October 22, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Alejandra Gonza (Global Rights Advocacy): 206-305-4919
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Conducts Historic visit
of Tacoma Immigrant Jail
Tacoma, WA – On October 21st and 22nd, 2024, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights conducted an historic visit to the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) in Tacoma, WA to protect the rights of endangered immigrants in detention. The visit, requested by Global Rights Advocacy, La Resistencia, and Seattle University School of Law’s International Human Rights Clinic, was led by the President of the Commission’s international panel of legal experts.
Such visits to federal detention facilities are extremely rare, and it marked the first time an international human rights body has ever entered the NWIPC to monitor detention conditions. In 2020, the Commission issued a protection order due to dangerous conditions at the NWIPC; because serious problems persist, the decision was made to visit the facility in person.
While on site, the international panel was able to speak directly with immigrants represented by Global Rights Advocacy, La Resistencia, and the International Human Rights Clinic. They also facilitated meetings with recently released immigrants, as well as family members, who provided powerful accounts of the ongoing human rights violations within the NWIPC, and of the devastating impact immigration detention has on families and communities.
The Commission examined outside the facility and heard the environmental concerns that impact detention conditions, and received input from various NGOs, advocates and academics, who all called for terminating the federal contract with GEO corporation and closing the NWIPC due to the abysmal conditions at the facility over the last several years. The Commission also met with Washington State elected officials to discuss the challenges associated with ending immigration detention at NWIPC.
Global Rights Advocacy, La Resistencia, and Seattle University International Human Rights Clinic welcomes the Commission’s ongoing commitment to monitor the grave situation at the NWIPC, in implementation of our protection order. We continue to call on the US federal government to address the following at the NWIPC: deaths in custody, medical neglect, prolonged detention, widespread use of solitary confinement, restricted communications, suicide attempts, use of force by GEO agents, and retaliation for complaints. In addition, we asked the Inter-American Commission to establish a follow-up mechanism to facilitate the conversation to shut down the NWDC and free all immigrants detained there, starting with those the IACHR visited.
Global Rights Advocacy (GRA), a nonprofit providing international human rights defense, has been documenting human rights abuses at NWIPC and reporting to the UN and IACHR since 2015 alongside with the International Human Rights Clinic of Seattle University International School of Law, and La Resistencia, a grassroots organization led by undocumented immigrants affected by immigration enforcement.
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