In Toxic Detention - The Margin

This story was produced by The Margin in collaboration with The Nation. Please note this article contains mention of suicide, self-harm, and sexual violence.

Near gale force winds stretched nimbostratus clouds that resembled alpine peaks turned sideways above the heavily industrialized zone known as the Tacoma Tideflats on a Saturday afternoon in mid-March. Concertina wire spiraled down the top of the chain-link fence marking the western edge of E. J Street. A nearby train engine billowed diesel exhaust, contaminating the wind. Its unmistakable stench stung the nostrils. Reflections of the compound buildings appeared in pools of rainwater and pulsed and blurred with each passing breeze. From the south, a big wind rose, slanting heavy raindrops against a group of some 40 protesters led by La Resistencia. They stood together with protest signs that folded and unfolded in the wind and rain. Inside soaked jackets, members and allies of the activist organization stood in solidarity against the Northwest ICE Processing Center, also known as the Northwest Detention Center, which is owned by The GEO Group and is contracted by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which is within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The facility houses all genders. 

The detention center imprisons people who are suspected of violating civil immigration laws. While immigrants detained in the facility are from countries across the globe, many are from Latin America, one of several regions that has felt the brunt of European colonization and American imperialism. The impacts of these forces have made life in the countries unlivable for many, forcing people to migrate. However, when they reach the borders of the countries, including the United States, which have contributed to or caused their displacement, they are met with hostility and immigration policies that turn their plight into profit.

The GEO Group acquired Corrections Services Corporation and its detention facility in a heavily industrialized area, allegedly exposing immigrants to numerous sources of pollution. Over nearly 30 years, numerous test pits and groundwater monitoring wells, both immediately adjacent to and beneath the detention facility site, have revealed the presence of petroleum products, including diesel, gasoline, and heavy oil. Furthermore, the detention facility has a notorious reputation due to years of documented human rights abuses.

Despite these man-made forces, La Resistencia movement leaders and their allies are standing up to fight the facility and what it represents, mindful of those who’ve been targeted and whose rights have been taken, just as so many of their ancestors’ labor, land, and natural resources were—and continue to be—taken. The GEO Group is paid by the federal government to house people there, and is guaranteed a minimum number of detainees, causing the people detained in the facility to be valued as commodities. 

As the rain continued to pour, the protesters were quickly drenched, yet they remained, resolute and unified in their demands. Rufina Reyes, director of the La Resistencia, led the group by declaring: “¡No están solo!” Her voice was amplified loud enough for the sound waves to echo off the detention facility’s walls. The crowd echoed in unison, “You are not alone!” The sound waves of the calls interweaved like a multilingual prayer sanctified by the heavy rain and wind.

“We’re opposed to detentions and deportations, and we don't want any more family separation!” Reyes shouted through an interpreter.

The volcanic mountain known as Tahoma towered above the valley and flatlands. Prior to the construction of the GEO Group’s detention facility, the site was a rich tidal estuary, known by many names, and was the ancestral homeland of the Puyallup people since time immemorial. Following colonization, conflict, and the eventual signing of the Treaty of Medicine Creek in 1854, the land was settled by American immigrants. Still, the Puyallup Tribe retains certain rights over the area as a result of the 1854 treaty and the subsequent Land Claims Settlement Act of 1990.

The Washington State Department of Ecology has stated that the EPA Superfund site around the detention facility is remediated, “capped” by layers of supposedly impermeable barriers, asphalt, and crumbled cement from the meatpacking facility. It now resembles an innocuous mound covered, bizarrely, in green grass. But an underground benzene plume exists just below the surface, not far from the southern edge of the property line where the detention facility now stands.

In 1988, a 3,500-gallon underground oil storage tank had to be removed, and along with it, 376 tons (752,000 pounds) of petroleum-affected soil and over 8,000 gallons of petroleum-affected groundwater. Yet more remained. Adding to the petroleum contamination, the nearby Standard Oil facility, which Chevron now owns, leaked petroleum products into the soil, contaminating the surrounding groundwater. Washington state Department of Ecology’s groundwater monitoring wells have detected diesel and heavy oil in wells just outside the walls of the detention facility as recently as November 2024.

In 1996, Correction Services Corporation, now owned by GEO Group, began searching for a site to build a migrant detention facility near Seattle. After considering several locations in neighboring towns, they ultimately landed on 1623 E. J Street in Tacoma. Then Tacoma City Council member Kevin Phelps was a vocal supporter of this location, citing economic benefits, specifically business and occupation taxes the city would garner. GEO Group was issued contract revenue bonds by The Washington Economic Development Finance Authority in 2003 for $57,415,000 and in 2011 for $54,375,000 to construct and expand the facility. Washington Representatives at the time, Adam Smith and Norm Dicks worked alongside Tacoma city leaders to persuade GEO Group to seek to build the facility atop the Superfund site. Dick and Smith didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment. Senator Patty Murray would also support the site's construction of this facility on this location as early as 2002. Smith later opposed the GEO Group’s facility receiving another contract. Murray later scrutinized the facility, but nonetheless had accepted campaign contributions from the GEO Group in the amount of $5,000 in 2016. Senator Murray and her staff didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment for this story. Along with Representative Pramila Jayapal, Smith wrote a letter in July 2024 to the then-secretary of DHS urging it to move away from the use of private for-profit migrant detention facilities. Jayapal previously founded a non-profit organization that partnered with the Seattle University School of Law to produce a report on the human rights abuses at the facility.

The city council adopted a resolution approving the facility on March 28, 2000, stating, “CSC [GEO Group] has an excellent reputation in the communities where it has facilities.” However, a local news report published in 2004, when the facility was being finished and opened, cited a 1995 riot at another GEO-acquired facility (under the name of Esmor Correctional Services) in New Jersey that led to a federal investigation. “Three guards at the facility were later convicted of misconduct and sent to prison,” a Tacoma News Tribune report stated as the Northwest Detention Center was about to open. 

Between 2018 and 2024, GEO Group paid Pierce County, where the detention facility is located, roughly $5,643,100 in property taxes. The city responded to questions about the total amount paid by GEO Group in business and occupation taxes, stating that such information could not be divulged because it is confidential.

The GEO Group, Inc., based in Boca Raton, Florida, has received $6.85 billion since July 2009 from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which, since 2003, has included ICE. $995.08 million of this has been obligated to the GEO Group in Washington state. Congress’s 2025 Trump-supported continuing resolution allocates nearly $10 billion for ICE. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) estimated that the continuing resolution allocates approximately $350 billion for immigration enforcement and argues, however, that it does not include checks and balances on Trump’s mass detention and deportation plans, nor allow for a legal pathway to citizenship. “Under our legal system, the rule of law also requires fairness and respect for due process, but the Trump-controlled Senate rejected any proposal to inject those principles into the bill passed yesterday,” stated AILA Executive Director Ben Johnson in a press release. 

Trump has recently defied court orders regarding the detention and deportation of migrants, invoking a law used to justify the internment of Japanese-Americans, German-Americans, and Italian-Americans during World War II to loosely classify some Venezuelans as members of Tren de Aragua, a gang designated as a foreign terrorist organization by his administration, without due process of law. Trump’s framing of non-white migrants as criminals and subhuman since his political rise in 2015 has served as the basis for his policies that disproportionately target vulnerable non-white people who once immigrated to the U.S.

Meanwhile, those within the financial industry are profiting from the Trump Administration’s policies’ “potential sea change.” GEO Group’s top five shareholders are BlackRock, Inc., Vanguard Group, Inc., Wolf Hill Capital Management, LP, FMR, LLC, and Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. as of December 31, 2024.

Pam Bondi, Trump’s current Attorney General, was formerly a lobbyist for the GEO Group, which has contributed over $2.7 billion to Trump and Republicans from 2016 to 2024, including members of Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election and promoted the Big Lie that the election was stolen. Two days after Trump’s re-election on November 5th, 2024, GEO Group Executive Chairman George Zoley told his company’s shareholders during an earnings call that Trump’s “more aggressive policy” toward interior and border immigration enforcement means a “potential sea change” for the company he leads. “The GEO Group was built for this unique moment in our company’s—country's history and the opportunities that it will bring,” Zoley said. He said GEO Group could increase the number of detainee beds from 13,500 to 31,000. In the days following Trump’s election, the value of GEO Group stock nearly doubled and peaked on January 21, 2025, Trump’s Inauguration Day.

The apparent commoditization of human beings, in addition to allegations that migrants detained are essentially forced labor, is reminiscent of some of the darkest chapters of human history. Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, recently suggested Trump’s aspirational deportation machine should run more like a business, treating people like products being shipped. 

Before and between Trump’s terms, Democrats also sought to expand the role of DHS and ICE. The Biden administration took actions to expand immigration detention prior to the end of his term. Then Vice President and two-time presidential candidate Harris clearly stated her opposition to migration from Central and South America when, in June 2021, she spoke in Guatemala, unequivocally, saying to potential migrants, “Do not come. Do not come.”

A Long Record of Human Rights Abuses

La Resistencia has dedicated over eleven years to shutting down the migrant detention center. Its Founder, Maru Mora-Villalpando, grew up in Mexico and was influenced by strong leaders, including her mother and grandfather, a union leader. They taught her the importance of supporting laborers on strike, which, she said, was common in Mexico. She recalled working to support striking workers by getting on a public bus, shaking a can with coins, requesting donations while talking with people about the importance of supporting striking workers, and passing out informational flyers. She also recalled riding with her mother and passing a group of striking workers when she was young. Their flag was grayed from age, and her mother said this was because of how long they’d been fighting, adding, “We also need to support them. In order for them to win, we all need to support them.” “They end[ed] up winning,” she said.

ICE has allegedly targeted Mora-Villalpando specifically, as well as other activists, including, more recently, Alfredo "Lelo" Juarez Zeferino, a farm labor rights activist who is currently being detained at the GEO Group facility. According to a lawsuit filed, in part, on her behalf as well as on behalf of other activists allegedly targeted by ICE, Mora-Villalpando was surveilled, then explicitly targeted by ICE, which initiated deportation proceedings against her, specifically for her activism defending human and immigrant rights. DHS ultimately dropped deportation charges against Mora-Villalpando. The lawsuit is ongoing.

On September 15, 2024, La Resistencia posted on Instagram stating, “URGENT. Yesterday a woman in the women’s unit at NWDC suffered [a] fainting [sic] and headaches that were caused by a strong smell of gas. #GEO staff failed to address this issue.” According to Mora-Villalpando, this woman was taken for medical observation and returned an hour later. People detained and impacted said the strong smell of gas and sulfur was unbearable. They thought it was coming from the air conditioning vent, mentioning the door to the yard was left open because of it. According to detained people, one GEO officer said they, too, were suffering from a headache due to the smell of gas. Other GEO officers who later came into the unit stated they couldn’t smell anything, according to detained persons familiar with the event, who opined it was because they didn’t want to acknowledge a possible gas leak. Unit B-3 is located in the northernmost part of the detention facility, where groundwater and soil monitoring and tests have revealed for over 30 years the presence of diesel fuel and heavy oil.

More recently, on a video posted on March 12, a person detained at the GEO Group’s facility stated via video chat to leaders of La Resistencia that clothes coming back laundered are still wet, smell like mildew, and “smell like diesel fuel.” The laundry room is also located in the northernmost part of the detention facility. Mora-Villalpando stated that a fire occurred in this area the previous year, which she and others witnessed while outside in solidarity. 

According to Mora-Villalpando and Liliana Chumpitasi, leader and community organizer with La Resistencia, these instances weren't the first time detainees smelled gas in the facility. The group reported to The Margin that detained people identified the smell of gas when the sinks were clogged, and water was leaking from above the showers. In another incident detailed by the group, detained people communicated to La Resistencia that a gas smell also came from the showers. Per a 2024 lawsuit, the Washington State Department of Health has fielded over 700 complaints in the past year from people detained in the GEO Group’s facility, including reports that “the water is brown and possibly contaminated.”

The project lead of the state’s toxics cleanup of the Chevron bulk terminal facility, Thomas Praisewater, stated in an interview with The Margin that while he has not heard about any toxins, it is hypothetically possible these toxins have infiltrated the detention facility’s drinking water. Praisewater has been working with Chevron’s consultant, AECOM, on the cleanup of the bulk fuel storage and distribution facility that was once across the street, a site now occupied by vehicles used by ICE and GEO. 

Another expert has also said petroleum products may have made their way up through the soil and into the detention facility’s water pipes. Marc A. Edwards, a Distinguished Professor in environmental and water resources engineering at Virginia Tech, told The Margin that gas and other petroleum products can go through or diffuse through porous plastic water pipes. Edwards, who worked on the scientific team that found lead contamination in the drinking water of Flint, Michigan, said, in particular, polyethylene pipes are susceptible to such infiltration. Praisewater made similar statements that if there is, in fact, contamination, it would likely be because of a break or corrosion in the detention facility’s water system. Furthermore, it is unclear if GEO Group installed vapor intrusion barriers, rather than vapor barriers; the former being designed to potentially prevent infiltration of toxic chemicals. A 2009 toxicological evaluation by the EPA of the NWDC indicated that a vapor intrusion barrier was not installed.

The City of Tacoma water department told The Margin that municipal water piped to the facility is clean. According to records from the City of Tacoma in 2009 and 2010, the city approved occupancy permits for renovations to the building based on GEO Group’s detention facility building permit, which meets the 2006 International Building Code standards, requiring third-party certified plastic pipes that conform to NSF 14 standards. NSF 14 standards include polyethylene pipes. The Margin is waiting for the release of records requested via state open records laws from the city to further determine the potential water contamination. 

Despite state legislation requiring the Washington State Department of Health to monitor air and water quality in facilities such as the GEO Group’s detention facility that was signed into law May 11, 2023 as House Bill 1470, the company has fought and denied at least four attempts to inspect the water in all parts of the facility, only allowing access to the lobby and its bathroom. The state health department attempted to test the water in the detention facility but was denied access by GEO facility administrators acting on behalf of ICE supervisors. Joe Wesley Barbee, Jr., the distribution optimization advisor for the operations and training section of the state health department office of drinking water, stated in a declaration included in a lawsuit filed by the state against the GEO Group, that the Department of Health received complaints from individuals detained in GEO Group’s facility between April 2023 and mid-July 2024. 

Barbee described these complaints as being about the water’s temperature, color, smell, and the absence of water from faucets. “Detainees have complained about incidents where there is no water to drink, flush toilets, or otherwise use, and other incidents where the tap water is brown,” he stated. But when Barbee arrived at the GEO Group’s facility, he was met by the facility administrator, Bruce Scott, and two unidentified people, who allowed him only to test water from a faucet in a restroom near the front lounge area, apart from the secured part of the facility where detainees are held. “The testing environment was under intense scrutiny by the facility staff and the supervisor, who asked questions about every step and every chemical/reagent I used,” Barbee stated in the lawsuit. He added that typically, a water test in a bathroom sink wouldn’t be acceptable for quality tests. “The administrator asked for identical samples of any water I took,” Barbee said. 

“I welcome them to prove us wrong, but they closed their doors even more,” said Representative Lillian Ortiz-Self (WA-21), who introduced House Bill 1232 in the state legislature that amends parts of House Bill 1470, which a federal judge partly blocked, saying it singled out GEO Group. HB 1232, which amended the law to include other facilities, was passed by the legislature on April 14 along party lines and signed into law by Governor Bob Ferguson on May 12. Part of the current legislation would require the Department of Health to specifically investigate complaints, monitor air and water quality, and publicly report findings on routine unannounced inspections of the facility, and to post these results in multiple languages for detainees and the public. It would also expand the facilities it covers to facilities other than the GEO Group detention facility in Tacoma. GEO Group had argued that HB 1470 was unconstitutional, alleging it violated the Constitution’s supremacy clause, stating ICE was the authority that denied the state access to the entire facility. “They have refused to be more transparent, and instead, the complaints have doubled and continue to increase. We continue to have hunger strikes and complaints and suicide attempts,” Rep. Ortiz-Self told The Margin. “A couple questions come to mind: How much money do you want to make off of people suffering? And you know we’re looking at you, so do you care that little that you think you can continue to treat people this way? And if you're treating them that way, knowing that we have our eyes on you, what’s really happening inside? We're really scared for everyone that’s in there,” she said. “What are they hiding?” Rep. Ortiz-Self asked.

U.S. Marshals have recently confirmed a separate GEO Group detention facility in Laredo, Texas, to be exposing detainees to carbon monoxide, which families of the detainees allege sicken detainees without adequate medical treatment. GEO Group previously denied the presence of the deadly gas. The local fire department required GEO Group to take corrective action, according to an April 17th KGNS news report.

In addition to having no choice but to drink potentially contaminated water, independent experts have alleged human rights abuses in complaints since the GEO detention facility was first opened in 2004.

A 2008 report by OneAmerica and the International Human Rights Clinic at Seattle University School of Law identified major issues, including the unnecessary detention of refugees, conditions violating legal due process protections, especially the forced signing of papers, lack of access to attorneys, and failure to ensure confidential communications. Other concerns included overcrowding and lack of privacy, inadequate emergency medical care and pain management, inhuman and degrading treatment by guards and U.S. Marshals, failure to adequately address mental health issues and punitive segregation of those with mental health problems, extremely poor quality and quantity of food, inadequate visitation time, and long waits and inadequate access to telephones. Several reports by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR) have documented similar abuses since then. These include complaints of being served uncooked or worm-infested food, allegations of medical neglect, extensive use of solitary confinement, COVID-19 response and health standard issues, reports of sexual assault and abuse going unanswered, and complaints about the use of force and chemical agents.

Suicide attempts at the facility are another especially significant issue. The UWCHR obtained 911 calls and detailed at least six suicide attempts from January 1 to March 18, 2024, alone. From August 2017 to April 2023, the UWCHR identified at least an additional 12 suicide attempts as categorized by South Sound 911. A man with Russian citizenship who was seeking asylum died following a suicide attempt while detained in segregation (or what UWCHR would define as solitary confinement). Records of 911 calls obtained by The Margin via open records law detail at least an additional eight suicide attempts since April 2023. In one of the most recent attempts on February 9, 2025, a detention facility representative tells a 911 dispatcher that medical assistance is needed for a man who had cut his wrists. A 2024 report by the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman found the detention center did not consistently complete 15-minute checks of detainees on suicide watch, and did not strictly control and collect disposable razors. Another 911 call obtained by The Margin via open records law details a man who had hit his head “multiple times” on the wall. In yet another recent suicide attempt, on March 12, a man jumped off the upper tier to the lower tier, according to a 911 audio recording obtained by The Margin.

911 Records obtained by The Margin via public records law give a very general description of numerous other incidents, including 17 calls regarding molestation/groping from October 2021 through January 2025, and six calls alleging rape from February 2023 through June 2024. In a report published in 2022, the UWCHR reviewed several data sources from approximately 2012 to 2019 and found 63 reports of sexual assault or abuse. These included allegations by detainees against other detainees, alleged harassment by a GEO Group officer, and alleged sexual assault by medical staff. More recently, on April 24, UWCHR published a report finding the City of Tacoma Police Department failed to respond to allegations of assault and sexual assault made by detainees.

A City of Tacoma spokesperson provided the following response via email: “We are currently reviewing the concerns outlined in the report recently published by the University of Washington. If our review identifies opportunities to better align with our mission in serving those at the [NWDC], we are committed to making necessary improvements and further strengthening our procedures. Our goal is to ensure that safety, security, and respect for rights remain central to our role.”

People detained at the NWDC have also died there. On March 7, 2024, Charles Leo Daniel died while in solitary confinement of undetermined causes. According to UWHRC, Daniel had spent nearly the entirety of his four years at the NWDC in solitary confinement despite being classified as having significant mental illness. La Resistencia told The Margin Senator Patty Murray was touring the facility the day of his death. On October 27, 2024, Jose Manuel Sanchez-Castro also died at the NWDC. According to reporting by The Seattle Times, he was in fentanyl withdrawal. Yet autopsy results have yet to be released. In 2018, another person died by suicide at the NWDC, according to a press release from Rep. Jayapal, who stated that when she visited the facility following Daniel’s death, she wasn’t allowed to speak with detained people.

Angelina Godoy, Director of the UWCHR, told The Margin there's a total lack of accountability regarding the GEO Group’s detention facility in Tacoma because the systems that are there to provide accountability, such as Congress, have utterly failed, “to take any effective action to ensure that conditions within the Northwest Detention Center are even up to ICE's own standards, which would fall far below international human rights standards.”

The recent UWCHR report states “Conditions are critical within the NWDC today, and outside facility walls, we are all witness to a still-unfolding series of federal government policies that revel in the cruel and public dehumanization of immigrants.”

The state’s lawsuit against the GEO Group, which seeks to prevent GEO Group from denying the entry of state officials under state law to investigate complaints, states, “As alleged, these complaints present clear threats to detainee health and safety at [the detention facility].” The Margin has requested these complaints via state public records law but has yet to receive them. The Washington State Department of Health, currently in litigation with the GEO Group, has declined to provide an interview to The Margin on the matter.  

A Washington State Department of Health spokesperson stated in an emailed response to The Margin: “The Washington State Department of Health is aware of many of these and other complaints. We are committed to gain entry to the facility and investigate these complaints. The Northwest ICE Processing Center continues to deny entry to our staff. We are hopeful that the federal courts will bring clarity to the department’s authority and that the facility will allow entry for investigations, transparency, and the welfare of all people inside the facility.”

A GEO Group Spokesperson provided the following response via email: “The support services GEO provides at… the Northwest ICE Processing Center, are governed by ICE’s detention standards. GEO’s services are carefully monitored for quality by ICE personnel, who are onsite 24/7… The locations where GEO supports ICE are also independently accredited by the American Correctional Association, as well as the National Commission on Correctional Health Care...”

A GEO Group spokesperson further stated via email: “GEO strongly disagrees with the allegations that have been made regarding the services we provide at the Northwest ICE Processing Center. These allegations are part of a long-standing, politically motivated, and radical campaign to abolish ICE and end federal immigration detention by attacking the federal government's immigration facility contractors. GEO has comprehensive policies in place for the reporting and investigation of all incidents that occur at the Center, including instances of assault and/or sexual assault. These policies are governed by Performance-Based National Detention Standards (“PBNDS”) established by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.”

The GEO Group provided these general responses, but did not respond to The Margin’s detailed questions.

“That’s what detention centers are… an extension of the prison system.”

Rufina Reyes, director of La Resistencia, hails from Guerrero state, Mexico. She emigrated to the U.S. in 2000 because of a lack of economic opportunity. “I'm Mexican,” Reyes said through an interpreter. “I'm an immigrant. I consider myself undocumented. I'm a mom, I'm a wife, and I believe that most of the people that are in La Resistencia are here because we have been affected by the system.” Reyes has held a work permit for the past two years. Reyes’ brother fled his home in Mexico following his kidnapping by a local organized crime group. Fortunately, he was released, unlike many others, according to Reyes, who have been disappeared. He came to the U.S. and was later detained in the NWDC. She went to find her brother at the detention center, and when she came out, La Resistencia was holding an action outside. She began volunteering with La Resistencia, answering phone calls on the group's hotline. 

Some of the most impactful calls, she said, were those in which the person on the other end of the line said that they wanted to harm themselves or when she found out one person had died inside. This intimacy with despair and injustice catalyzed her, and she realized she had to do something more about it. “I have to continue fighting this, not just for my brother, but because possibly one day also I may be in there, and so I want to keep fighting for every single person that is not able to defend themselves,” she said. 

In addition to the violence and corruption of her home state, climate change has brought intensified cycles of drought and flooding that have made it extremely difficult for people to subsistence farm or grow food to sell there. As a result, so many have been forced to migrate, she added. Climate change impacts have been overwhelmingly driven by countries of the Global North, including the U.S. 

Reyes recounted how Mora-Villalpando reached out to her when she walked out of the detention facility in Tacoma after visiting her brother. “She told me who she was, she offered support, and she told me a little bit about what the people were talking about, the conditions inside. She said, ‘You're not alone. Here's my number. Call me if anything comes up,” Reyes said. Reyes has since risen through the ranks of La Resistencia to direct the Organization, as Mora-Villalpando has transitioned to an advisory position.

“I call it a detention center because everybody knows them as detention centers, but they're cages,” Mora-Villalpando said. “That’s the result of allowing governments to decide who's worthy of what. If you are forced to migrate, you're already being shaped into what you're supposed to be, what you're supposed to have, and what you're not supposed to have, and what you don't have is because ‘you deserve it,’” she said ironically. 

She said an ideology is formed where people agree that some people deserve to be caged. “That’s what detention centers are,” she said. “I've always said they’re an extension of the prison system.” In this case, the private, for-profit prison system.

“The idea has been not only how these white invaders took over our continents,” she added, “but how they continue to be exploiting. They already have our land, they already have our labor, they already have our mind, and now they want to have our bodies to further capital—by having these cages, these storage places, where you [store] people like boxes, and you still make money off them,” she concluded.

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