?”
Protesters routinely attend freeholder board meetings demanding a stop to immigrant detentions at the Essex County jail, but DiVincenzo and others proudly claim the arrangement benefits taxpayers while critics compare it to slave catching.
The demonstrators came from all over the state to the Elizabeth immigration detention center, where about 300 of them demanded that the Trump administration close immigration detention facilities around the country, defund federal agencies that help detain and deport immigrants, and reunite families separated by immigration authorities.
The nationwide protests coincided with the release of Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General’s final report on overcrowding at immigration facilities in the Rio Grande Valley, which included photographs of the ‘dangerous overcrowding and prolonged detention of children’ witnessed by inspectors.
“The trauma and abuse children are facing from the federal government, shows just how deep the injustice goes. Mothers, fathers, grandparents and innocent children are living in despicably inhumane conditions because we have a White House that delights in cruelty and racism but detaining immigrants will not fix our broken immigration system,” said Lisa McCormick, a New Jersey human rights activist.
“Children are being separated from their families at the border and imprisoned in concentration camps. ICE raids are increasing in frequency and severity, instilling fear and terror into immigrant communities. People are dying at the border as they flee for their safety,” said McCormick. “That is not the American way, because this nation is about freedom and justice.”
Stacey Gregg, who organized the Elizabeth protest, said 36 people were arrested on Sunday for civil disobedience at the privately-owned immigration detention center, which houses about 300 detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Inhumanity and injustice are happening and it’s not in fashion. Everyone is seeing the bodies,” said Gregg, referring to images of a man who drowned with his 23-month-old daughter while crossing the Rio Grande to gain entry to the US seeking refuge from El Salvador.
ProPublica reported on a secret Facebook group of 9500 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers where they “joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes#
“Now is the time to step up the pressure on Gill and the Deportation Democrats,” said longtime activist Jay Arena. “We need to build for the July 12 action as one calling for the Essex County and all the other concentration camps, at the border and the interior, to close now, and for equal rights for all who live here.”
Arena said Gill offered to meet to discuss a responsible wind down of “Essex County’s blood money contract with ICE.” Arena also said a shut down of “the ICE concentration camp,” which under the current contract the county can end with four months notice, is the only “responsible” course of action.
Elizabeth police arrested 36 protesters who are now facing charges of obstruction of public passage and were part of a larger group of Jewish demonstrators who on Sunday evening descended on the private center , which is run by Core Civic and houses about 300 immigrant detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Elizabeth police Lt. Michael Kelly said the protesters prompted officers to make arrests by blocking the road to trucks from nearby businesses.
Organizers of the protest, Never Again Action, said 200 participated in the demonstration, which aimed to demand that elected officials close what they termed “concentration camps,” meaning the immigration detention facilities near the southwest border, which have been at the center of reports of inadequate housing for children, and that the government stop funding ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“I’m a Jewish Latina. The military camps where my people are being held today are concentration camps; just like the camps my people were held in 75 years ago were concentration camps,” said protestor and performing artist Tae Phoenix. “That’s why I’m here. That’s why we’re here.”
“I have to do whatever is in my power to disrupt ICE, to close these camps, to provide permanent protection, and to ensure that Never Again means Never Again,” said Rebecca Oliver, who was arrested during Sunday’s protest.
“Never again means never again. We are inspired by the Jewish community who today sent a bold statement of solidarity rooted in their past struggles,” said Movimiento Cosecha in a statement after the arrests. “As families continue to be separated, as children continue to be caged, and as thousands of immigrants are forced to make a life-threatening journey crossing borders out of desperation, every American should be called to stand up and take action. We must stand up for the thousands immigrants and refugees in detention and demand that our institutions stop profiting and collaborating with ICE.”
The “Close the Camps” rallies were organized by MoveOn and other progressive organizations in response to growing public outrage over the Trump administration’s treatment of asylum seekers and other migrants, thousands of whom are being detained in inhumane conditions after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
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