Santa Ana Hunger Strike Calling for End of City's ICE Contract Enters Second Day
Updated: Sep 1, 2020
A hunger strike that vows to continue until Santa Ana stops renting out its city jail to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enters its second day today. A visit to the encampment at Sasscer Park in downtown hours into the fast showed three determined activists from Familia:Trans Queer Liberation Movement and Orange County Immigrant Youth United (OCIYU) ready to do what it takes. Their big, colorful banners read "Liberation not deportation" and "End all detentions." The hunger strikers are prepared to go without eating for a least a week, if not longer. Jennicet Gutierrez of Familia and OCIYU's Deyaneira are first-time fasters. Jorge Gutierrez, also with Familia, has gone the distance before. He refused food for 15 days during a hunger strike at Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein's Los Angeles office in a protest aimed at passing the DREAM Act. Much has changed in the realm of immigrant rights activism since then, but the deportations continue. So, too, does Santa Ana's decade-old contract with ICE renting jail bed space for $105 per day.
Read more on my latest OC Weekly Navel Gazing Blog post:
http://www.ocweekly.com/news/santa-ana-hunger-strike-calling-for-end-of-citys-ice-contract