Back in the United States, in Washington state, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a jailed Mexican immigrant who says he was beaten and put into solitary for joining a hunger strike. Jesus Chavez Flores is one of 120 immigrants detained by ICE at the Northwest Detention Center who went on a hunger strike to protest conditions at the facility, which is run by the private for-profit GEO Group. Flores was able to record a video message after he was beaten.
Jesus Chavez Flores: “They hit my friend in Unit C-3. They hit me, and they hit another friend, Benito Vasquez. When the guard comes toward me, I’m afraid to encounter him. It’s a guard that when I pass him in the hall, I feel fear, because he is a rough person who should not be working here in these centers, because they are here to take care of us, not to beat us. Just look at how he left my eye.”