Child & Family Detention: Shut Down NWDC
Tsuru for Solidarity (TFS) believes that for true transformation to a more just society, we must abolish the immigrant detention system that imprisons children, separates families, and wrecks our communities. Abolition means creating structures that make our communities safer and preventing violence and harm, without police, incarceration and replacing the punishment system with one that prioritizes restorative justice.
TFS has become a co-leader with La Resistencia in their 11-year campaign to shut down ICE’s Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, WA which is owned and operated by for-profit corporation GEO Group. This organizing is particularly urgent in the wake of yet another death in solitary confinement due to medical neglect in October 2024.
Our commitment is stronger than ever, and we are determined to shut down this deadly facility once and for all. Join us by reaching out to cfd@tsuruforsolidarity.org
TFS supports and co-organizes to shut down the NWDC by:
- Conducting direct actions
- Uplifting the parallel narratives of Japanese-American incarceration and immigrant detention and calling in the local Japanese American community to understand our role in this fight.
- Hold local actions to call attention to the inhumane and deplorable conditions that have led to an increased number of deaths and attempted suicides in the facility over the past year.
Our History
Protest
Lead direct site fights at child and family detention centers such as Dilley Family Residential Center (Dilley, TX), Ft. Sill Intake Site (Lawson, OK), Ft. Bliss Intake Site (El Paso, TX), Berks Family Residential Center (Leesport, PA), and Greensboro Piedmont Academy (Greensboro, NC); Incorporate intergenerational civil disobedience, cross-community healing ceremonies, ritual and cultural practices and cultural art forms into direct actions at detention sites; Support anti-deportation campaigns for families in sanctuary.
Build Solidarity
Lead two national coalitions to end child and family detention (National Child Detention Coalition and the Family Liberation Abolitionist Network) and build bridges between national and local coalitions; Grow and sustain relationships with directly impacted communities to close local detention sites and end child and family detention policies; Support groups involved in refugee resettlement; Address ongoing and inter-generational trauma through Healing Circles for ourselves and other impacted communities.
Stop Repeating History
This video series highlights the connections between Japanese American incarceration survivors and current survivors of detention centers and features an intergenerational cross-racial dialogue of survivors of state-sanctioned violence.
JIZO Newsletter
Tsuru for Solidarity is committed to supporting migrant children and families detained at the US/Mexico border. Stay up to date with our efforts in the Jizo newsletter. Jizo is a Japanese deity, protector of children, who emanates sweetness, calm, and benevolence.
Jizo Vol 1. Issue 5
Jizo Vol 1, Issue 4
Jizo Newsletter Vol 1, Issue 3
Wins
- Successfully blocked the proposed detention site for 1,600 children on the former Japanese American incarceration site at Fort Sill, OK
- Terminated the Yuba County Jail ICE contract, the last of its kind in California, as a part of the Yuba Liberation Coalition;
- Closed the Berks family detention center in Leesport, PA as a part of the Shut Down Berks Coalition.
- Uplifted our positionality to pressure Washington State electeds to meet with us and La Resistencia to begin calling to attention the atrocities happening at NWDC
News & Events
