Labor Strikes Melt I.C.E.
By Giselle Garcia ’23, Legal Fellow for the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies
Today, the United States has an incarcerated immigrant population of 35,589. 69 percent of this population has no criminal history with many having only minor offenses. California is home to six privately-owned and operated for-profit immigrant detention facilities housing an average daily population rate of 1,920 immigrants. Immigrants forced to work in these facilities are using direct action to fight against inhumane treatment.
Owned by longtime I.C.E. contractor Geo Group, the Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex (GSA) facilities in California are at the center of a labor strike and lawsuit by immigrants seeking to challenge forced labor and their $1 daily pay rate. In April 2022, incarcerated immigrant workers at Mesa Verde went on labor strike, followed by workers at GSA in June 2022. The workers made eight demands including a $15 hourly minimum wage, proper health care, appropriate food provisions, and livable conditions that include access to potable water.
A UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy research report found a vast number of human rights violations occurring at Mesa Verde and GSA. According to the report, the lack of protective gear has resulted in chemical burns and fungus on the hands of many incarcerated immigrants. Additionally, immigrants are forced to work overtime for $1 per day and cannot afford necessities such as soap or phone calls. In practice, immigrant prisons operate forced labor programs because individuals who refuse to participate in a work assignment are subject to retaliation including write-ups, solitary confinement, phone call and visitation denials, and violent transfers.
Ten months after initiating the strike, 77 incarcerated immigrants launched a hunger strike for better work and living conditions. Immigrants faced violent retaliation from I.C.E. and Geo Group officers in an effort to break the hunger strike, which included physical violence inflicted by guards and forced feeding. Retaliation forced participants to temporarily halt the hunger strike after a month, but Gustavo, one of the strikers, says the fight is not over:
Our protest was always peaceful, and as days passed, ICE’s response became more violent. It is terrifying to know that at any moment ICE can disconnect the phones, leaving us without any communication to the outside, and do whatever they want to us. It got to a point where we couldn't continue our protest without the fear of significant harm. We are grateful that in the moments where we were shut out, people on the outside amplified our voices. It is powerful to witness the love and compassion grow from a place that is inherently violent. Our fight for freedom will continue.
The Mesa Verde and GSA labor strikes are not isolated events. In fact, immigrants at these facilities were inspired by other movements in immigration prisons across the country, including a major victory in Washington where a District Court ordered Geo Group to pay $17.3 million in backpay to former and currently incarcerated immigrants for wage theft. Since they are awaiting civil, and not criminal, proceedings, the court reasoned they are entitled to protection under state labor laws that include minimum wage.
Like the penal system’s carceral labor model, I.C.E. prisons employ slavery and poor conditions to offset operational costs and generate profit. People held in these prisons are using tried and true methods—withholding labor and collective bargaining—to assert their humanity and improve conditions. These, combined with legal advocacy, are powerful strategies used by subordinated communities to fight inhumane treatment.