500 fathers in immigration detention are going on a hunger strike

[babylonsister]

500 fathers in immigration detention are going on a hunger strike
Reunited families are “desperate” to be freed — even if it means deportation.
By Dara [e-mail] Aug 2, 2018, 9:40am EDT


Five hundred fathers being held in an immigration detention facility in Texas after reunification with their children announced a hunger strike Wednesday, out of frustration and despair over being “restrained from our freedom as human beings,” as one father put it.

News of the strike was made public Wednesday by the Texas advocacy and legal services group RAICES; the fathers planned to begin the strike that day, though RAICES could not confirm whether the strike had actually started as planned. (ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment.)

The fathers involved in the strike planned to sit down in three public “patio” areas within the Karnes Residential Facility, one of the family detention centers in Texas in which reunited families are being held, and refuse food. Their children have also agreed to a modified strike in which they refuse to participate in activities.

According to RAICES, the parents are striking to urge the government to “expedite” their cases. But in recordings and transcripts distributed by RAICES, the fathers appear simply to be frustrated by being stuck in a detention facility with no idea what’s going to happen to them next. “We don’t know anything,” one Guatemalan father, Olivio, said. “We are incarcerated in here and there’s not much we can do, so now we are all planning to gather in the patio and wait to see what happens.”

more...

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/2/17641208/immigrant-strike-detention-families-separation

[MaryMagdaline]

1. We're not worthy of these immigrants

Fathers desperate for their kids.☹️

[babylonsister]

2. You are right. nt