ICE detainees are a week into a hunger strike at Pine Prairie, Louisiana. This week, we broadcast audio of a call between an anonymous Pine Prairie ICE detainee, and a member of Perilous Chronicle.
More information on the struggle there can be found at perilouschronicle.com.
The strike at Pine Prairie is not an isolated incident, but the continuation of a year of protest in ICE facilities on the part of African immigrants, who have been trapped by the failure of the global community to grant them refuge as they flee war and environmental disruption. The hunger strike this month at Pine Prairie is at least the fourth major protest led by Cameroonians in ICE detention this year.
In March 2020, Cameroonian detainees at Pine Prairie organized a hunger strike that lasted at least ten days in protest of their conditions of confinement and the dysfunctional asylum process they faced. Months later, the same migrants again find themselves in segregation for acting together to demand justice. As far as we know, their protest continues despite their transfer to segregation, but it is not clear how long they will be able to sustain their strike after all they’ve been through.
You can read the full transcript of the call here.
The full article about the hunger strike can be read here.