Nearly 40 GEO Adelanto Detention Facility ICE Detainees Involved in a Hunger Strike

ADELANTO – Nearly 40 detainees at the Geo Detention Center in the City of Adelanto are on a hunger strike seeking what appears to be basic human rights. The nine original detainees were accused of no crime other than seeking refuge in the United States, there is no information regarding the additional 30 female inmates who just joined the hunger strike on Wednesday morning. The detainees are seeking political asylum and better detention conditions.

The original nine, called the #Adelanto9 began their hunger strike on Monday, June 12, 2017, at 5:30 a.m. The nine detainees include Isaac Lopez Castillo, Marvin Grande Rodriguez, Alexander Burgos Mejia, Jose Cortez Diaz, Omar Rivera Martinez, Luis Peña Garcia, Julio Barahona Cornejo, Josue Lemus Campos, Julio Valladares Jimenez. “We are from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala,” said the Adelanto 9 through spokesman Isaac Lopez Castillo. “We ask for your attention, because Adelanto is one of the prisons which exists for those who are seeking political asylum, and in reality our records are clean, none of us have prior criminal records. The bond is set impossibly high, and it’s a humiliating joke because we are poor, we don’t have that kind of money.”

According to Sureñxs En Acció, a Nashville-based migrant liberation collective organizing against immigrant detention, state violence, and for-profit prisons, at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, June 12, 2017, those who were part of the hunger strike were assaulted by guards, drenched in pepper spray, handcuffed, beaten, and placed in high-security isolation. “The retaliation that the #Adelanto9 endured as a result of their hunger strike is a shameful attempt to suppress efforts to expose the shocking realities of immigration detention from those inside,” said Tristan Call of Sureñxs En Acción. “The abusive lengths to which GEO has gone are appalling and endanger the well-being of those on hunger strike.”

On the morning of Wednesday, June 14, 2017, the additional 30 female detainees joined the hunger strike. “They will not eat until ICE officials respond to the demands and meet to negotiate,” said Call in a phone call with a 24/7 Headline News reporter Wednesday. “They would like to meet with those from ICE because they have the ability to make the decisions on the changes they are seeking.”

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The detainees are asking for bonds set fairly for all prisoners, political asylum, new uniforms; mostly underwear which are being issued used leaving detainees concerned for their health. They are also asking for more time for religious services, that the personal belongings of detainees is not thrown away, paperwork provided in the native language of the detainees, clean water 24 hours a day, better food and those on hunger strike are asking to be released on their own recognizance. The detainees said to this point they have been receiving only English paperwork, which they have been unable to understand. They also said that they have been denied their right to political asylum, which falls under the United Nations Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The detainees, like others before them are also citing humiliation, discrimination, bad food, and incompetence of medical staff.

Tristan Call told 24/7 Headline News that at this time the detention is indefinite and has no set limit. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said on Wednesday that the 30 female inmates never did refuse food and all of the other detainees have since stopped refusing meals.