Middlesex County Detainees Protest Death in Detention and Petition to End System

More than ninety detainees being held at the Middlesex County Correction Center have signed a petition in protest of the recent death (March 2nd) of fellow-detainee Arturo Alvarez owing to medical neglect. The signers are all immigrants who are detained pending review of their deportation status.

We call for an immediate investigation into this unnecessary death and an end to the Middlesex County contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We also commend the courage of these men in bringing to light the conditions in the Middlesex detention center. Their petition, which also spotlights the case of Cemar Koc, another detainee whose life is threatened by similar medical neglect, appeals to the guarantees of the Bill of Rights and decries the unconstitutional and inhumane conditions under which the petitioners are held. It calls for an end to immigration detention as a violation of both constitutional and human rights.

The petition is addressed to Michael Mukasey, Attorney General of the US, and Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security. Its often fractured and wrenchingly passionate language gives authentic witness to the ongoing disregard for humanity and human life experienced by those held in detention under contracts between ICE and County jails and other facilities in many parts of the country. It also reinforces the urgency of recent claims by the United Nations Special Human Rights Inspector, Jorge Bustamante (Promotion and Protection of All Human Rights, Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Development, March 5, 2008 - English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish), that the practice of mandatory immigrant detention in the U.S. is "overused," and that it "violates the spirit of international laws and conventions and, in many cases, also violates the actual letter of those instruments" (New York Times, 3/8/2008). This U.N. report calls for an end to the mandatory detention of illegal immigrants and asks that the United States ensure an independent court review of such detentions. On an investigatory tour of American detention facilities last year, Bustamante was refused admission to Monmouth County jail, where a Russian detainee was being force-fed after threatening suicide. The death of Arturo Alvarez, like the more than sixty other deaths in detention in the U.S. over the past five years that have never been fully explained or accounted for, is the inevitable outcome of a system that lacks adequate oversight and accountability. County detention facilities, which represent a low-investment revenue stream for county governments, could not exist without their cooperation and collaboration. A mass detainee petition decrying similar inhumane conditions at Passaic County Jail led in early 2006 to the termination of that County's contract with ICE and the release of many detainees.

We find the undiminished respect of the Middlesex petitioners for the Constitution and its guarantees an inspiration for all of us in this nation of immigrants. We deplore Governor Corzine's disregard of pleas that he direct the moral scrutiny of his office to this inhumane system, which affects New Jersey significantly more than many other states. In solidarity with the petitioners, therefore, and in admiration for the courage of their outspoken action, we join in demanding their freedom, and call on the Middlesex County Freeholders to end the cooperation with ICE that makes this reprehensible and unconstitutional detention system possible.

Endorsers of the statement of support:

Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War
Detainment Task Force, Central New York Workers' Rights Center Families for Freedom
Farm Labor Organizing Committee
Middlesex County Democracy for America
New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee
New York May 1 Coalition for Immigrant & Worker Rights
Kathleen Tsurumi, Highland Park, NJ