Activists hold vigil on Tideflats for human rights

Photo by john Larson

AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. Shankar Narayan, policy director of Hate Free Zone, speaks during a vigil July 13a at Northwest Detention Center.

Tim Smith has been perhaps the loudest critic of the Northwest Detention Center, a facility on the Tideflats that detains immigrants on behalf of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It is operated by GEO Group Inc.

Smith is chair of the Tacoma chapter of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Standing before the detention center at the start of a 24-hour vigil July 13, he claimed the company requires inmates to purchase calling cards to use the telephone. "That is one way GEO keeps its costs down," he stated. "You start to see where their profit margins are."

According to Smith, the armed guards who patrol the front entrance during protests are a violation of the state constitution, which forbids businesses from operating private armed forces. "It is a corporate militia. I don't know what else you can call it," he claimed, waving towards the guards. "If I was on my front lawn with a grenade launcher, I think Tacoma Police Department would do something about it."

Rosalinda Guillen, executive director of Community to Community Development, said the situation at the detention facility is "one of the consequences of the failure of our leadership," in reference to immigration policy reform at the federal level. The vigil was meant "to convey the seriousness of this to our community."

"We believe in human rights, regardless of immigration status," commented Shankar Narayan, policy director of Hate Free Zone. He said ICE has increased its number of agents in the Northwest, leading to separated families and "widespread fear in immigrant communities around the state.

"These raids must stop until there is action on immigration reform at the federal level," Narayan added.

"Detention without due process is the result of a broken immigration system," said Michael Ramos, director of social justice ministries for the Church Council of Greater Seattle. He criticized a prison system he feels is turning into an industry for the profit of the private sector.

"This house of sand cannot stand," Ramos declared. "Take a public, moral stand for immigrant rights."

Smith has presented concerns about environmental issues on the site and detainee rights to local officials for years. "The city of Tacoma didn't care. Pierce County didn't care," he said. "For the last five years, we have had human beings sitting on a tar pit of benzene."

Vans from Seattle television news crews were parked nearby, not to cover the rally but rather one of the detainees, a man suspected of killing Zina Linnik, a Tacoma girl whose body was discovered the previous day. The suspect has a prior conviction for a sex crime. Smith said federal authorities should have focused on deporting individuals such as that, rather than rounding up immigrants in workplace raids.

Sue Stauffer, a member of Washington Community Action Network, said her organization is keeping a close eye on ICE. "They are making a tidy profit off our broken immigration system," she remarked.

Those with concerns and questions about ICE raids can call a hotline at (866) 439-6631.

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