1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I’m writing today to urge you to enlist the courts in order to shut down Delaney Hall in New Jersey as well as similar concentration camps, and end the federal contracts that make for-profit immigrant detention profitable. The GEO Group posted $705.2 million in revenue last quarter — a 17% increase — built in part on detainee labor paid as little as $1 a day. They are concentration camp profiteers, and their business license ought to be revoked and their management arrested for allowing abuse and fraud. Now we know: Most of these people detained have never been convicted of a crime. The 13th Amendment's exception for convicted criminals does not apply to them, yet GEO Group exploits that loophole anyway. The 300 people on hunger and labor strike at Delaney Hall published an open letter describing decaying food with worms, broken bathrooms, and inadequate medical care. When Senator Andy Kim tried to negotiate with federal agents outside the facility, he was hit with tear gas. Governor Sherrill was turned away at the gate. ICE's response to the strike was to transfer organizers across the country — one man was moved through Texas, Alabama, Arizona, and finally Washington state after alleging staff stole his legal documents. There have been 56 deaths in ICE custody. Unacceptable. This is not a system worth reforming. It is a system worth ending. Pull the federal contracts, close Delaney Hall, and stop sending public money to corporations that profit from caging people in these conditions. They cannot be shamed into compliance, they must be shut down and the corporate officers hauled into court. We must start treating these Nazis running GEO and human rights violators they employ as the criminals they are. Thank you.