Since Saturday 28 in May, religious leaders, immigrants and community advocates began a pilgrimage throughout California with stops at different points in the state to demand the closure of the private prisons and detention centers of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE).
“What we want with this pilgrimage is for the congressmen to listen to us and close the detention centers because in the facts are concentration camps”, said Marco Topete, who was detained for almost three years in the Adelanto Detention Center, and knows firsthand what is lived inside, since he has constantly denounced the abuses suffered.
“Instead of detention centers, we want schools and hospitals,” Topete said when participating in the pilgrimage on behalf of the organization Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice.
The pilgrimage occurs i Immediately after a federal court decided to review the AB 32, the California law that aims to prohibit the existence of private prisons and detention centers in the state. The review will be carried out under a special process that consists of all the judges of the court analyzing the ruling.
Last October, a federal appeals court determined that the AB law 32 destined to phase out private detention centers in the state, cannot go into effect because it is likely to unconstitutionally interfere with the federal government’s power over immigration.
With 2 votes in favor and a or against, the Ninth Circuit of Appeals overturned the ruling that maintains the AB law 32.
“AB 32 can not be sustained because it conflicts with this federal power and discretion tion granted to the clerk in an area that remains the exclusive purview of the federal government,” Ninth Circuit Judge Kenneth Lee wrote, joined by Judge Bridget Bade.
“It prohibits the Secretary from doing what the federal immigration law explicitly allows him to do.”
The march that supports all judges analyzing the legality of the AB32, started from 28 in May, with a short stop at the correctional facilities Golden State Modified Community Correction, followed by a prayer ceremony at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility.
By making stops at prisons and immigration detention centers across the state, participants sought to spearhead dialogue with leaders of the communities they visited and with elected representatives to challenge the notion that people should be incarcerated.
“This pilgrimage is an opportunity for collective healing. It is time to bear witness and remember the pain that has been caused by some of the most hostile detention centers in the country,” said the Rev. Deborah Lee of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, who leads the pilgrimage.
“It is time to say collectively, it doesn’t have to be this way. We hope to inspire reflection and hope for a better future where communities can prosper without harming them.”
Berto Hernández of California Immigrant Youth Justice, said loved ones have suffered so much from the criminal and legal incarceration system and detention apparatus.
Hernandez himself was detained at the Adelanto Detention Center, where the pilgrimage made its final stop.
“Both prison systems have disproportionately targeted African Americans and Latinos for detention and deportation. They often punish twice people who are already openly criminalized and dehumanized”.
The participants advocate for the transformation of systems that have harmed Latino, African-American and immigrant communities, and ask that instead of incarceration preventive measures be established to protect the well-being of the community where the facilities are located.
“This includes creating more schools where there are now prisons, more access to health care in detention centers, and opportunities for our people to heal where they are currently being incarcerated and mistreated.”
The pilgrimage was launched on 28 May at noon at San Quentin State Prison in the San Francisco Bay Area. It made stops throughout the Central Valley, Southern California, some border towns, and ended with a community event at the Adelanto Detention Center.
Juan Prieto, spokesman for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said that the pilgrimage itinerary also included prisons to protest against the transfer of immigrants to detention centers at the request of ICE.
“It was a pilgrimage in favor of California’s Vision Act bill that prohibits the transfer of immigrants from prisons to immigration detention; and to maintain the AB law 28 that gradually eliminates private prisons and detention centers.”
This pilgrimage included prayers, music and art projects to invite the local communities along the route to visualize what a thriving community would look like without detention centers and prisons.
Itinerary of the pilgrimage
May : San Quentin State Prison
May 28: Yuba County Jail
May 29: Golden State Modified Community Correction
May : Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility
May 30: Otay Mesa Detention Center
May 31: Imperial Regional Detention Facility
May 31: Advance Detention Center