Essex County Moms Hold Breastfeeding Nurse-In At ICE Headquarters
ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Gathering in a show of solidarity against the Trump Administration’s recently rolled-back “zero tolerance” policy of separating undocumented immigrant families, a cohort of Essex County mothers led a breastfeeding “nurse-in” at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in Newark last week.
The peaceful Friday rally began with a “stroller procession” of 50 people, including men and young children, which ended at 972 Broad Street, the federal building which houses Immigration Services and ICE offices. More than a dozen mothers sat on the ground and nursed their babies, according to reports.
“You are protected by New Jersey law to breastfeed in public… we’ll have printed copies of the law on hand,” organizers said prior to the rally.
Police and security officers at the nurse-in did not disturb the nursing protesters or ask them to leave, NJ.com reported. (Watch their video from Friday’s event below)
Allyson Murphy of South Orange, who helped to spearhead the unique rally, told the NY Daily News that as someone who works with breastfeeding mothers, the news of young children being separated at the border from their parents puts her “in tears.”
Christina Liu, a Montclair resident who was at the rally with her baby daughter, told TAP Into Newark that “it’s unconscionable that our government is stealing children from their parents and locking them up in cages,” a reference to reports that included audio footage of weeping children being separated from their families at the border.
“I breastfed both of my babies and I can’t even imagine if my child was taken away from me during that period of time,” Maplewood resident Corina Coleman told Fios1News.
Some 1,995 children were taken from their migrant parents at the border from April 19-May 31, according to Department of Homeland Security data obtained and reviewed by the Associated Press. President Trump eventually signed an executive order ending the controversial policy, but the harrowing effects remain for many families who still remain separated from their loved ones.
Organizers with Laid Back Lactation and Hand in Hand, who helped to organize the protest, posted video and photos from Friday’s rally.
ESSEX COUNTY AND ICE CONTRACTS
The Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark is among several prisons in New Jersey that contracts to house ICE detainees. Some of those arrested in high-profile ICE “busts” in North Jersey end up passing through the jail, which was one of three that received scathing condemnation for “inhumane” conditions in a February report from nonprofit advocacy group Human Rights First.
Alleged issues at the jails – which also include the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility and the Hudson County Correctional Facility – include maggot-infested food, suicide risks, a lack of clean underwear and medical treatment done on a “cost-benefit analysis.”
Essex County has taken in millions of dollars in revenue from housing federal detainees at its Newark prison over the past years.
A proposed $725.9 million Essex County budget for 2018 was anticipated to generate $35.7 million by housing federal inmates, immigration detainees and inmates from Gloucester County.”
The annual prison profits have raised criticism from some residents.
“Essex County must not run on blood money,” a local activist recently wrote. “The fact that the county profits from the unconstitutional detention of immigrants, because ICE pays for the beds, is not a valid argument for collaborating in the ICE deportation machine. The county could raise money by selling opioids as well, but that would not make it a wise policy.”
In addition to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, ICE also houses its New Jersey prisoners at Bergen County Jail, Delaney Hall Detention Facility, Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility, Hudson County Correctional Facility and Monmouth County Correctional Institution, the agency’s website states.
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Photo: NJ.com / YouTube
