The Shut Down Berks Coalition reflects on the past year and expresses hope for 2021

BY LAURA ANAYA-MORGA ON FEBRUARY 11, 2021

The Shut Down Berks coalition held multiple demonstrations outside of the detention center in the year 2020, including car caravans and prayer vigils. (Courtesy of the Shut Down Berks Coalition)

Two Haitian families facing imminent violence in their home countries, 28 migrant children and their parents seeking asylum in the U.S., and a global pandemic travelling through immigration detention centers have fueled the continued fight for members of the Shut Down Berks Coalition to end family separation and ultimately close down the Berks County Family Detention Center (Berks) in Pennsylvania.

In 2020, the Shut Down Berks Coalition continued to advocate for the immediate release of multiple families being currently held at Berks. Despite the challenges to demonstrate publicly and host in-person events posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, its members reflect on a year full of challenges and victories.

Berks is one of three detention centers in the country where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains families seeking asylum. Berks, along with the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas and the Karnes County Residential Center in Karnes City, Texas, are currently detaining some of the 14,195 people in immigration detention centers across the U.S., according to ICE. These centers were in place before the Trump administration, but some argue that immigration policy has gotten increasingly more xenophobic since 2016 — especially with former President Donald Trump’s extended immigration ban that blocks many “green card” applicants and temporary foreign workers from entering the country. Upon his inauguration, President Joe Biden promised to tear down many of Trump's policies and enacted a 100-day deportation ban on deportations, but that was later denied by a federal judge and Texas officials. Family detention and these policies have reignited public outcry, with many organizations teaming up to demand the termination of these detention centers.

Immigrants rights activists have viewed the butterfly as a symbol of peaceful migration for many years. (Artwork courtesy of Meg Lemieur)

Mike Ishii, co-leader and co-founder of Tsuru for Solidarity, said in an interview with ¡Presente! Media that his organization became involved with the coalition over a year ago when it became clear that they were detaining Haitian families at Berks. Tsuru for Solidarity is a progressive network of Japanese American social justice advocates who are speaking up in opposition to the detention of people coming to the United States. Ishii stated that as part of the coalition, they have worked with multiple activist, faith based and legal organizations such as Make The Road Pennsylvania, the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, Haitian Bridge Alliance, ALDEA and the Free Migration Project throughout the year. Together they have provided support and solidarity for the families currently detained at Berks through demonstrations outside of government buildings, virtual prayer vigils, car caravan protests and social media to demand that ICE stop deporting Black immigrants and immigrants of color. Adrianna Torres-Garcia from Free Migration Project told ¡Presente! that camaraderie with the families has been important for them. Maintaining good relationships with them and understanding their situations has allowed the coalition to be proper advocates.

This past holiday season, the Shut Down Berks Coalition has been advocating for the immediate release of 28 children and their families from Berks and the South Texas Family Residential Center who refused to be separated despite the imminent threat of COVID-19. The families, whose time in detention was reaching over 15 months, lost an appeal in federal court for the right to claim asylum in the U.S. under the Trump administration policies that have since been ruled unlawful. However, since many of them were ordered to be deported under the prior unlawful policies, ICE is now moving quickly to rush their deportations. Some of the first flights out for those families were scheduled for as early as Dec. 18, 2020. The coalition hosted multiple car caravans and protests in opposition to the rushed deportations of the families that would only return them to the violence they fled and likely result in their death upon return, known by advocates as death flights. The issue caught the attention of various government officials including Democratic Senators Bob Casey and Cory Booker, as well as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and various members of Congress, who asked that the family's asylum claims be heard in court.

Families seeking asylum often flee violence in their home countries 

In a press release issued in November, the coalition highlighted the experience and testimony of many children currently being detained. One child, Juan David, 11, said, “I am detained with my mom. The 27th of this month, we will complete 15 months of detention. They asked me why I am afraid to return to my country. I’m afraid that the gangsters will hurt me, that they will kill me and my mom. That’s why I ask God to soften the hearts of the asylum officers and that I can go live with my aunt and uncle in New York... I want to have a normal life, make friends, go to a normal school, be with my family, living a normal life. Here, I always have a headache and anxiety.” 

Another child in detention, 10-year-old Naydi said, “I don’t want to be here for another Christmas, in this place where we can’t play freely. Please help me and my mom to leave this place and be able to spend Christmas with my family in North Carolina.”

After temporary stays of removal were lifted, ICE officials began planning to deport 26 families being held in Berks County on Friday, Dec. 18. 

The coalition’s focus has always been on uplifting and highlighting the stories of the families that are currently detained, keeping them at the forefront of their activism. Organizers shared the story of two Haitian families who are in serious danger of being deported and have been detained for over 8 months. One family, husband and wife, were university students in Haiti before seeking asylum in the U.S. In Haiti, the husband was attacked, beaten and left to possibly die but was able to escape to Chile in hopes of seeking a better life for himself and his wife who was pregnant at the time. Chile has been a leading destination for Haitian migrants, having the largest number of Haitian immigrants outside of the U.S. As a result, Black Haitians have been subject to xenophobia, anti-Black racism and violence, as anti-immigrant sentiments have continued to increase globally. 

This family’s struggle with racism and discrimination was no different. While in Chile, the husband received word that his wife had also been attacked and sexually abused back home, and as a result, lost her baby. The wife was able to join her husband shortly after where they faced even more anti-Blackness and violence. When the wife became pregnant again and was ready to give birth, the hospital they went to in Chile refused to provide services to them and the wife had her baby in the streets before finding a medical facility that would provide care. Their landlord in Chile also refused to renew their lease, forcing them to leave and make the journey to the U.S. where they would cross through mountains and jungle environments in South and Central America to be given the chance to seek asylum. Upon arrival, the family was detained in San Ysidro, California for 6 days and kept in a freezing holding cell, commonly referred to by detainees as an “icebox” or hielera. In the icebox, they were denied any type of basic hygiene, showers or toothbrushes. After being transferred to Berks, the family has continued to be barred from proper medical care and any chance of release. The father and husband describes the feeling of being stuck in immigration detention as being in a canoe in the middle of the ocean with no control or sense of direction.

The wife and mother of a second Haitian family detained at Berks had been seeking care for a tumor in her breast for six months before being given access to surgery. After surgery, she was placed in solitary confinement away from her family for 30 days, despite testing negative for COVID-19 and has since been complaining of a different pain in her head. While the mother was in solitary confinement, her child also became sick and refused to eat.

Guerline Joseph, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, who has been working with the coalition to serve as a first responder for the Haitian families being detained, stated that the families are being discouraged from receiving any type of medical care inside the facilities. Families have been afraid to ask for help because they will be placed on a strict 14-day quarantine after doing so, which she says is a tactic being used by ICE to deter them from seeking medical attention.

Members of the Shut Down Berks coalition have expressed concern over the conditions of the detention centers as COVID-19 cases surge throughout the country. While families are forced to quarantine for 14-days after going anywhere outside of the facility for medical care, guards are able to interact with detainees on a daily basis. “The families don't have full access to bathrooms or showering. So there's no ability to socially distance or to keep yourself clean and hygienic during a pandemic…people are moved around from detention site to detention site, and they don't test,” stated Ishii. 

He added that another Haitian family that was recently transferred to Berks had tested positive for coronavirus and was held in quarantine, and at least one staff member has tested positive as well. In a sworn statement provided by the coalition from a man currently detained at Berks, he stated, “Inside the facility, no one wears gloves or masks. We never had any meeting with any of the staff explaining what the situation regarding COVID-19 is, we only learn what is going on from the TV news. On the TV there seems to be a lot of panic and concern, great steps being taken, but not here in the facility.”

Members of the Shut Down Berks Coalition advocate for the immediate release of families held at Berks. (Courtesy of the Shut Down Berks Coalition)

‘Cautiously hopeful’ for the future

As the new year unfolds, the Shut Down Berks Coalition continues to advocate for the immediate release of the detained families and are calling on Governor Tom Wolf to grant an emergency removal order (ERO), closing down the center as a whole and fulfilling the promises he had made when he ran for office. Many organizers claim that Wolf refuses to utilize his power and advocate for the coalition publicly while expressing his support in private conversations.

Organizers reflect proudly on a 2020 full of rallies and demonstrations to show the families that they are not alone in their fight. Immigrant rights organizers enter the new year cautiously hopeful that progressive change will happen with the Biden administration. Family detention centers were “started under the Obama administration, weaponized under the Trump administration and turned into something really heinous and evil,” stated Ishii. He added that now it is up to President Biden to reverse some of the damage that was done. The coalition continues to collect signatures in a petition calling on Biden to end all immigrant detention and deportations and has been laying out calls to his administration through social media action.

“We started the year feeling actually really like, you know, we had built a lot of power around this…and then here we are at the end of the year where the families are even in more danger,” stated Shut Down Berks Coalition member Sarah Chudnovsky. She stated that while she is not certain that Biden will be the saving grace on the issue of family separation, she is hopeful that he will respond to the pressure being placed on him by advocates and organizations like the Shut Down Berks Coalition. “Change will come only through people being empowered to not just wait for elected officials to save us from these problems,” said Chudnovsky.

Members of the coalition have come together from many organizations across PA but one goal unites them all, to shut down Berks, and eventually end family separation and detention in the U.S.