Activists Fear for Health & Safety of Men on Hunger Strike in ICE Detention at Bergen County Jail –

Call Special Emergency Protest for Sunday

Hackensack, NJ – Local activists in coordination with the Abolish ICE NY/NJ Coalition are calling for an emergency special protest outside the Bergen County Jail this Sunday December 6th from 1-4 pm. The activists, who have been organizing daily protests outside the Bergen County Jail since Friday, November 27th in solidarity with the men who have been on hunger strike in a bid to gain their freedom from ICE custody, received confirmation late Friday that one of the men on hunger strike is at risk of being force fed by ICE and the others are being subjected to retaliation for their efforts to free themselves.

“ICE is destroying us and our families with no sorrow for what they do. Please help to share this information,” pleaded Marcial Morales, who was released with an ankle monitor last month after undertaking his own hunger strike.

Family members of the hunger strikers will be invited to attend. Marcial Morales will be at the protest on Sunday and will reach out by phone to those inside, so their voices can be heard. The daily vigils will continue, through next week.

Activists have received information that indicates that the guards are retaliating against people on hunger strike. Other men in detention are told to stay away from anyone on hunger strike and if they do not follow this order they will not be allowed out of their cells for a period of time as punishment. One of the men on hunger strike was placed in a cell with a broken sink. The other men in the pod were not allowed to pass him water.

Conditions in the facility continue to be unsanitary and it is overrun by rodents. People in detention resort to putting sheets under doors at night in an attempt to keep the rodents out. Cleaning supplies consist of only a single bar of soap and foam sanitizer. This is all they have to clean surfaces in their cells or common areas. Personal care items such as nail clippers are shared among the entire pod without being sanitized.

The number of men on hunger strike is now down to four. This past week, four men were manipulated into abandoning their protest with a representation that their cases could not be considered for humanitarian parole while they were undertaking a hunger strike. After they began to eat again, ICE informed them that their requests for release had been denied.

Sunday’s protest comes on the heels of a Bergen County Freeholder meeting where public comment lasted nearly two hours and every single person was speaking against the ICE contract. It also follows the statements of Senator Cory Booker and Senator Robert Menendez urging counties to end their contracts with ICE. Senator Menendez went so far as to call the revenue from the contracts “blood money”.

The Abolish ICE NY/NJ Coalition is in solidarity with all people who are incarcerated in the Bergen County Jail. “Our intention is to free the men on hunger strike and all the people in ICE detention in this facility, and show how much the community cares about the civil rights of those that ICE has detained,” said Emily Rizzo from Ridgewood for Black Liberation. “We want the public to hear the voices of those on the inside and to learn about the conditions they face. As we have been saying for months now, particularly during the time of COVID, all those detained by ICE must be released.”

Conditions at EDC are also alarming, with a COVID spread increasing the numbers daily. People inside have shared that no medical precautions are being followed and the heat has been shut off. Additionally, the official number of COVID cases does not reflect the realities in their dorms and is much higher. To stand in solidarity with those inside, and in coordination with the AFSC, a car caravan will meet at Elizabeth City Hall (50 Winfield Scott Plaza, Elizabeth, NJ) at 11am and plans to arrive at Bergen County jail at approximately 2pm. The route will be announced later on AFSC’s social media.

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About Immigration Detention in New Jersey- New Jersey has four immigration detention facilities. Three are pursuant to intergovernmental service agreements between Bergen, Essex, and Hudson Counties and ICE. Each of the counties is paid a “bed rate” of between $110 and $120/day. The counties use the contracts, which date back as far as 25 years, to generate tens of millions of dollars in profit yearly. The contracts and their associated revenue are often celebrated by the elected Democrats who sign them. The fourth facility is the Elizabeth Detention Center, which is run by the private for-profit company CoreCivic, but the building is owned by a local company, The Elberon Development Group. The principals of Elberon, Anne Evans Estabrook and Dave Gibbons, contribute to the campaigns of local politicians and sit on the boards of local institutions including Kean University, NJPAC, and RWJBarnabas.

The Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition is comprised of organizations including Queer Detainee Empowerment Project, Pax Christi New Jersey, Doctors for Camp Closures, Freedom For Immigrants, North New Jersey DSA, NYC DSA, First Friends of NJ NY and others.