LIBERATION
NOT DEPORTATION
END THE DOC TO ICE PIPELINE
ABOUT
Who are we?
The #LiberationNotDeportation Coalition consists of community groups that have been resisting the prison industrial complex as well as its collaboration with US Department of Homeland Security, specifically Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). We are in community with people who have experienced or are currently experiencing transfers from Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) to ICE custody. Member groups include Free Them All WA, George Jackson Freedom Coalition (GJFC), Khmer Anti Deportation Advocacy Group (KHAAG), Formerly Incarcerated Group Healing Together (FIGHT), Asian and Pacific Islander Cultural Awareness Group (APICAG), Nuestro Grupo Culturale (NGC), Sông2Sea (S2S).
Who is held at the NWDC?
The Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, WA is one of the largest immigration prisons in the country, with a capacity to hold up to 1575 immigrants per day. People end up in the detention center after immigration raids, after being transferred from local law enforcement custody in our region, and after being transferred from the border regions. Up to 200 people, many of whom are seeking asylum, are transferred from the US-Mexico border to the NWDC each month. Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, the percentage of folks transferred from Washington state agencies to the NWDC has risen from 11% to over 60%.
What are we fighting for?
On April 14, 2021, WA Governor Jay Inslee signed HB 1090, which bans private, for-profit prison companies that contract with local, state, and federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from operating in the state. HB 1090 represents a victory for the thousands of people who, with the support and advocacy of La Resistencia, organized against their brutal confinement in places like the Northwest Detention Center, one of the largest ICE-contracted detention facilities in the western United States. Even as we celebrate the victory of all those who fought to make HB 1090 into law, we demand that Governor Inslee fulfill the spirit of the law he just signed. Inslee must immediately end Washington State’s Department of Corrections (DOC) collaboration with ICE.
Today, the majority of the 200 people incarcerated in the NWDC have been transferred from Washington State and Oregon’s DOC facilities. But for the current DOC-ICE collaborations that the Governor has the power to end immediately, the facility would be nearly empty. We demand the Governor end the practice of information sharing between DOC and ICE. This practice facilitates transfers to facilities Washington has now banned from continuing to operate in our state. The DOC-ICE collaboration currently feeds Washington residents into the very cages the Governor has just declared jeopardize the lives of the people of our region. Because HB 1090 only bans future contracts with for-profit private prison companies in our state, Washington State residents could continue to suffer in NWDC custody until the facility’s closure (the current contract ends in five years). This does not have to be the case. The Governor should implement the true spirit of the law he just signed and declare that the state will not enable one more person to languish in for-profit facilities like the NWDC by ending the practice of DOC collaborating with ICE to reincarcerate people in their custody who have completed their sentence rather than respect their freedom.
ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS
Asian and Pacific Islander Cultural Awareness Group (Clallam Bay Corrections Center)
Asian and Pacific Islander Cultural Awareness Group (Coyote Ridge Corrections Center)
Asian and Pacific Islander Cultural Awareness Group (Monroe Correctional Complex)
Asian and Pacific Islander Cultural Awareness Group (Stafford Bay Corrections Center)
Asian and Pacific Islander Cultural Awareness Group (Washington Corrections Center, Shelton)
Asian and Pacific Islander Cultural Awareness Group (Community Chapter)
Black Prisoners Caucus (Monroe Correctional Complex)
Black Prisoners Caucus (Clallam Bay Corrections Center)
Black Prisoners Caucus (Stafford Creek Corrections Center)
Columbia Legal Services
FIGHT Family (Formerly Incarcerated Group Healing Together)
Free Them All Washington
Khmer Anti-Deportation Advocacy Group
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Nuestro Grupo Cultural (Stafford Bay Correction Center)
Sông2Sea
Economics for Everyone
Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network
Reimagine Safety
Seattle Indivisible
Trans Women of Color Solidarity Network
Asian Counseling and Referral Service
Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of Washington
International Migrants Alliance PNW
North Node Yoga
No New Washington Prisons
Washington Education Association Latinx Caucus
Decarcerate Snohomish County
Latino Development Organization
Real Change
PARISOL / Pacific Rim Solidarity Network
Stop Veolia Seattle
World Relief Seattle
Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center
CID Coalition, Humbows Not Hotels
350 Seattle
Faith Action Network
Indivisible Skagit
Lavender Rights Project and our WA Black Trans Task Force
El Centro de la Raza
MAPS-AMEN (American Muslim Empowerment Network) and Faith Action Network
CHOOSE 180
Washington State Religious Campaign Against TortureTorture
Private Citizen
Strengthening Sanctuary Alliance
Jewish Voice for Peace-Seattle
Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence
Detention Watch Network
Casa Latina
OneAmerica
Khmer Anti-deportation Advocacy Group (KhAAG)
Coalition of Anti-Racists Whites (CARW)
API CHAYA
Anakbayan South Seattle
Paris Chapman
International Women's Alliance
King County Department of Public Defense
Vietlead
Got Green
Burien White Center Community Support Network
Community Acupuncture Project
Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice NW
Mekong NYC
Release MN8
Disability Rights Washington
University Beyond Bars
Black Action Coalition
Providence Youth Student Movement
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
Nuestro Grupo Cultural (Clallam Bay CC)
Liberation not Deportation - Andrew Lin