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April 20, 2020

Immigrant Prisoners at Otay Mesa Launch Hunger Strike, Denounce Inhumane Treatment
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Dozens of immigrant prisoners at the privately owned Otay Mesa Detention
Center near San Diego began a hunger strike this weekend over mounting
concerns about their safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Otay Mesa now
has the largest coronavirus outbreak of any immigration jail in the
United States. Last week, reports emerged of Otay Mesa guards
pepper-spraying a group of women in one of the holding units for
refusing to sign a contract reportedly protecting Core Civic from
liability if immigrants became sick, in exchange for face masks. This is
a phone call between an activist with the immigration rights group
Pueblos Sin Fronteras and a woman detained at Otay Mesa held in the unit
that was pepper-sprayed.

Asylum seeker: "They are throwing pepper spray at us! They do not
respect us. We are humans, not animals. Help! They want to force us to
sign documents so that we throw away the masks. They want to charge us
for T-shirts we used to make the masks."

In more immigration news, dozens of people held a rally outside a prison
for immigrant youth in Chicago Saturday demanding they release detained
children. The Heartland Alliance facility houses nearly 70 children
separated from their parents on the U.S.-Mexico border, and as of last
week confirmed some 37 children have tested positive for COVID-19. In
recent days, images have emerged of youth inside displaying signs at the
facility's windows that read "HELP."


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