Photo: Event Flyer
On Saturday, November 13, grassroots immigrant rights advocates along with family members of immigrants in detention will gather at the Bergen County Jail to protest continued transfers and deportations of immigrants in detention.
As the Bergen County Jail ends its contract with ICE, all immigrants currently detained there have been scheduled for transfer or deportation by November 20th.
Bergen County Jail is located at 160 S River Street, Hackensack, NJ.
Advocates, who successfully pressured New Jersey lawmakers to terminate ICE detention contracts, are now calling upon ICE officials in New Jersey and Senators Booker and Menendez to release the remaining 15 immigrants detained at Bergen County Jail. They also demand release for all immigrants that have been transferred out of BCJ away from their families, to other states such as Louisiana, Florida, and Massachusetts.
Family members of people currently detained in New Jersey and people who have already been transferred to other states will be present at the rally. Advocates are calling for the closures of detention centers to reunite families and not create greater distances with more expenses and less access to resources, continuing the cycle of abuse in other states.
Patrick Julney, currently detained at LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana transferred from BCJ, stated: “If attention wasn’t brought to this [case], I would have been on the plane.” Laura Julney who has been at the forefront of Patrick’s release campaign says, “Transfers are a form of mass incarceration, we’re going to keep fighting no matter the cost not just for my husband’s freedom but for everyone. We’re going to bring light to the mass injustices and discriminations for those that are held in the detention centers and their families that live with the trauma everyday.”
