Police Violence Should Not Distract From Ongoing Hunger Strike, States Abolish ICE NY-NJ Coalition and Allies

HACKENSACK, NJ — In response to police violence against advocates and community members outside the Bergen County Jail, the Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition and allies issued the following statement:

“While police in Bergen County spent the majority of their Saturday afternoon and evening responding to peaceful protests with violence, we cannot and must not lose sight of the fact that people detained at the Bergen County Jail are nearly one month into a hunger strike. They are subjected daily to the violence of a brutal detention system and retaliation by ICE and the Bergen County Sheriff.

When anyone embarks on a hunger strike, they are putting their bodies on the line for the opportunity to be heard. These brave hunger strikers are protesting their indefinite detention and right to be reunited with loved ones and community where they can safely socially distance. All the while, conditions at the Bergen County Jail continue to deteriorate. A rodent infestation, lack of heat, lack of clean water, and abuse from facility staff have all made for unlivable, unsanitary conditions.

ICE has already escalated its retaliation against the Bergen hunger strikers by transferring two individuals over one hundred miles away to an ICE detention facility in Batavia, NY — the previous site of COVID-19 outbreak. Another hunger striker was just transferred to Orange County Jail in Goshen, NY- approximately 50 miles away. It is futile to try to transfer the hunger strikers away from the protests- they are the protest.

Elected officials and law enforcement cannot ignore the reality that as long as human lives remain behind bars amid a global pandemic, calls to free them all will not cease.”

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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, Ridgewood for Black Liberation and others. Allied organizations include Mexicanos Unidos and Cosecha NY and NJ.

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.