Hunger strikers sent from Central Valley detention centers to El Paso, supporters say
Four hunger strikers were forcibly removed from their dorm at a Central Valley immigrant detention facility this week and were transferred to Texas in retaliation for taking part in the strike, according to several support organizations.
The four hunger strikers were among 33 who were on day 19 of not eating, said Laura Duarte Bateman, communications manager for the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.
A video shared with The Bee anonymously shows several agents dressed in military clothes. In a separate audio clip, detainees are speaking. One of them tells agents, “You’re hurting my hand, cutting my wrist. I’m not even resisting! Man, what are you doing?” He later says officers are hurting his arm and wrist. He sounds as if he’s in pain.
There was conflicting information on Wednesday around the timing and how events unfolded as described by the various organizations as they were trying to get details. But Bateman said around 5:20 a.m. Tuesday, the first striker was forcibly removed from his dorm, followed by three more at around 6 a.m. Officers who removed the three strikers at 6 a.m. had a badge that said “San Francisco Special Response,” which Bateman said is believed to signify a tactical unit from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“They threw at least three people, three of the strikers, to the floor and then proceeded to handcuff them and took them out in a very violent manner,” Bateman told The Bee. “This was clearly a tactic to break up the strike.”
Immigrant detainees began their strike on Feb. 17 at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield and at the Golden State Annex to the north in McFarland. Initially, there were 77 detainees taking part in the strike but the number soon grew to 84 at both facilities, which are operated by The GEO Group for ICE.
Christopher Ferreira, a spokesman for The GEO Group on Wednesday, would only say that “as a service provider, GEO plays no role in decisions related to the assignment to or transfers from ICE Processing Centers.”
He referred The Bee to ICE for questions. ICE said it was working on a response, but wouldn’t be able to provide it by late Wednesday.
According to the ACLU of Northern California and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, shortly after 6 a.m. on Tuesday, “GEO Group officers, dressed in full protective riot gear with hard plastic face coverings and carrying batons and pepper spray” entered the dorm at Mesa Verde that was taking part in the strike. The GEO Group officers were attempting to force the hunger strikers to leave the dorm, according to a joint news release.
About two hours later, officers with ICE’s “San Francisco Special Response” team entered the dorm and carried out “brutal retaliation” against the strikers, according to the joint release. Both organizations identified the four transferred strikers as Pedro Figueroa-Padilla, Jose Hernandez, Raymundo Noe Dominguez Vidal and Roberto Carlos Franco Guardado.
Transferred detainees in El Paso, supporters say
Bateman’s organization, and others, on Wednesday said they were able to communicate with some of the strikers who were removed. They have been transferred to El Paso, Texas, she said.
“ICE is supposedly saying that it’s under medical reasons for them to get better medical treatment, but this makes no sense because how is transferring a person, who’s been on a hunger strike for 19 days, gonna be beneficial to their health?” Bateman asked.
Bateman said advocates are concerned about the transferred strikers and their emotional well-being, given that they are far from their families and their legal support. Despite being transferred, she said, the detainees are continuing to strike and are not eating.
Other strikers who witnessed the Tuesday morning incident fear they will be the next to be transferred, Bateman said.
Bateman said her organization condemns the actions against the peaceful hunger strikers.
“This really is a violent tactic,” she said.
The hunger strike followed a 10-month-long, ongoing labor strike to protest getting paid $1 per day to work to maintain the facilities.
In July 2022, a group of nine immigrants sued The GEO Group over the $1 wage.
The strike also came amid “abhorrent” and “soul-crushing” living conditions at both facilities.
In response to this week’s action, several organizations including the ACLU of Northern and Southern California, Asian Law Caucus and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area filed an emergency motion in federal court for a temporary restraining order.
The motion asks the court to prohibit ICE and The GEO Group from transferring or threatening to transfer hunger strikers to other facilities; using violence, excessive physical force, or sexually abusive pat-downs against the strikers; denying strikers access to their attorneys; engaging in further retaliation; and continuing to “unconstitutionally” transfer the four strikers who are now in El Paso.
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