Breaking the Bars: February 4th Day of Rage at ICE Immigration Detention Centers KROME in Florida

In a Day of Rage at the infamous Krome Immigration Detention Center on Feb. 4^th at 1pm, a NOT ONE MORE noise demonstration at the gates has been called for by: Love Has No Borders, The Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, Lake Worth Food Not Bombs, Tampa Anarchist Black Cross, SPARC, Gainesville IWOC, Tampa Food Not Bombs, MAD Relief Tampa Chapter, Concrete Rose Collective, Tampa Bay DSA, Sex Worker Solidarity Network and Restorative Justice Coalition.

With 17 Florida ‘service provider’ counties’ sheriffs consenting to the pilot program expansion of their ‘law enforcement,’ acting as agents of ICE, agreeing to hold (for fifty dollars per captive) persons sans papers for 48 hours until ICE agents can intervene to begin deportation proceedings, immigration solidarity mobilizations and abolitionists alike are calling for a Day of Rage at Florida’s infamously abusive and human rights violative Immigration Detention Center: Krome. At the human rights abuse riddled Krome Detention Center, we will shake the walls with vibrant, visible and audible resistance, creating the space before this enslavement tenement into an autonomous zone of solidarity.

As Prison Legal News reported back in January of 2017, Krome Detention Center has a Long History of Detainee Abuse. The report stated, “Krome has a long and infamous history of mistreating the people it holds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As reported by the Miami Herald in October 2015, the detention facility houses around 600 foreign nationals awaiting deportation or asylum hearings. Before being used to hold immigrants, Krome operated as a Cold War-era air defense base.”

The report then goes into a rage inducing breakdown of physical abuse of detainees, physically and emotionally tormenting an inmate in mental health crisis, homophobia, ableism, overcrowding and a litany of other horrors inflicted (sans any legal consequence for the state-funded, state-executed abuses).

The prison was privatized back in 2008 after being sold to Akal and Doyton, ltd which is said to be the acceleration point of exacerbation in corruption occurring at the facility.

Immigrant detainee deaths are as ignored as they are prolific and are outlined in a collaborative piece termed Fatal Neglect, How ICE Ignores Deaths in Detention. These deaths include inmates who have died as a result of violence in ICE detention as well as inmates receiving inadequate, sub-standard medical care.

In a recent press conference rolling out and outlining the 17-county consent to these ICE “housing agreements,” Pinellas county sheriff Bob Gaultieri repeatedly referred to the Undocumented as “criminal aliens.”

Pinellas County Sherriff Bob Gaultieri
727-582-6201
[email protected]

Following Gaultieri’s hate mongering statements, the likes of Polk County sheriff Grady Judd who blustered in similar fashion about “being able to hold criminal, illegal aliens accountable according to the laws of this land.”

Yes, this land that allows for police to rape, assault, strangle, beat, shoot and torment the impoverished, the houseless, Black and Brown community members, Undocumented persons and those struggling with mental health issues.

And now with the 17-county plan expected to expand to cover all Florida counties, solidarity will be loud, swift and it will occur in escalating fashion.

As borders and customs patrol stalk our public transportation systems, menace our streets and threaten to separate families through roundups and deportation, we assert and demand the right to safe passage and freedom of movement. We assert and demand dignity in all communities. Our streets will never become the hunting grounds of the racist and xenophobic mechanisms of the state.

On February 4^th, coordinate, organize and be loud as we converge at the gates of Krome Detention Center, Miami, FL. (305) 207-2001, 18201 SW 12th St, Miami, FL 33194, 1 PM to 4 PM.

Facebook event here: Krome Detention Center.