Mothers Demonstrate at Migrant Detention Center in Texas

           Nadia Prupis     April 2, 2015    Common Dreams

Demonstrators outside the Detention Center

About 40 women being held at the privately-run Karnes Family Detention Center in southern Texas launched a hunger strike this week to demand their release and the release of their families, vowing on Tuesday not to eat, work, or use the services at the facility until they are freed.

Nearly 80 women being held at the center, many of whom are said to be asylum seekers from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, signed a letter stating that they have all been refused bond despite having established a credible fear of violence if they are sent back to Central America—a key factor in the U.S. government's process for screening detained immigrants to allow them amnesty.

"We deserve to be treated with some dignity and that our rights, to the immigration process, are respected," the letter reads. "You should know that this is just the beginning and we will not stop [the hunger strike] until we achieve our goals. This strike will continue until each of us is freed."

The letter also states that many of the children held in the camp are losing weight and that their "health is deteriorating." Many of the families have been detained for as long as 10 months.

One woman, 26-year old Honduran mother Kenia Galeano, decried the center's treatment of the families in a phone interview with McClatchy on Tuesday. "We’re many mothers, not just me," she said. "We want freedom for our children. It’s not right to continue to detain us."

Galeano, who shares a room with three other mothers and their children, also said that her two-year-old son has become depressed and lost weight due to the culturally inappropriate food.

According to the letter, some of the mothers were also left behind in the detention center, while their children were granted bond. "We have come to this country, with our children, seeking refugee status and we are being treated like delinquents," the letter reads. "We are not delinquents nor do we pose any threat to this country."

Karnes, which is run by the private corrections company GEO Group, has come under fire in the past for its treatment of the children who are detained there, with reports of weight loss and forced separation from their mothers, but the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department has denied those allegations.

ICE also claimed it was unaware of any residents actually participating in the strike, saying in a statement on Wednesday that the agency "fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference, and all detainees, including those in family residential facilities such as Karnes, are permitted to do so."

It also said it was investigating claims that members of a nonprofit advocacy group encouraged the women to take part in the hunger strike—a charge which activists deny.

Cristina Parker, immigration programs director at the Texas-based immigrant rights group Grassroots Leadership, told the Guardian on Tuesday, "This is something that has been rippling through the centre almost since it opened. I don’t believe at all that they were coached into doing this."

According to Parker, the center is now blocking access to internet and telephone facilities for all of its detainees, regardless of whether they are participating in the hunger strike.

At least two women who signed the letter were also placed into isolation with their children in Karnes's clinic, leading about half of those who initially pledged to take part in the hunger strike to drop out, according to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.

Johana De Leon, a legal assistant with the nonprofit, told McClatchy that other mothers were warned they could lose custody of their children if they participated.

In addition to its mistreatment of children, Karnes has also been accused of sexual misconduct by guards and denial of critical medical care for detainees, among other charges. The Department of Homeland Security inspector general reported in February that there was no evidence to support the allegations.

[Nadia Prupis is a Common Dreams staff writer.]

Palestinian Prisoner's Hunger Strikes

Protesters hold pictures of Palestinian prisoner Hana al-Shalabi, on hunger strike for three weeks [EPA]

Ramallah, West Bank - It began with Khader Adnan's sudden and bold declaration:  "My dignity is more important than my life." And with that he refused food for the next 66 days. With each day he persisted,  more and more people around the world were riveted to this man's brave  confrontation of Israel's draconian policy of administrative detention. But  perhaps more significantly, Palestinians from all political parties - as well  as no political party - united and rallied together in support of this man and  against Israel's unfair treatment of Palestinian prisoners. Now, Hana al-Shalabi approaches the completion of her third week on  hunger strike. Like Adnan, Shalabi, 29, is protesting administrative detention,  torture and humiliation at the hands of Israeli soldiers. These individuals represent not just the 300 Palestinians currently in  administrative detention, or the over 5,000 Palestinians still in Israeli prisons.  They exemplify and speak for all Palestinians in a way that no politician or  political party has been able to do for a long time. The authorities of the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been simultaneously  vying for power while nominally trying to "reconcile" the occupied land's  divisions. Meanwhile, Adnan and Shalabi have galvanised Palestinian support  across party lines. "She really makes me want to join the revolution again," said one young man,  a former fighter in the Al-Aqsa Brigade, who is now working for the Palestinian  Authority's security forces. Shalabi began her strike as soon as she was detained by Israeli forces on  February 16. She was already well-acquainted with the cruelty of administrative  detention, which allows Israel to hold Palestinians indefinitely without charge or  evidence. Shalabi had recently spent over two years under that status and was  released last October in the prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel. The PA's ability to convince the population of its legitimacy is at an all-time low.  Contrary to the fantasies spun about the West Bank's prosperity, people in  Palestine are destitute. The cost of living has never been higher: gas, electricity  and food prices have skyrocketed, and food insecurity among the population is  estimated at 40 per cent. On top of that, a cash-strapped government - with over $1bn in debt and unfulfilled  loans - is speaking of raising taxes and slashing more services. The dissatisfaction  with the PA's performance has ignited protests in all West Bank cities and prompted  even some Fatah supporters to speak of it being time to dissolve the PA. In Gaza, the state of affairs is even grimmer, due to the six-year siege imposed on  the coastal enclave. An acute power crisis threatens a "collapse of essential  services". Hospitals are close to running out of the necessary power to operate,  the amount of available drinking water has dropped by 60 per cent and food prices  are surging. Over the past six months, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas government  have had their moments of glory. President Abbas generated short-lived exhilaration  when he took his bid for statehood to the United Nations last September and Hamas  was highly praised when it secured the release of over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners  released in exchange for Israeli corporal-turned-sergeant Gilad Shalit. But these political manoeuvres are intended and only serve to defend politicians' positions  and spheres of power in the midst of an internecine conflict over control, rather than  mobilise a national resistance movement. In the meantime, Israel has quietly escalated its colonisation and tightened its control  over occupied Palestinian territories. In February alone, 380 Palestinians were arrested,  158 individuals were displaced and 825 olive trees were uprooted by Israeli forces.  Those numbers do not even speak to the significant uptick in vandalism and attacks by  settlers and the deaths and injuries suffered by Gazans from continued aerial bombardments. The status quo in Palestine is becoming less bearable for more people and the current  leadership has proven unable or unwilling to challenge it. But then again, Israel is not the  only power at risk of losing its relevance. As Mourad Jadallah, a legal researcher with Addameer, a prisoners' rights organisation in  Ramallah, told Asa Winstanly in an interview: "Why did the Palestinian media and the  Palestinian Authority ignore Khader Adnan and his hunger strike? Because he's  [affiliated with] Islamic Jihad? Or because he's taking the memory back to the days when  the prisoners were leading the national resistance?" Khader Adnan and Hana al Shalabi have reinvigorated resistance and raised the long-flagging  morale of people on the streets. This is a dramatic testament to the adage that change can  only come from below - so maybe it's time we stop looking to the top. Charlotte Silver is a journalist based in the West Bank, Palestine.  She is Editor at The Palestine Monitor and a graduate of Stanford University. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily  reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy. from Al Jazeera