As we all feel compelled to get involved, please join me in a discourse on the following…
Stop marching downtown, focus on where ICE actually conducts their business:
Demand Tacoma City Council revoke GEO Group’s business license
Make WA a leader in abolishing for-profit prisons
Hold law enforcement accountable
ICE FIELD OFFICE (Tukwila)
12500 Tukwila International Blvd, 4th Floor
Disrupt operations and focus your protests here.
This is the command center. The people who plan raids, issue orders, and coordinate deportations for Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. When they can’t work, their activity slows.
Hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm (closed weekends)
Who’s inside: ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations staff, Federal Protective Service police
ICE is on the 4th floor. South entrance/exit was blocked by protests in June.
Already happening every Friday: Southend Indivisible hosts 9am-10:30am outside the Tukwila ICE office. You’re not starting from zero, join them, and tell your friends. Make it every day.
Organize and coordinate demands at your local protests, then bring them to ICE’s front door. Check seattle-protests.org for events happening near you.
NORTHWEST DETENTION CENTER (Tacoma)
1623 E J St, Tacoma
1,575 people are locked inside right now. 71% of people detained have no criminal record.
Parking is available on J Street in front of the facility.
Obama focused on deportation, Trump has heavily invested in detention. Who profits from that? Do you approve of the $45 Billion dollars in the big beautiful bill to be spent on prisons for immigrants? (your tax dollars) Do you know these prisons are also publicly traded companies whose top shareholders are the biggest wealth management groups in the world? These prisons fundamentally should not exist. Across the country, men, women, children, families, people like Liam Ramos, asylum seekers and the like are being held. For profit. These facilities exist to make money, not to make anyone safer.
Government contracts are going through renewal. The government is preparing to sign a new contract with lower oversight standards… for a facility that’s already facing serious complaints about conditions. The new contract would use the 226 page National Detention Standards instead of the current 475 page Performance Based National Detention Standards. Tell your community leaders you want it shut down. Demand Action to revoke GEO Group’s business license.
LaResistencia has been coordinating efforts here for a decade, with deep roots in the community, led by people directly affected by the detention system. They’re the go-to local organization for NWDC protests.
It is because of their work that WA passed a law HB1090 (2021) prohibiting for-profit private prisons and detention centers. This law was declared unenforceable by federal court.
LASTLY: Now is also the time to plan for a GENERAL STRIKE
If you can’t afford to stop working, do what you can. If you can afford to stop, stop. Every hour you’re not producing is an hour of pressure. Join the general strike movement. And Don’t buy anything you don’t absolutely NEED! Every dollar withheld is pressure.
If the only thing our politicians care about is money, hit them where it hurts. Rely on your community networks and get serious. Starve the machine. Each of us can’t do EVERYTHING, but each of us can do SOMETHING.
700 businesses closed in Minneapolis on Friday. We can do the same. Pick a day. Coordinate with your workplace.
You don’t have to be a soldier. Our power is in our OVERWHELMING numbers. Talk to each other. Talk to your representatives. Join existing movements and build their momentum. The only thing you can’t do… is nothing.
If you choose to exercise your right to assemble at the aforementioned locations, to protest, to speak, to film, don’t be naive:
Protect your head, your eyes, your ears, your mouth.
If you protest, wear a helmet, mask, goggles and earplugs at the minimum.
DONT BRING YOUR KIDS. Don’t bring anything you can’t afford to lose.
Bring a charged phone and write any phone numbers you might need on your arm in sharpie.
Bring water and snacks to share in case you’re stuck out there a while.
Plan transportation. Be prepared to walk (or run)
Plan rotating groups within the protest to bring in supplies when needed.
Most importantly, TALK TALK TALK to each other. Build up your network and rely on your brothers and sisters to join you, to help you.
NLG Seattle Jail Support: 206-658-7963 (206-OK-TRY-ME)
King County Public Defender: 206-477-8899
If arrested, say: “I am going to remain silent. I want a lawyer.”
Change is coming America. It’s not coming from a leader, a speaker, a politician. It’s coming from you, and me, the people, right now, in this pivotal moment.
This is not symbolic. This is operational. We show Governor Ferguson, Tacoma City Council, and all our elected officials, that we don’t support any federal law enforcement agency acting above the law.
An injustice to one is an injustice to us all. Increase the public pressure to hold ICE accountable and end for-profit immigration detention. Take the fight to their door.
Power concedes nothing without a demand!
submitted by /u/Mangoforestguardian
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