Tacoma SDS

Noise Demo at the NW Detention Center
Saturday, June 26th at 3:00pm

Bring shit to make noise!

Background:

The Northwest Detention Center is a private immigration prison facility located on the tide flats of Tacoma, Washington. The detention center opened in 2004 under a contract with The US Department of Homeland Security, Though owners have changed over time, the facility is now owned by the GEO Group Which operates prison facilities in Australia, The UK, South Africa, the US and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Please show your support for a Tacoma resolution condemning the state of Arizona for allowing racist legislation to become a reality for those living or visiting Arizona.

Council needs to see support for the resolution or they will not pass it. Please make sure to let them know racism is NOT a Tacoma value.

Tacoma City Council
747 Market Street, Tacoma
Tuesday, May 25
5:00pm (Get there early, limited seating)

Silence has long shrouded the men and women who die in the nation’s immigration jails. For years, they went uncounted and unnamed in the public record. Even in 2008, when The New York Times obtained and published a federal government list of such deaths, few facts were available about who these people were and how they died.

But behind the scenes, it is now clear, the deaths had already generated thousands of pages of government documents, including scathing investigative reports that were kept under wraps, and a trail of confidential memos and BlackBerry messages that show officials working to stymie outside inquiry.

The following is an email exchange with the Pierce County Health Department about the current influenza outbreak at the NWDC:

Mr. Turner,

Thank you for the prompt reply. We are aware of the role of the Public Health Service and understand their difficult task in protecting the health of all that are impacted by this event. A special concern is noted because in prior instances of health situations at the facility (Measles and food-borne illness) a general lack of candor was exhibited by those responsible.

Some form of contagious disease is causing enhanced precautions at the Northeest Detention Center located on the Tacoma Tarpits Superfund site. Over the weekend, visiting families, some coming from as far away as Portland, were turned away and told that an outbreak of a flu-like disease was on-going.

Even though the persons they were coming to visit were not ill, they were still prevented from visiting.

Book Discussion with David Bacon at UW Tacoma
Illegal People How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrant
sponsored by SLAP @ UWT

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
12:30pm - 2:00pm
University of Washington Tacoma campus (bldg TBA)
1900 Commerce Street
Tacoma, WA

Contact Info:
uwtslap@u.washington.edu
Description
From http://dbacon.igc.org/IndexPS/news.htm:

HOW IS THE BORDER PATROL AFFECTING OLYMPIC PENINSULA RESIDENTS?
Film & Local Speakers

The number of Border Patrol agents on the Olympic Peninsula has recently
increased from 4 to 25, with a proposed force of over 125. What does it
mean to have a growing Homeland Security force conducting random
checkpoints on our highways, patrolling our neighborhoods, and
surveilling local public
gathering places? Stories abound of harrassment & surveillance, the
targeting of immigrants and farm workers, interrogations and
detentions of long time Latino residents and community members who

This weekend a Wells Fargo real estate office had its windows broken in solidarity with recent migrant detentions in Washington. There have also been other attacks against Wells Fargo and other profiteers in the immigrant detention industry along the West Coast. Santa Cruz, CA to name just one.

This Saturday also saw a protest against condo developer Mike Cohen in Tacoma, who fired and threatened workers with deportation when they raised concerns about unhealthy working conditions.

Here is the communique from Seattle.Indymedia.org:

From the Seattle Times.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. —
One of the top U.S. Border Patrol officials in Washington state has been arrested on child rape charges.

The Whatcom County sheriff's office said deputies arrested Joseph W. Giuliano, the deputy chief patrol agent at the agency's Blaine sector, on Thursday at his home.

The 55-year-old man had been charged Wednesday in Whatcom County Superior Court with raping a 14-year-old girl who was staying in his home. Prosecutors charged him with three counts of third-degree child rape.