Northwest Detention Center Resistance (NWDCR)

NWDC Resistance is a grassroots undocumented led movement that works to end the detention of immigrants and stop all deportations. Under the umbrella of the national #Not 1More campaign, we support and follow the leadership of those currently and formerly detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington to call for better living conditions, as well as an end to all detentions and deportations.

New Campaign Campaigns

  • Shut Down the Northwest Detention Center -- Revoke GEO's business license!
    During the past two weeks, immigrants detained at the Northwest Detention Center went on hunger strike, putting their lives and health on the line to protest the NWDC’s terrible conditions. Located on a hyper-contaminated superfund site, the NWDC is the largest immigrant detention center on the West Coast, caging over 1500 immigrants who are facing civil deportation proceedings. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracts with the GEO Group, a multinational private prison corporations, to run the facility. We call on City of Tacoma leadership to take the following steps to protect immigrants and their communities from the terrible harms the NWDC creates. 1) The city Director of Finance, Andy Cherullo, must revoke business licenses that violate any local, state or federal law relating to public health or safety. The 2014 and 2017 hunger strikes have raised grave questions about detention conditions in terms of: quantity and quality of food provided; basic hygiene provisions for bathing and laundry for clothing; quality of health care; and abysmal working conditions for $1 per day wages. Given these persistent and ongoing issues, it is urgent that the City of Tacoma revoke GEO’s license to operate a business that, by its very nature, violates human health and safety. 2) We urge City Council to make emergency Ordinance No. 28417 permanent, removing correctional facilities as permitted use in M-2 and PMI districts in the Commencement Bay/Tideflats Superfund Site. Correctional and detention facilities house people against their will. As residential sites they do not belong in heavy industrial areas with associated pollution. 3) GEO Group’s private operation of the Northwest Detention Center means that it can currently refuse state public health agencies' request to ensure that the NWDC is safe enough for people to live there. We believe that the site must be shut down. Until that happens, the City of Tacoma should change its laws to ensure basic testing of water, soil and air conditions are not damaging the people forced to live there.
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  • Ban Expansion of the Northwest Detention Center!
    The recent hunger strikes by people detained at the NWDC have brought renewed attention to the deplorable conditions at the GEO-owned facility. The detention center affects not only more than 1,505 people who can be held any given day, but also their children, families, and neighbors who form the backbone of our communities. You can read the full letter at: https://www.scribd.com/document/352037160/NWDCR-Tacoma-Letter-2017
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  • ICE Serves Deportation Notice on Undocumented Leader for Organizing Detained Immigrants
    The Seattle office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has served a “Notice to Appear,” otherwise known as a deportation notice, to Washington-based community activist and mother, Maru Mora-Villalpando. Maru leads Northwest Detention Center Resistance (NWDCR), an organization that was co-founded when immigrants held at the Northwest Detention Center began a series of hunger strikes in 2014 protesting their inhumane treatment. Mora-Villalpando’s efforts have transformed the NWDC from an ignored facility in an out-of-the-way location to a key site of local resistance, with weekly rallies and vigils outside its gates. Now, in an unprecedented and arbitrary act of retaliation ICE has chosen to target Mora-Villalpando directly. ICE is now purposely targeting people such as Mora-Villalpando who are organizing against the agency and the Trump administration’s racially-motivated deportation agenda. “ICE only knows about me because of my political work,” explains Mora-Villalpando. “I have spoken out to defend immigrants in detention and shared my story as an undocumented mother. I have sat in meetings with immigration officials and challenged their practices. They are an agency whose actions have already been devastating to my community. But with the letter they delivered to my house, they are showing themselves to be an agency that silences any opposition to their practices,” she concluded. ---------------------------- La oficina de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE) de Seattle ha enviado un "Aviso de comparecencia", también conocido como un aviso de deportación, a la activista y madre en la comunidad de Washington, Maru Mora-Villalpando. Maru lidera la Resistencia del Centro de Detención del Noroeste (NWDCR), una organización que fue cofundada cuando los inmigrantes detenidos en el Centro de Detención del Noroeste comenzaron una serie de huelgas de hambre en 2014 protestando su trato inhumano. Los esfuerzos de Mora-Villalpando han transformado el NWDC de una instalación ignorada en una ubicación apartada a un sitio clave de resistencia local, con manifestaciones y vigilias semanales en sus puertas. Ahora, en un acto de represalia arbitro y sin precedentes, ICE ha elegido apuntar directamente a Mora-Villalpando. ICE ahora está apuntando deliberadamente a personas como Mora-Villalpando que se están organizando contra la agencia y la agenda de deportación racialmente motivada de la administración Trump. "ICE solo sabe de mí por mi trabajo político", explica Mora-Villalpando. "He hablado para defender a los inmigrantes detenidos y compartí mi historia como una madre indocumentada. Me he sentado en reuniones con funcionarios de inmigración y desafié sus prácticas. Son una agencia cuyas acciones ya han sido devastadoras para mi comunidad. Pero con la carta que entregaron a mi casa, se muestran como una agencia que silencia cualquier oposición a sus prácticas ", concluyó.
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  • Washington Should Provide Support for Immigrants Whose Information State Agencies Released to ICE
    Through organizing to defend Washington-based organizer and undocumented mother, Maru Mora-Villalpando, we found documents that show that the WA Department of Licensing (DOL) shared her personal information, including a copy of her driver's license, with ICE. Last month, the WA state DOL admitted to giving ICE information on undocumented immigrants "20 or 30 times per month” without requiring a criminal warrant. WA-DOL information sharing has exposed a tremendous weakness in the state’s laws and policies, including last year's executive order by the governor's office. WA-DOL information sharing has affected many lives. The State of Washington has a responsibility to the people who were affected.
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  • Protect Cynthia from Deportation
    For years Cynthia has reported to DHS as instructed including on May 11, 2017, where she was told to report to BI Incorporated, a private contractor for DHS, for possible removal Honduras. Due to community support and pressure the removal has been delayed while ICE reviews the stay of deportation presented by her lawyer. Unfortunately, in an act reminiscent of a police state, she has been forced to wear an ankle bracelet so the government can monitor her whereabouts at all times. We call on the community to stand against family separation because it is cruel and unusual punishment. Stop her deportation! Keep Families together! No human being is illegal!
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