Community rallies as another fire endangers detainees at Tacoma ICE Detention Center

Tacoma, WA – On Saturday morning November 30, about 30 people gathered outside the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in the port of Tacoma for a routine trash pickup. As the cleanup began however, community members expressed surprise to see multiple fire trucks and other emergency vehicles rapidly approaching the building.

Local organizers from Climate Alliance of the South Sound (CASS) and La Resistencia (LR) quickly responded by running to the yard to ask detainees what was going on, but armed GEO (the security firm contracted to run the facility) guards forced the detainees back into the building. Reviewing the local police scanner revealed that the building was on fire.

“GEO employees were running outside and being evacuated. They are scared. But what happened to the other people, our people, who are still inside? “ said Rufina Reyes of LR. “We are not animals, we are people! We need to shut this place down as soon as possible.”

After the arrival of the Tacoma Fire Department, the event turned into an impromptu rally, with song, speeches, and chants including “Power to the people! No one is illegal!”

This is the second fire at the NWDC this year that LR is aware of. Both times detainees were forced back into the burning building from the recreation yard. The last fire occurred just days after detainee Charles Leo Daniel committed suicide. Daniel was in solitary confinement for four years leading up to his death.

Before this, the cleanup event had gone as planned. Programming started with words from local Puyallup Water Warrior, Dakota Case, who welcomed the crowd to the occupied Puyallup land. “The Puyallup People, we’re thankful. We’re thankful that you guys are out here doing that work today.” The land the NWDC is built on is part of Case’s ancestors’ original allotment.

Case continued, “It’s people like us that have that mindset that we can do better – we gotta give back to this land, we gotta give back to these waters, we gotta give back to the salmon.”

The cleanup was part of ongoing protests and vigils at the NWDC. The NWDC is built on top of stolen land that was turned into a Superfund site, made so polluted by industry that it is, according to the EPA, no longer fit for human habitation. Yet, thousands of people are forced to live there for years at a time, being exposed to unknown levels of toxic chemicals that wash into the yard.

“I’ve known people inside this place, and they all say it’s horrible,” said Tiny Casado, a Teamster at the UPS port of Tacoma hub. “I want to go inside and visit, but I’m afraid. Even though I have papers, I’m afraid that because I’m a Chicano who lived in Mexico that I’ll get deported just for stepping foot inside.”

Local organizations like Climate Alliance of the South Sound, La Resistencia, Native Daily Network, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and many others have formed a coalition dedicated to fighting environmental inequality in Tacoma. This coalition is called Climate Catastrophe Ground Zero and this event was the first of many similar cleanups which are planned.

“Obviously we’re not going to hear from ICE and GEO what happened, we’re going to have to fight to learn what happened,” said Maru Mora Villalpando of LR.

The workers in the Tacoma fire department were able to contain and extinguish the fire. The extent of the damage and impact on detainees is still being assessed.

#TacomaWA #ICE #NorthwestDetentionCenter #NWDC