welcome everyone to this panel no detentions no deportations we are very happy to have a set of speakers here who have a lot of experience to talk to this meeting as co sponsored by  resistance and the international socialist organization and i am really thrilled especially given the news over the last few weeks i mean there's been just sort of a parade of horrors of children being separated from their parents of the supreme court today upholding the travel ban that blocks people from sovereign countries from entering the country in any form there have been murders on the border and so it's a it's a very serious time and we're looking forward to kind of hearing from people who are doing organizing and then also having some time for discussion to talk about how we can fight back so our next speaker is going to be  anyway so when i start feel the a main scene and energy in the goodbye of the people that were there and even those that couldn't make it people were calling me since yesterday or sending me messages i got calls from the pension center say you know everything is going to be ok my do everything is going to be ok you're not alone and actually did turn out to be a good hearing we were told by the judge that my next hearing is so until january of twenty nineteen which allows me to actually have the possibility of a stay with my daughter because then in august when she turns twenty one would not only going to throw a big party she's going to be filing a petition for me to stay in the contrary and maybe the when he finally announced it in november of twenty fourteen after did them across actually told him to wait to wait for the elections he wanted to do actually something that year remember march of twenty fourteen was th said that he said make me in then he said ok fine i'll do something is the same month that the largest congress strike happened here in the wash in our state so i credit they way he planted that people like me could actually apply for a deferred action which meant you don't get papers but you don't get deported either and when he announced that i was actually angry because he did include everybody that we wanted to be included in i remember thinking along with everybody else that were with me at that moment we said we're not going to apply for them we're not because he doesn't include everybody then we don't want it and i the same time i felt why should i ask  happy because i can actually plan for the future on the comment that people we don't plan for the future long term and it's really hard to actually thing the of the possibility to have to plan for the future with my daughter here but at the same time is with mixed feelings that i receive the news of this possibility because there's still way too many people detained there still to way too many people in the partition proceedings we have i counted the eleven other families along with me in the partition proceedings i think there were only three adults by ourselves everybody else had children that were altered to partition proceedings some of the children where as young as t old and they obviously didn't understand what was happening one of the children was not able to stay in the courtroom because she was crying and she didn't want to be there so she was taken outside the court room and when i happened to be the first case with faces in no he was crap and in i felt i felt kind of guilty knowing that gosh i have this possibility but they probably don't in my first reaction was to tell them you're not along and we're going to continue fighting there's a lot of people out there fighting so i think it's important for us to to remember that although i got i got good news not everybody get this news and already body gets these kind of support in and does been working together during this year and she's going to talk about what's happening with her family and i wanted to actually share with you a couple of things start people called me yesterday and told me fred also called me and he said from segregation he asked me how you doing are you are you ok you're we're with you you're not alone everything's going to be ok to morrow he says segregation and he just find out that his brother was killed in may he go and so the problem is we can not even the possible money has come sorry because when you're in segregation they're not allowing you to have extra money so we're trying to figure out so i talk to him and so i would know i didn't ask for anything he just asked me can you help out this guy so i talk to these guy any turns out he's one of those many pardons that were separated for from his children his fourteen year old he couldn't find need need us we actually are getting a lawyer on this friday to go and talk to him and ensure that he actually has to be reunited with his child he actually told me i came here to work and i wanted my son to and then everybody else so there you already have a plan of how to go about it so i think it's important for us to always come back to the hunger strikers demands anything that you want to do anything that you want to support great police and was there months there on on our website page and we're really happy to see a lot of people now catching up with us in our work but we're asking people to be respectful of our work be respectful or expertise there's a lot of people going people thing we don't know what we're doing in that's nothing but again see and white supremacy and it's time to stop that and it's time to call it out we know why we're doing we're the experts because we believe in this nightmare for way too long and we know how to solve it and if people actually want to help us they should actually recognize that we are the experts and follow us instead of telling us what to do and so i i don't want to take too long because i've been a speakin a lot during the whole family to stay together and also trying to secure proper medical care for her husband who is battling cancer while being detained at the northwest detention center in tacoma so i will pass this hello my name mr corey my husband was detained in january early january of this year and before he wins we found out that he had was twenty seventh he had his surgery and i didn't know that's where he was going so i wasn't receiving any phone calls from him or any communication until after he'd already had his procedure i assume that's where he was but i wasn't sure so i called hospitals i want to tell me anything i called the detention center they wouldn't tell me anything and you think that if you tell someone that you know this is your spouse your husband or your wife that they would be proactive in giving you some type of information and they didn't and that's a struggle within itself even if he was outside the detention center but him being in there on top of it is just super overwhelming  the financial situation of us going from two parent income to just a one pair income so i was a stay at home mom for eight years i was working two days a week and he was taking care of everything so now that that's gone some paying pichot i'm getting loans and i did till i say it did till immigration that i've written letters my children have written letters they pretty much just don't care and spoke face to face with one of the officers his ice officer he told me well you know medicals done doing everything that they can and then the next breath he tells me he doesn't know anything about medical so like ok it's like i'm not trying to give you the runaround i'm just i don't have a number i can give you so i'm just like ok sure whatever so the children and i were trying to piece this together which is impossible like i was telling her it feels like a death pictures are there his clothes there i know where he is but he's not in my bed he's not walking around how we're not arguing nothing you know the kids when they were little i hear the keys jiggling to the door because that is coming home from work and then when they he first when i didn't tell them that that's where he was i don't know how to and they would hear keys jiggling and they run to the they're seven and eight and i'm sure that these people have families and in fact one of the officers you know my husband said i don't want to be deported i have a family i have children you go home to your family every night you need dinner with your you're with your family every night he told him i don't care my job is to deport to that's what i'm going to do period so there's no compassion there is no compassion with his health i just recently found out that he's have an issues with his vision is whale said enough is glaucoma or what it is right now because i can't get records i have to go through all these loopholes to get any information from these so the ophthalmologist does want to do surgery which makes me think that it's glaucoma if he doesn't get that his vision can go faster because he is already blurry and is progressing quickly because he said that is start happen in april but he don't want to say anything because he will once a focus on getting that tumor removed at his neck which also is causing him to have issues with lines of motion in his right arm so he has to as other people in detention center with him to help put his clothes on to help him go so bad to you know imagine how humiliating that is with the strangers not your family you're not at home resting with your wife and he is who could take care of you and care about you the most is stranger that are always in and out the detention center all the time and he has asked these people to help him go to the bathroom but he has no dignity right now and he is he is feeling super low but it's a madness that fighting for him i'm going to keep talking about this i'm going to make noise and i'm not going to let them just get off scot free he's not going person that goes here with with medical issues there's others as well and that needs to be put forth that means to be a high  priority for them period me saying that he has tumor you've seen that he has a tumor or any type of medical issues there should be no question he should just be released and then they don't want to continue doing surgeries so they went to him and told him that he could be taken to alabama or texas and it's probably because they don't want to keep spending the money to get his medical record get his medical stuff done and this guy just let him out is a simple fix but it's like they they have a job to do so cold hearted as it is that's what we're dealing with but i definitely want this to be done something has to happen for you know this is in our next speaker is a car she felt who is a organizer with the rule organizing project in oregon and we were just found out today should be able to speak for us so we're very excited to hear about the work that they've been doing in oregon around these issues thanks ya'll it's an honor to be here with you and also to sit at the table with such incredible and fierce people ya'll are an inspiration and so are you  yes i'm with the organizing project in oregon a we're i'm actually meeting with you all like twenty four hours after huge victories we had in oregon we've been organizing across  own small town oregon to get ice completely out of our communities to stop communication the stop communication between our sheriffs and our local law enforcement and immigration and customs enforcement and with ice and homeland security to we had three public jails in oregon that had contracts with ice where they're renting beds to ice two of those jails have just shut down their contracts one in southern oregon where local organizers started meeting with the sheriff talking with him and encouraging engaging him and he shut down the contract there last night three hundred people showed up to the city council meeting in springfield after having shown up week after week after week testifying and putting pressure and all six city councillors you know silly voted to and the ice contract in springfield at their local jail in addition yesterday that we have sheridan is one of the federal prisons one of the organs one of the five states like washington that is now has a contract with ice and has one hundred twenty three people being held at the sheridan federal prison in yamhill county in oregon yesterday a judge ordered that lawyers have been denied access to meet with folks been denied access to meet with folks they have been denied access to phone people are being held twenty two to twenty three hours a cell with very little time outside and a judge ordered yesterday that they had to allow access to attorneys they had allowed access to know your rights trainings they had to allow access to phone calls and they had to stop all deportation proceedings until everyone had a chance if they chose to have you know your rights training and to meet with an attorney and then added to it the judge added that folks could not be transferred out of the state of oregon without the permission of the attorney or without the permission of a judge in order to prevent ice from taking people away from their attorneys and their legal access today attorneys went in and met with twenty five people one hundred twenty three that are being held at sheridan at the same time the local community is organizing fifteen hundred people showed up in less than a week for an action outside of the prison the sh prison from all over the state folks showed up again seven hundred people for a service three congregations canceled their service and went and held it in front of the sheraton prison on sunday and so the war in the folks are meeting this week to the ongoing organizing out of all led by rural and small town folks who are saying this prison is in our community it is not ok we're going to organize to get rid of that ice contract and to shut down the detention happening at the sheridan federal facility as well as shut down  tention and deportation across the higher state of oregon and shut down ice everywhere he's had a contract with ice for years and then most recently under their current administrator expanded that contract and is now offering a lot more beds to ice nor core is a facility where many people are transferred from the northwest detention center many people are transferred from the north west attention center to nor core as retaliation for their organizing including hunger strikers folks who are organizing the hunger strikes here at the northwest detention center folks in the gorge in the community surrounding the jail had started tracking that this contract existed started showing up to board meetings for the jail pushing to find out more information about the contract and to get rid of the contract after several months and years of doing some of that work we received a call from northwest attention center resistance that said hey y'all some longer strikers are transferred they want to have a hunger strike at your core and if they do it in isolation they're going to be put into solitary they're going to be retaliated against and the only way only way it's going to work is if we answer the call of the folks who want to hunger strik york or amplify their message to media work follow their leadership support what they're calling for an organized alongside them so within just a few days folks in the gorge organized actions organized media and press releases every single day with updates volunteer lawyers went in and met with the folks being held it nor core clergy volunteered and signed up and went and met with the folks in new york or the lawyer visitation program and the clergy visitation program all volunteer is continuing to happen for every single person who comes in or core that we can find out is there it's a pos well to find out the people are there so we require and other people being held there to let us know who is there so we can ask you to meet with ensure they numbers of folks being held but during that hunger strike folks came up with their demands they wanted things like milk twice a week instead of just once a week a hot meal on the weekends right cheaper phone calls so folks could call their families these were the demands that people were asking for so folks organized went on hunger strike for five days negotiated with the administrator one and their demands which was amazing and had some changes implemented at the jail but they're all to meet demand it was to actually get ice out of new york where right that people should not be held there that the conditions are so inhumane people were only getting one hour at most outside a day and outside was a cinder block room with a tarp over it right people couldn't afford to call their families because of the expense of cop the high cost there was no no visitation except for clergy and lawyers so no family visitation and then again people organizing transferred back and forth right i mean people literally said to us this is how they're trying to break us they're moving us back and forth they're taking us to nor core they're trying to get us to signed deportation papers and no longer plead our cases so folks have been organizing there's been two hunger strikes the fat threat of a third hunger strike at nor core with the threat of the third hunger strike the administration immediately negotiated with folks and people been organizing they've had rallies outside every single day outside of new york or jail all organized by local volunteers all run by people r small town oregon in the four counties that the nor cord jail is that the jail serves there attending the board meetings there advocating with building relationships with board members and decision makers advocating to end the ice truck contract and there it's been powerful work and people are starting to scramble they're starting to lash back out the administrator at nor core just turned in his resignation letter this is the person ye you there was a county commission races were several people knew county commissioners were elected who were in fact more sympathetic and the county commissioners are the people who serve on the nor core boards of building in roads and relationships with the people who are power holders in the community wells also organizing folks in the community educating folks in the community and the whole time being in relationship and communication and agent with the folks who are being held in or core clergy sent gives reports back out about the conversations they have people send messages in with clergy about the organizing that's happening impact that it's having a sense photos of rallies that happen out front send updates about what's happening at the board meetings or what the administrator said and vice versa to continue to coordinate and make sure the amplification of the demands of the hunger strikers and the folks are being held it nor core is the story being told out and also that the demand and the ice contract in your core is being amplified and talked about publicly in their community and pressure at the organizing happening to put pressure on folks to make that happen trump and others are saying this is the call right world communities are saying my base is out of our or our world communities except for a are saying that this is the way it needs to be and rural oregon is actually finding ways to break their relationship with ice in their we're seeing is nothing new right it's been it's been around the kid not being the tire izing of our community members has happened to many of us and you're hearing the stories here today and there's so many more out there  infrastructure is have been built by previous administration and as you all know our previous an administration has the highest record of deportations overall and i'm just here to day to support the work that's happening at the local level because not forget us celebrate those moments because if it gets rough it's tough just to add another one out here you know we got to keep celebrating today also in the morning williamson county in texas the county commissioner d and supported that heater ship of those directly impacted that these victories are happening and we cannot let what this administration is doing shadow those victories so i just want to call that out and make sure that you also remember that and to not forget the call that has me today of if you're new to the work if you're new to the two wanting to plug into the work to end immigrant detention follow the leadership of those that are locally and another example to bring up is following again because following of the leadership of folks i've been doing the work for a long time this year learning from what north was attentions and nervous systems folks have been doing for many years the people's tribunals outside of the detention center community members and our members particularly who came down last very very and saw what a people's tribe you know is about and saw that the message is that that true justice comes from the people and we can take that action so we had over ten people's tribunals throughout the country putting ice on trial and making those connections at the local level and calling for the local elected officials  this at the local level is where the site where the fight isn't and not forget that and another piece of keep in mind also as we thinking about abolishing ice what does this look like in terms of following the money raid and how can we d fund this system but also how can we defunded in a way where it's not getting imbedded in all of their agencies like the department of defense and catching up to that because the the fact that they're doing that  tells you that they they're they're hurting that they're hearing our message and they're preparing for what could be the abolishment of this immigration customs enforcement and c p right but what does that look like if it's transferred onto a bigger agency and so again just to name out that this is nothing new but this moment that we're in is is a very different that this administration continues to co opt the i think in the movement we hope that that's a lesson learned for us right in terms of what messaging we're putting out there and what the consequences can be and to not allow for the normalization of incarceration and criminalization that we're seeing  now continue alongside that's been a big message that many of you also have been seen and or if you know a part of a good immigrant versus that immigrant who is deserving and who is not deserving and we need to shut that  who who are who are putting who have been walking the walk and great and really connecting and uplifting the cases of those that are directly impacted so just and also follow the call that we're making out a national level on july second will be talking about one of the community members fee that has a check in on the lights and if you can be there be there show up to court watch great show up and many many ways but more than anything before showing up connect with the folks at the local level who are doing and i can say about the democrats thing the problem is to me the democratic party has been very weak and at the same time it shows that they are us corporate  for comprehensive immigration reform including the democrats where is that thing now so i think instead of just saying i want to vote for for democrats i think you should hilt democrats accountable to the fact that they're responsible support the other guy he was actually we're going to kick out these guy and whoever wins we're going to do the same to you unless you run on our platform and same thing with georgia state she is now the latino vote because i want people to pay attention to the latino community and i think those are examples good examples that are happening right now in the contrary where if democrats want to win it's time for them to actually do something he has to have dialysis three times a week and ice is trying to deport him and he has said the petition is scheduled for next month so we really need a big crowd to show up we last year we were here with cynthia changes the outcome big time when people are usually not used to to actually face a judge with community support and in regards to to you know how to how do i learn about policies it takes  but that's why we utilize social media so much because we keep posting things that are happening but we don't analyse critical analysis right and based on our abolitionist framework as a matter of fact i recommend people to watch go and pay thousands of dollars in order to be able to fight a machine like this immigration lawyers make up a ton of money and some of them are my really good friends but i want them out of the job i want them doing actually fixing the problem so i just want to say it's such an honor to be in this room and sitting at this table with all of you we've had the opportunity to work with northwest attention center resistance over the last year plus as we've been communicating and corden dating response as an organizing around their thoughts detention center as well as nor core and the jails in oregon you know i think there's been i think the piece i want to close with is i take a lot of inspiration from the seventy five local groups that we work with across one small town oregon these are folks who live in communities sometimes communities extremely dominated by the right cottage grove oregon has literally leaders of neo nazi groups opening a store front in oregon and folks there are organizing right there organizing in response to the neo nazis opening up a store front in their community they're organizing in response to deportation and detention they're getting in their cars and driving to sheridan they're having conversations with their local police and their sheriff they're bringing this issue into their mayor race to make sure they elect a mayor who is talking about racial justice and talking about immigrant rights and talking about detention and deportation and so i get my inspiration from literally the thousands of people across rural and small town in oregon who are fighting this fight every single day and finding the places in their communities to fight this fight so i just you know if you all are from washington i'm guessing most people in the room in this or most people who are i really encourage you know there's a lot of ways we might question what's the right thing to do and what's the best way to get educated what's the best way to figure things out honestly i think the best way is to start showing up show up every month with northwest detention center resistant so up and volunteer to go with folks to their hearings that is where we're going to get our education about both what is happening but also what are the solutions we're looking for so find any opportunity you can fill your car you know get a bike brigade whatever it is you know and just show up and that is how we actually figure out what is happening how we push back and how we do that in solidarity in relationship and with the leadership from the folks who are actually living this day today in detention or facing detention in deportation i'm sitting here listening to everybody speak i'm from a small town in kansas and we're not very diverse we don't have different cultures there were intermingle with so that we can learn about each other and what's going on and a lot of this is ignorance just people just don't know that this is happening so coming to a place like this where people can speak on a panel you guys are listening in our ears the community is everything so i think you g come out and listening to this talk so actually me it's kind of therapeutic for me to know that people actually care i don't think this would happen if i was in kansas it's a republican state so i really appreciate it and one thing that i really really want to happen of course given i shut down but i think it's absolutely necessary split some type of of law in place where someone is sick and their life is in danger and you have clear evidence you're taking them to the doctor they should be immediately released no questions a you just just again i don't think we can say it enough follow the leadership of both directly impacted and if you're calling legislators and trying to hold them accountable and trying to get a congregate like delegation of them to go visit those that don't just honors i think it's important to push that but i also think it's important that they do that visit with organizers why because throughout the country we've been seeing legislators capitalize on the suffering of people by saying prepare folks and they will only bring folks who have been who have recently arrivals to that particular attention center so that they're not able to tell the horrible conditions that that they are not yet seen and so i think it's  tag it's something that we've been seeing that happen and so you all are going to push legislators to do that and to make those visits make sure that they're gone but the folks who know what that looks like and that they can interview the folks that they have direct contact with and that have been organizing rate for our allies that are here talk to your family members talk to your community because a lot of what we're seeing is being perpetuated because we're not having those hard conversations with our loved ones and so again that's a big big big responsibility and but i think because you all are showing up here that is something that can be done so talk to your to your families talk to your neighbors that are not that are falling for the stunts and the thanks i think yes it's good to to call their congressional delegation but honestly we have to look at the washington state right washington a state has one of the largest attention centers in the west coast people during a traffic stop and then send them to ice who knows how many people have been impacted by the fact that the state agencies are collaborating with ice wee lindy what is he doing going in taking pictures at sea tac what is constantine doing going and taking a picture that insane is horrible that these children in these parents are separated and he's building a fucking expensive jail for youth right here in seattle so that's those are hypocrites and you have to call them out we have called them out when you need to do that too because if you let them then you agree with them right when you don't have speak up against this pacific issue that means you agree with them and that's why a lot of people don't like us because we told the truth and when people give us the mike i wonder do you really know who we are to really know what we say well  state officials are guilty of having one of the biggest detention centers in their west coast what have they done about it nothing and it's time for us to continue pressuring and we're not gonna stop pressuring them and that's why we don't get invited to press conferences with them because they know where we're going to say right so we're not here to support politicians we're here to support people detained and those are their wants we're accountable to so when you go to those rallies remind everybody we're not here to applaud politicians because if they something good that's their job when you do a good job at your work do you get an a pl when people are also in the i think you know does what they're supposed to do why why do we treat them differently why do we treat them like we have to we owe them something no they chose that job it's their job and they want it to do so therefore they have to do it and they have to do it right they shouldn't be expecting anything q for from us  joint plan again we have one built i don't know if you have thought about it right we have a dream to shut down the tension centers and we're already building once that center is shut down what what are we going to have in place instead right fight as citizens in treated as such wherever away form that means to them and then i might become a us citizen but most importantly it's about human dignity it's not about a paper it's not about policy it's about ensuring that every person of color has a liberation that is led by ourselves thank