On Sept. 21, I joined a group 30 organizers and activists to block deportation busses from leaving the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, an action led by the NWDC Resistance Coalition.
I realized — locking arms with fellow women of color, queer and trans activists — that we were standing on the front lines of climate and gender injustice. At this year’s People’s Climate March tomorrow, standing together at the intersection of these issues will be more important than ever.
Now on the heels of GEO Group’s 10-year contract renewal, NWDC is one of the largest immigration prisons in the country. Up to 200 people, mostly women, are transferred from the U.S.-Mexico border to the detention center each month. Recently, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has gotten flack for disproportionately placing transgender detainees in solitary confinement.
According to a recent Fusion report, more than 300 people are in solitary confinement in ICE custody every night, 75 of whom are trans detainees. While transgender women only make up one out of 500 detained immigrants in this country, they make up an alarming one out of every five confirmed sexual assaults in immigration detention.