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Immigrants in For-Profit ICE Jail Launch Hunger Strike as Coronavirus Spreads

HeadlineMay 21, 2020

In Alvarado, Texas, 11 immigrants imprisoned at the Prairieland Detention Center have filed a class-action lawsuit against ICE demanding their release, after at least 45 people at the for-profit jail tested positive for the coronavirus. The prisoners say ICE is continuing to transfer immigrants to other facilities across the country, risking the spread of COVID-19 from one ICE jail to another.

In Arizona, 14 immigrants held at the Florence Detention Center near Phoenix have started a hunger strike to protest dire conditions inside the privately owned ICE jail. This is one of the Florence hunger strikers.

Hunger striker: “There are 14 people infected here, and they have been sent to the hole. The sick ones are sent to the hole. … We started the hunger strike today. The time to stop will be when they release us in boxes. They will have to take us out in boxes, because we no longer believe in them.”

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