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Release ICE detainees.
Fleeing death threats in his home country of El Salvador, Alexander Martinez entered the United States without papers two months into the Biden presidency. During his detention, he’s been shuffled between six different detention facilities while facing homophobic harrassment and abuse from guards. He remains detained despite passing initial screening for asylum. “I never imagined or expected to receive this inhumane treatment,” said Martinez. The Biden administration doubled the number of immigration detainees since the end of February (The Guardian). U.S. citizens may believe that mass detention of immigrants and asylum seekers is no longer an issue under a Democratic president. 27,000 immigrants — many detained indefinitely in overcrowded, unsanitary facilities with little access to medical care during an ongoing pandemic — might have a different perspective.
TAKE ACTION
Follow Asian Americans United, Juntos, Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania (MILPA), New Sanctuary Movement, VietLead, and Woori Center.
Find a local immigrant refugee organization near you, and identify the best way to support.
Contact your elected officials at the local, state, and federal level and demand that no other government institution share information with ICE. This includes school districts, local and state police, health and human services, and unemployment departments.
GET EDUCATED
By Andrew Lee (he/him)
When the American electorate denied President Trump a second term, it was in response to a number of outrages: the so-called “Muslim ban,” a failed attempt to construct a border wall, a bumbling response to Covid-19. Top among them was a “zero-tolerance” immigration policies that the United Nations Human Rights Council suggested “may amount to torture” (Independent). Candidate Biden rallied support in part by promising to “welcome immigrants in our communities” (Democratic National Committee). His election prompted many to share actress Idina Menzel’s sentiment when she tweeted, “My son just hugged me and said ‘mommy no more kids in cages!’ Tears of joy and tears of sadness” (Hollywood Reporter). Immigration policies and immigrant rights soon faded from front-page news.
But as Silky Shah from the Detention Watch Network reported, “His policies so far haven’t matched his campaign rhetoric” (The Guardian).
Fleeing death threats in his home country of El Salvador, Alexander Martinez entered the United States without papers two months into the Biden presidency. During his detention, he’s been shuffled between six different detention facilities while facing homophobic harrassment and abuse from guards. He remains detained despite passing initial screening for asylum. “I never imagined or expected to receive this inhumane treatment,” said Martinez. The Biden administration doubled the number of immigration detainees since the end of February (The Guardian). U.S. citizens may believe that mass detention of immigrants and asylum seekers is no longer an issue under a Democratic president. 27,000 immigrants — many detained indefinitely in overcrowded, unsanitary facilities with little access to medical care during an ongoing pandemic — might have a different perspective.
Community organizations around the country have forced significant concessions from an unjust and inhumane immigrant detention system, but they can use ongoing support to achieve justice and liberation for all immigrants. Advocates were able to push Pennsylvania’s York County Prison to stop accepting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees and secured the freedom of around 100 of those already detained. However, 200 of those already in York were transferred to other detention centers while others were deported (WHYY). Last Tuesday, a coalition of organizations including Asian Americans United, Juntos, Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania (MILPA), New Sanctuary Movement, VietLead, and Woori Center rallied outside the Philadelphia ICE office to demand liberty for all detainees.
“There are a lot of organizations, a coalition. We’re here because we now know that because of community pressure they freed 80-100 people,” Ivonne from MILPA told Anti-Racism Daily, describing what community organizations see as a significant but partial victory. 200 York detainees were transferred to other centers. Some were deported. “Now we want those within the center in York and those within any detention center in the U.S. to be freed.”
While immigration issues are sometimes associated solely with the Latinx community, VietLead executive director Nancy Nguyen told Anti-Racism Daily that she’s fought deportations of the Southeast refugees for ten years and that Black immigrants suffer some of the longest detentions with the least legal representation. “Obama was considered the deporter-in-chief,” she said. “The way that folks should understand it is that, yes, things got worse under Trump but Trump only drove the vehicle that Obama created… This certainly is not just a Latinx issue and it certainly is not an issue that started just with Trump.”
“There are many nefarious ways ICE gets into communities. It’s not just about detention centers. ICE is always trying to collude with the police, ICE is always trying to get into your Health and Human Services data, ICE is trying to get into schools,” Nancy said, “So in every community everywhere folks should be making sure to contact their electeds, to make sure that there are no ICE agreements with police. These are info agreements that the police or that your health department or your school districts share information with ICE,” said Nancy from VietLead. “And also donate to your local immigrant and refugee organizations that are fighting ICE on the ground.”
“Allyship” with immigrants that vanishes once one’s preferred political party gains office isn’t true solidarity. It’s using oppressed communities as a political football. There are organizations of immigrants across the country fighting for justice against a disgraceful system at great risk and against incredible adversity. Supporting them is a moral and political responsibility, especially for those with the privilege of citizenship.
“We’re different colors, from different countries, and they aren’t going to stop us,” said MILPA’s Ivonne. “We have the power to say: enough. We want everyone out. We want them with their families.”
Key Takeaways
Immigrant rights receive significantly less attention from news outlets and many members of the public now that the election is over.
In reality, the Biden administration doubled the number of ICE detainees since this February.
Immigrant organizations across the country have won victories but need resources and support regardless of who’s in office.
Fight inhumane medical care at ICE facilities.
As of November 11, 2020, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have deported six of the women who came forward with claims of having been coerced into sterilization at Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia and will potentially deport at least seven others, says NBC. Dawn Wooten, a registered nurse who previously worked at the detention center, came forward in September, alleging that forced sterilization procedures were widespread at Irwin. Read more about this case in our previous newsletter on the subject.
Happy Tuesday and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily! Can you believe it's already December? Because 'tis the season, you can now gift the Anti-Racism Daily to a friend. It's pay-what-you-wish and I'm happy to send a holiday greetings at no cost too – just reply to this email.
Today we're rallying around the ongoing atrocities happening at ICE detention facilities. This email, written by Bianca, focuses on inhumane medical care, but it's just one of many reasons to take action.
This free, daily newsletter is made possible by our generous group of contributors. Support our work by making a one-time gift on our website or PayPal, or giving monthly on Patreon. You can also Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). To subscribe, go to antiracismdaily.com. You can share this newsletter and unlock some fun rewards by signing up here.
Nicole
TAKE ACTION
GET EDUCATED
By Bianca Gonzalez (she/her)
As of November 11, 2020, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have deported six of the women who came forward with claims of having been coerced into sterilization at Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia and will potentially deport at least seven others, says NBC. Dawn Wooten, a registered nurse who previously worked at the detention center, came forward in September, alleging that forced sterilization procedures were widespread at Irwin. Read more about this case in our previous newsletter on the subject.
Jackelin (who asked to be identified by her middle name) is a 33-year-old Hondorian immigrant and mother of five who is married to a US citizen. She has been living in the U.S. for more than five years. Jackelin was one of the 16 women who wanted to testify against Dr. Amin after receiving care four months prior. After coming forward, she was “scheduled for a … deportation flight, until a last-minute order came for her to remain at the rural Georgia facility.” (LA Times)
Even though, according to ice.gov, “it is against ICE policy to initiate removal proceedings against an individual known to be the immediate victim or witness to a crime,” ICE has taken that same action in light of recent legal pursuits.
Yanira, who has been a detainee for about a year, said after almost boarding the deportation flight, said that “they used to take their sweet time on deporting women, letting us stay here extra time to make us learn their lesson,” until the whistleblower came forward. “Then [nearly] everybody started getting deported so fast, everyone who’d had surgeries or something performed on them. There’s only a few of us left in here” (LA Times).
Columbia University law professor Elora Mukherjee is currently working with several of the detainees. She believes that “ICE is destroying the evidence needed for this investigation” by targeting these women for deportation (The Hill). While the women who have already been deported or who will be deported before they have a chance to speak with legal professionals might still be able to serve as witnesses in a case, those working on the issue will have an increased difficulty at maintaining contact.
Moreover, one report that looked into the death of 18 detainees from 2012 to 2015 found that “substandard care was evident in 16 out of 18 deaths, and subpar care contributed to the deaths of at least 7 of these individuals” as well as finding “numerous incidents of substandard and dangerous medical care,” which included “sluggish emergency responses” as well as “failure to follow up on symptoms that required attention” and “severely inadequate mental health care (Freedom for Immigrants).
Advocates have been expressing concerns over ICE practices for years. Eleven different independent human rights monitoring bodies have sent formal complaints to the US government over the past few years, expressing concerns for human rights violations at the Irwin County Detention Center and the Stewart Detention Center, which is also in Georgia run by a for-profit corporation (Aljazeera).
In May 2018, Project South and the Penn Law Transnational Legal Clinic sent a letter to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), citing extensive use of solitary confinement as a form of punishment and control, exploitation of immigrants’ labor, extremely negligent medical care, poor sanitation, denial of due process, and race-based discrimination as their evidence (Aljazeera).
While the neglect at ICE detention centers in Georgia is devastating and needs to be addressed immediately, other states are taking steps to improve conditions at their detention centers. Texan Congresswoman Veronica Escobar came together with Representatives Jason Crow, and Sylvia Garcia introduced the End Transfers of Detained Immigrants Act on November 20th, 2020 (Escobar).
This bill was introduced as a companion to Senators Michael Bennet and Jeff Merkley’s bill, the End Transfers of Detained Immigrants Act, released in late September 2020. It immediately prevents ICE from transferring immigrant detainees between ICE facilities or to any prison during the pandemic, as well as immediately releasing detainees whenever social distancing according to the CDC’s recommendations was not possible (Bennet). Read Bennet and Merkley’s bill here.
While we’re making progress in the fight for immigration reform in America when it comes to developing policies that protect human rights, we have more than enough evidence of medical negligence and abuse in detention centers to advocate for the immediate widespread release of detainees and to advocate for defunding ICE.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The detainees who came forward claiming to have received medically unnecessary procedures by doctors have become targets for deportation.
States are making strides to advocate against inhuman practices at ICE detention centers, but we still need reform at the federal level.
ICE has an extensive history of medical neglect.
RELATED ISSUES
7/27/2020 | Support Asian Americans through COVID-19.
7/28/2020 | Denounce anti-Semitism.
11/4/2020 | Understand intergenerational trauma.
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
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Protect undocumented Americans.
Happy Monday!
We are 29 days from the election, and it's critical to remember how many voices deserve to be heard at the polls. Today, Jami calls us to action to protect undocumented immigrants here in America (and around the world), and provide sanctuary no matter where we live.
As always, you can support the newsletter by giving one-time on PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe monthly on Patreon. Thank you for your support.
Nicole
TAKE ACTION
Protect your community and know your rights. Check out United We Dream’s (@unitedwedream) Deportation Defense toolkits for undocumented immigrants and allies.
If you witness an ICE raid or spot them in your community, call the MigraWatch Hotline at 1-844-363-1423. This will spread the word and keep others safe.
RAICES’s (@raicestexas) Take Action list provides many ways you can support—from tweets to petitions to donations to starting conversations with your family.
Donate to your local immigrant mutual aid network or to organizations like UndocuBlack
GET EDUCATED
By Jami Nakamura Lin (she/her)
As we reach the last weeks of the presidential race, the Trump administration, hoping to persuade voters with a strong “law and order” message, is preparing immigration raids in sanctuary cities, according to the Washington Post. On September 24th, Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE) officials announced that they arrested over 500 people within a few days (LA Times). Across the country, undocumented immigrants and activists in the targeted cities, including Philadelphia, are getting their communities ready (Philadelphia Inquirer). In the 2018 fiscal year (the most recent year combined data is available), ICE and Border Patrol deported over 337,287 undocumented immigrants from the interior United States (Pew Research Center). This number is separate from people apprehended while attempting to cross the border; these were people who had built lives here.
For those of us who are documented citizens, we can’t understand the pervasive fear, stress, and anxiety that goes along with being undocumented. In a New York Times podcast, an undocumented mother from Nicaragua explains to the host: “Sometimes I cry… you’re like, oh, my God, what I did bad? Just staying in a country where I want to feel safe? I don’t know. I don’t know. Right now, I’m in my car talking to you, and I know, when I get through that door, I have to turn off that light and stay in my room. Why?” (NYTimes The Daily)
The woman goes on to describe the way she and her family live when there are rumors of immigration crackdowns: never opening the door, only using a small light, parking in a neighbor’s space instead of their own. Even if the threat never materializes, fear is a powerful tool, one that this administration wields like a hammer to keep undocumented Americans underground, unable to access basic needs like health care during the pandemic (NYTimes). While living in a sanctuary city can be safer for undocumented Americans, due to local protections, it can never be—or feel— truly safe.
The term sanctuary city, in fact, has no specific legal or government-defined meaning. “Lots of people use the unofficial term “sanctuary city” to refer to local jurisdictions (not just cities but counties and sometimes states) that don’t fully cooperate with federal efforts to find and deport unauthorized immigrants,” explains Dara Lind, in a useful primer on the history and context of sanctuary cities at Vox. “If that sounds vague, that’s because it is, and it gets at the tension between federal policy and local law enforcement generally used to carry out those laws.”
Most of us have a limited view of undocumented Americans—often because of the narrow, biased single narrative that our government and media push: Mexico, border crossings, DACA. In the new book The Undocumented Americans, author Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (the first undocumented student to graduate from provides a nuanced, deeper context, pushing back on the limited narratives we usually see. “This book is for everybody who wants to step away from the buzzwords in immigration, the talking heads, the kids in graduation caps and gowns, and read about the people underground,” she writes in her introduction. “Not heroes. Randoms. People. Characters.”
As she says, undocumented Americans are not a monolithic block. An estimated 619,000 Black undocumented immigrants are residing in the United States (Pew Research Center). They are more likely than non-Black undocumented immigrants to be deported. “Although Black immigrants comprise just 5.4% of the unauthorized population in the United States, they made up a striking 10.6% of all immigrants in removal proceedings between 2003 and 2015,” reports the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. For more information, read interviews with undocumented Black Americans at ThinkProgress and the Atlantic.
If you or your family are (or have ever been) undocumented and want to share your experiences, feel free to share your experience at submissions@antiracismdaily.org; we will not share identifying details.
We can help provide sanctuary no matter where we live. United We Dream (the largest immigrant youth-led organization) states: “In a sanctuary… members of that community are united and prepared to protect immigrants from deportation forces… are united against police brutality... [Sanctuary spaces] are places in which the dignity and integrity of every individual as a human being is respected and preserved” (UWD Here to Stay Toolkit). We need to work to ensure that our actions are guided by such principles.
Part of that is becoming more intentional in thinking about how we privilege citizenship, and what barriers our communities, often unintentionally, present for undocumented people. Some of that means expanding our definitions: in one case, Black students discovered that they weren’t eligible for the few college scholarships open to undocumented students because they weren’t Latinx (The Atlantic). Often, it means asking ourselves how welcoming our spaces are for undocumented people. I used to work for a public library—an institution that prides itself as being for everyone— but at libraries like mine, you need identification, a discriminatory policy that prevents many undocumented people from receiving our services (Time). Undocumented Americans pay billions of dollars in local, state, and federal taxes per year (Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy), but they are not able to receive many of the benefits they’re paying for.
Lastly: remember that the dehumanization of undocumented Americans didn’t start—and won’t end—with Trump. ICE, deportations, and border camps existed under the Obama, Bush, and Clinton administrations as well (NYTimes). Our immigration policies have been discriminatory since their implementation. We can fight for better policies, but we need to always remember that communities and people can provide sanctuary in ways that laws cannot.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
In the 2018 fiscal year, 337,287 undocumented immigrants were deported from the United States (Pew Research Center).
Black undocumented immigrants are more likely than other undocumented immigrants to be deported (Black Alliance for Just Immigration).
Undocumented Americans pay billions of dollars in local, state, and federal taxes per year (Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy).
The dehumanization of undocumented Americans didn’t start—and won’t end—with Trump. We need to support them no matter who is president.
RELATED ISSUES
9/17/2020 | Abolish ICE.
8/10/2020 | Respect the relationship between name and identity.
6/17/2020 | Analyze representation in media.
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
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Abolish ICE.
This is the third time I've referenced forced sterilizations in our newsletters over the past two weeks. And this time it's with a new and harrowing story. It's heartbreaking to see how our history keeps repeating itself, and the lasting implications of generations of violence against communities of color. This story is still developing, but our persistent action will ensure this conversation doesn't fade away. The violence that's been happening at these camps are an act of genocide.
If you're enjoying these newsletters, consider making a contribution to support our work. You can give one-time on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe for $5/mo on our Patreon.
– Nicole
TAKE ACTION
Sign United We Dream’s petition to release immigrants and asylum‐seekers at detention centers.
Support the GoFundMe of Dawn Wooten, a Black single mother of five who risked her job and safety as a whistleblower.
Call your senators and urge them to defund ICE, which operates under DHS.
Follow and support the voices that have been telling us about the atrocities happening at detention centers: Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network
GET EDUCATED
By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)
This week, a whistleblower filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General about “medical neglect” practiced at an ICE facility in Georgia. Dawn Wooten, a nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC), reported that the facility was underreporting COVID-19 cases and not correctly testing or protecting staff and detainees (The Intercept). She also reported that the immigrants are being subjected to a high rate of hysterectomies without “proper informed consent” (The Intercept).
“I became a whistleblower; now I’m a target. But I’ll take a target any day to do what’s right and just, than sit and be a part of what’s inhumane.”
Dawn Wooten
Before we continue, I think it needs to be made clear that the allegations of medical neglect during a global pandemic alone should be enough for us to call for change. The forced separations of families are enough to call for change. In fact, the fact that these detention centers even exist is more than enough for me. We need to abolish ICE for the system itself, not just because we're hearing more allegations about forced sterilizations.
The latter allegation in particular has spurred lawmakers and advocacy groups into action. Organizers of the complaint, along with Wooten, include Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network, and consists of the voices of detained immigrants that have “reported human rights abuses including lack of medical and mental health care, due process violations, unsanitary living conditions” since 2017 (Project South). They've been rallying to close this facility – and others – for years, and detainees have specifically complained about the rough treatment from the same gynecologist that's accused (AJC).
168 members of Congress sent a letter urging DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to investigate the allegations (Congresswoman Jayapal website). They're demanding to know the status of the investigation by September 25th (NPR).
These allegations are horrifying. And, these allegations are nothing new. As we discussed in two newsletters over the past two weeks, our country has a history of medical violence, particularly against women and women of color. These procedures are sexist, xenophobic, racist, and ableist, and often homophobic. And they’re an act of violence against marginalized people, many of whom rely on the same institutions for their protection.
To understand this, we have to start with eugenics, the practice of improving the human species by “breeding out” disease, disabilities, and other characteristics from the human population (History). The concept gained traction in the U.S. in the early 1900s with the creation of the Race Betterment Foundation, led by John Harvey Kellogg – yes, that Kellogg (History). Through their “registry” of “pedigree” status and a series of national conferences, they promoted the idea that to improve the country, we needed to preserve the racial status of those that inhabit it (History). This meant that people that did not fit this category – including immigrants, Black people, Indigenous people, poor white people, and people with disabilities – needed to be maintained.
Via CNN: Eugenics had won such mainstream acceptance that Americans competed in "fitter families" contests at state fairs during the 1920s.
From this, 31 states sanctioned sterilizations. Many were presented to individuals as “protective” measures to prevent their “undesirable” traits from passing to others. But many more were nonconsensual, performed when patients believed they were receiving other forms of care (The Conversation). And although the programs initially targeted men, they quickly evolved to focus on women and women of color – particularly as the country began to desegregate.
From 1950 to 1966, Black women were 3x more likely to be sterilized than white women, and more than 12x the rate of white men (The Conversation). Hospitals in the South let medical students practice unnecessary hysterectomies on Black women, a practice so common it was given the euphemism “Mississippi appendectomies” (The Cut).
The U.S. Indian Health Service (IHS) applied forced sterilized over 3,000 Indigenous women in the U.S. in 1973 and 1976. A study from two years earlier found that at least one in four Indigenous women had been sterilized without consent (Minn Post).
In California alone, over 20,000 people were sterilized, and were disproportionately Latinx, primarily individuals from Mexico (Smithsonian). During that time, anti-Mexican sentiment was spurred by theories that Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans were at a “lower racial level” than white people (Internet Archives).
Via The Conversation: A pamphlet extolling the benefit of selective sterilization published by the Human Betterment League of North Carolina, 1950. North Carolina State Documents Collection/State Library of North Carolina
By 1976, over 60,000 people were recorded sterilized in 32 states during the 20th century (Huffington Post).
Although the Supreme Court moved to end these practices in 1974, these practices are still happening. Between 1997 and 2010, unwanted sterilizations were performed on approximately 1,400 women in California prisons, which primarily targeted women of color (Fox News). A judge in Tennessee offered those incarcerated thirty days off jail time if they volunteered for vasectomies or contraceptive implants, saying that he hoped repeat offenders would “make something of themselves” (Washington Post). Ten states still require transgender people to obtain proof of surgery, a court order, or an amended birth certificate to update their driver’s licenses – and 17 states require sex reassignment surgery to update birth certificate gender markers (The Daily Beast). And there are still terrifying stories of forcible sterilizations happening on people with disabilities deemed constitutional by the courts (Rewire News).
There’s been jokes and memes floating around that we’re “officially” living in the dystopian Handmaid’s Tale. But we’re not. We’re living in the reality of the United States. And when we distance ourselves from this painful reality, we allow it to persist. As investigators race to verify these allegations, we cannot continue to allow any injustices to continue in these spaces. We must keep listening and supporting to the voices that have been shouting this to us for years – that these institutions must be dismantled. The costs are far too great.
Key Takeaways
A whistleblower filed a complaint against ICE for “medical neglect" at the detention camp she worked at, including mass hysterectomies without detainees' content
Forced sterilization was a state-sanctioned practice, often funded by the federal government, that disproportionately impacted women and women of color during the 19th century
Forced sterilizations procedures are sexist, xenophobic, racist, and ableist, and often homophobic
Unwanted sterilizations are still happening today
RELATED ISSUES
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza