Residents of Berks Count
Residents of Berks County, Pennsylvania, and the Shut Down Berks Coalition won a partial victory in late November last year when the Biden administration agreed to permanently close the county detention centre by January 31, 2023. The facility, which has housed families and children since 2001 and was known for its abuse, sexual assault and inhumane conditions, currently holds around 40 women, though ICE has stated that any detainees whose cases are not determined by the January deadline will be transferred to a different prison, not released. . In response, advocates for the Shut Down Berks Coalition are calling on the White House and ICE to use their discretion and release all the women at the centre by the end of the month.
Shut Down Berks Coalition
“The Shut Down Berks Coalition celebrates the announced closure as a great victory but stands firm in once again demanding the immediate release of the women from this prison,” organizers wrote in a statement. “The fight to close the Berks Detention Center is not over until all the women are free.”
Berks County
Coalition members, immigrant families, and Berks County residents thought they had won a victory two years ago, on February 26, 2021, when the Biden administration began emptying the Berks County Detention Center. However, in September 2021 the administration backtracked on its campaign. he vowed to shut down the infamous facility. Instead, the administration reached an agreement with Berks County commissioners to reopen, reuse and increase bed space to detain immigrant women.
Berks County
“Closing the detention centre here in Berks County finally ends years of trauma inflicted on immigrants in our communities,” said Celine Schrier, local organizer for Berks Stands Up. “It couldn’t have happened without direct action and the leadership of detainees there and in other facilities in the United States. Now we must make sure that anyone detained is released to their family, and it is up to us at Berks to make sure that the centre is transformed into a true public service that meets the needs of our community.”
Since January
Since January 2022, Berks has incarcerated up to 65 women at a time. In 2014, a staff member was convicted of raping a 19-year-old mother. According to Adrianna Torres-García, program coordinator for the Free Migration Project, the Berks women also reported having less time to go outdoors and were repeatedly subjected to makeshift bed checks overnight. They also reported that they received very little food, and what they were served made them sick. For many, the detention centre’s closure marks the end of the facility’s reign of abuse.
Berks Detention Center
“This victory feels like a dream,” said CASA member Liliana Pérez. “I feel happy, content and free. Closing the Berks Detention Center is the best thing that could have happened. I spent more than a month in detention and my sick daughter was never cared for or given the medicine she needed while I was in prison. This detention centre caused a lot of suffering and I am very happy to see it finally closed. The same freedom that I have [now] it should be given to other immigrants in Pennsylvania and across the country.”
Shut Down Berks Coalition
On December 21, members of the Shut Down Berks Coalition rallied outside the ICE Philadelphia field office to demand the release of the remaining incarcerated women at the facility. While organizers see the closure of the facility as a victory for immigrant communities in Berks and beyond, they are still fighting to ensure it is not used as a site to inflict more violence against immigrants or imprison more people.
Andy Kang
“We celebrate this news with our community leaders as validation of the power of organizing and persistence,” said Andy Kang, executive director of the Pennsylvania Citizenship and Immigration Coalition. “We look forward to building on this momentum to reach our next goal of ending all immigration detention in Pennsylvania.”
Culled from Primreports
