2010
The Northwest Detention Center - and how you can support those inside
A PowerPoint Presentation with Lori Alward
Monday, September 14, 7:00 - 9:00pm
Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation
2200 East End Street NW, Olympia
(Free and open to the public)
Located on a Superfund site on the Tacoma tideflats, the NWDC is a prison which holds people awaiting hearings on immigration-related charges and/or potential deportation. Privately-owned and operated by The GEO Group Inc. (formerly Wackenhut), it can hold about 1,000 inmates; a 50% expansion will be completed by October 2009. The average stay of detainees is 33 days, but a significant minority remain locked up for months or even years. Some people detained in the NWDC were born here and/or are US citizens. A recent study by the Seattle University School of Law and OneAmerica reported that conditions at the Tacoma facility violate both international and domestic laws that grant detained immigrants the right to food, due process and humane treatment.
Lori Alward, Education Coordinator at Tacoma Community House, is the head of the Education Committee of the NWDC Roundtable, a consortium of over thirty organizations—including activist, health care, higher education, law enforcement, legal, political representative, religious, and social service organizations. She will show a PowerPoint presentation and talk about the Roundtable's work with detainees. Find out how you can support those inside.
Sponsored by the Social Justice Committee of the Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation and Bridges Not Walls.
For more info, email: mailto:green-girl@comcast.net
Wednesday, July 22nd, 7:00pm at Traditions Cafe, 5th Ave and Water St
"Puentes" is a video about the immigrant community in Shelton.
Also, we will be showing these amazing documentaries produced by Hilary Hacker and the Center for Community Based Learning and Action (CCBLA)
Part 1
Part 2
The screenings will be followed by "The Immigration Game" an interesting learning experience about the 'path to citizenship'
2009Bridges Not Walls Fundraiser
Friday, February 20th, 7:00pm at St. John's Episcopal Church in Olympia
In the past eighteen months, over 100 individuals in the South Puget Sound area have been arrested by I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), some in raids on their apartment building or workplace, others in smaller 'operations' at their homes or while shopping at the supermarket. While ICE claims that it is rounding up "criminal aliens," it is in fact terrorizing immigrant communities and separating thousands of families across the country. In many cases, these arrests and detentions not only separate parents from families and take away families' source of income, they put in jeopardy the hopes and dreams that brought parents and children across dangerous borders and far from home communities to make a better life for themselves, just like the many immigrants to America that came before them.
On Friday, February 20th, local immigrant rights group Bridges Not Walls, with support from the Community Sustaining Fund of Thurston County and the OUUC Social Justice Committee, will host a fundraiser for families in the area that have been affected by recent I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids and arrests. Raúl Añorve, an immigrant rights activist from Southern California, will speak about the state of the immigrant rights movement in our country and the responsibility of each of us as individuals to make change in our communities. There will be a local speaker on the impact of immigration enforcement in our area, as well as live music.
Raúl Añorve is the director of IDEPSCA (Institute for Popular Education of Southern California) whose mission is 'to create a more humane and democratic society by responding to the needs and problems of disenfranchised people through leadership development and educational programs based on popular education methodology. Specifically... to organize and educate immigrants concerned with solving problems in their own communities.' Raúl was a leader of the "Fast for Our Future" hunger strike for immigrant rights in Los Angeles. The 21 day strike that began on October 15th 2008 brought together over 100 people in one of the largest hunger strikes in American history to call on Latinos, immigrants, and people of conscience– the Immigrant Rights Movement – "to rise out of our fear" and vote for immigrant rights on Nov. 4th, then take action to hold the next government accountable (www.idepsca.org). With the election and inauguration now behind us, the Obama administration must be pressured to pass an immigration legislation that allows hard working immigrants not to live in fear while contributing to the well-being of this society.
Bridges Not Walls is a coalition of community members who have united to address issues of immigration in our community in the face of increased federal immigration enforcement activity. We believe immigrants, regardless of legal status, deserve to be treated with dignity. We seek to make our communities a place where the contributions of immigrants are valued and respected. Recently, we have been working to develop a local response plan to future I.C.E. raids as well as building support for affected families with legal and modest financial assistance. We have been a presence at monthly detention center vigils in Tacoma and active in documenting human rights abuses locally and on the Olympic Peninsula.
We hope you can join us February 20th at St. John's Episcopal Church in Olympia (on Capitol Way at 19th Ave) for an evening of shared ideas, struggle, and hope. Doors open at 6:30; the event begins at 7:00, and light refreshments will be available. If you can, please contribute a donation of $8 to $10; any and all amounts are greatly appreciated and will go, in full, to local families impacted by I.C.E. detentions and deportations. Childcare and translation services will be available.
Saturday DAY, March 8th - ICE Vigil at the Tacoma Detention Center from 11-4pm. "Celebrate International Women's Day as we uplift immigrant women affected by ICE."
The ICE Detention Centers are private immigration prisons that are currently owned by the GEO Group which operates prision facilities in Australia, The UK, South Africa, the US and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The ICE Detention Center in Tacoma has 1,000 beds and everyday Homeland Security pays them $99 dollars per bed, which comes to $99,000 a day.
Please join us for the monthly vigil this Saturday. We will all be bringing food, coffee, hot chocolate and tea in solidarity and support to families visiting their loved ones.
Northwest Detention Center
1623 E. J Street
Tacoma, WA 98421
There will be a carpool leaving from Harrison and Division in Olympia at 10am.
Saturday NIGHT, March 8th - Live Music at Artisan's (Capitol and 5th) from 7:30-11pm at Artisan's Cafe. "Live music in solidarity with the South Sound's immigrant community."
Sunday, March 9th - Immigration Cafe from 6pm at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. "Local immigration issues and the realities of the border with Mexico." see PDF Flyer - Quarter size - Spanish - Press Release
Saturday, March 15th - Maru Mora Villalpando will be doing a training to teach and develop new tools on immigration and immigrant rights. (This is a "train the "trainer" aimed specifically as an immigration workshop for non-immigrant communities.
Attached is the flyer and the application. If you want to invite others, please send them the flyer and application as well.
Call for entries - Artists look South: Solidarity and the Border
Seeking submissions for art exhibit in Olympia May 1 thru 5, 2008 see flyer
