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#FreeEDC THREAD: Twenty five years ago, a group of immigrants led an uprising in New Jersey’s first private immigration prison: a converted industrial warehouse on Evans Street in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
At the time, the federal government was in the middle of a massive expansion of the immigration detention system-a racist reaction to the changing face of asylum seekers as Haitian, Cuban, and Central American in the 1980s. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/04/09/how-the-haitian-refugee-crisis-led-to-the-indefinite-detention-of-immigrants/
The immigration prison at Evans Street opened in 1994. Immigrants, many of whom were Black asylum seekers, languished in cramped, windowless dormitories, locked up for profit by Esmor, a private prison corporation. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/19/nyregion/detention-jail-called-worse-than-prison.html
After a year of grievances and hunger strikes, immigrants in 1995 led an uprising, forcing federal immigration authorities to take notice of the abusive conditions and widespread mistreatment of people detained. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/20/nyregion/operator-of-immigration-jails-has-a-history-of-troubles.html
An investigation began, and the federal government acknowledged the failings of both immigration officials and the for-profit prison operator. Promises were made to phase out the contract and shut down the prison. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/22/nyregion/us-inquiry-finds-detention-center-was-poorly-run.html
Those promises were not kept. Instead, the original private prison company sold the contract to another: Corrections Corporation of America (rebranded as CoreCivic) and the facility was renamed Elizabeth Detention Center (EDC). https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/07/nyregion/legacy-of-immigrants-uprising-new-jail-operator-little-change.html
Twenty-five years later, EDC still holds people seeking asylum and freedom in this country--85% of whom are Black and/or Latinx--in the same windowless industrial warehouse that shocked America’s conscience in 1995. http://tinyurl.com/RaceEDC
Abuse and neglect continued. In 2007, it led to the death of Boubacar Bah, an immigrant from Guinea. ICE’s frantic attempts to hide his story unravelled when other people held alongside Boubacar at EDC refused to be silent. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/nyregion/05detain.html
Boubacar Bah’s life and death restarted a national conversation about the cruelty of immigration detention. Promises for change were made. Yet federal immigration authorities continued to detain people at EDC. https://www.nytimes.com/video/nyregion/1247466467222/what-really-happened-to-boubacar-bah.html
Then came a glimmer of hope-complaints about private immigration prisons including EDC prompted the Homeland Security Advisory Council to advise the phasing out private prisons in 2016.
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/DHS%20HSAC%20PIDF%20Final%20Report.pdf
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/DHS%20HSAC%20PIDF%20Final%20Report.pdf
But CoreCivic had a staunch supporter in the Trump Administration, which promptly doubled down on keeping private prisons like EDC operational. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/23/private-prisons-back-trump-and-could-see-big-payoffs-new-policies/98300394/
CoreCivic still operates EDC and the alarm bells keep ringing. Recent Congressional visits to EDC highlighted the harsh treatment of those detained. https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/congressmen-say-asylum-seekers-being-denied-justice-at-elizabeth-detention-center/
Whistleblower complaints in 2019 about medical abuse and neglect by ICE Health Service Corps-including a case involving EDC-sparked an ongoing Congressional investigation. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/congress-investigation-immigrant-detainees-medical-care
And then came COVID-19, which hit NJ hard and threatens to ravage its jails, prisons, and detention centers. By March 2020, over 40 NJ-based organizations called for the release of all people detained by ICE in NJ, including EDC. https://www.afsc.org/sites/default/files/documents/letter%20to%20ICE%20-%20Newark%20final3-20-2020.pdf
This demand came as news broke on March 19 of the first ICE staffer to test positive for COVID-19: a medical staffer at EDC. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/03/19/first-ice-employee-tests-positive-for-coronavirus
People in EDC were terrified-the poor warehouse conditions at EDC made it all the more likely that the virus would quickly spread. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/03/24/everybody-s-scared-panic-at-immigrant-detention-center-after-positive-coronavirus-test
These fears came true as more and more people in EDC got sick. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/nyregion/coronavirus-ice-detainees-immigrants.html
In May, several brave asylum seekers and NJ residents locked inside EDC stepped forward to challenge their detention. With @afsc_org @ImmDefense and @nyulaw IRC, they filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of everyone at the jail to #FreeEDC. https://gothamist.com/news/lawyers-ice-detainees-new-jersey-facility-free-them-all
The evidence that has emerged in the case, Aganan v. Rodriguez, has been damning. Even without universal testing, the government confirms that at least 18 people in custody, 2 ICE personnel, and 17 CoreCivic employees at EDC contracted the virus, and one employee passed away.
According to ICE’s evidence, social distancing is impossible and CoreCivic didn’t even permit its staff to start wearing masks until April 15-nearly a month after someone in EDC already tested positive for the virus.
When people in EDC started a hunger strike in protest of their conditions, CoreCivic “disciplined” some of the leaders. ICE deported one of the named plaintiffs, Héctor García Mendoza, despite a court order staying his deportation. This is how ICE works. https://gothamist.com/news/ice-detainee-who-sued-his-jailers-was-swifty-deported-now-hes-missing
Congress is demanding answers from ICE for what they have done-and ICE's silence thus far is telling. https://sires.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/sires-castro-pallone-lead-letter-demanding-answers-on-ice-s-deportation
Despite the fear, the harsh conditions, the cruelty, the people in EDC are resilient. They continue to demand their dignity, their safety, their freedom. They always have, and they always will. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/they-came-here-seeking-freedom-and-were-imprisoned-instead-look-at-their-faces/
Twenty-five years of broken promises and broken lives is twenty-five years too many. We knew from the beginning this system was cruel and racist by design. It’s way past time to #FreeEDC & #FreeThemAll.
