[Pnews] Asylum Seeker on Hunger Strike Dies at Northwest Detention Center

[Prisoner News]

November 16, 2018

Contact: Maru Mora Villalpando, maru at latinoadvocacy.org 
<mailto:maru at latinoadvocacy.org?subject=>,
Angélica Cházaro, achazaro at gmail.com <mailto:achazaro at gmail.com?subject=>,
*Asylum Seeker on Hunger Strike Dies at Northwest Detention Center
*40-year-old Amar Mergensana’s Death Follows 86 Days of Refusing Food 
and 11 months in Immigration Detention

***Tacoma, WA —* Members of the Northwest Detention Center Resistance 
have received word that Amar Mergensana, a 40-year-old Russian asylum 
seeker, died in the detention center on the afternoon of Thursday, 
November 15th. NWDC Resistance received a phone call from a person 
currently detained in the solitary confinement unit of the now-infamous 
Tacoma immigration detention facility, stating that he had been held 
next door to Mr. Mergensana, and had seen paramedics unsuccessfully 
attempt to revive him, and had seen his body taken out of the detention 
center with blue hands and feet. Members of NWDC Resistance observed 
both paramedics and Tacoma Police Department vehicles at the facility 
yesterday afternoon, and Mr. Mergensana was described as “unavailable” 
for a legal visit by NWDC authorities.

Mr. Mergensana had arrived in the US last December, seeking asylum after 
crossing the US-Mexico border. With his attempts at securing asylum 
proving unsuccessful, he joined a hunger strike at the NWDC on August 
23rd, as part of a larger national prison strike that ran from August 
21st to Sunday, September 9th. Even after the hundreds of detained 
immigrants on  hunger strike at the NWDC ended their protest, Mr. 
Mergensana continued to refuse meals, vowing to continue to starve 
himself until he either died or was released, given his fear of being 
deported to Russia. Mr. Mergensana was profiled by the news outlet 
Crosscut 50 days into his protest. Federal district court judge Benjamin 
Settle granted ICE’s request to force hydration into Mr. Mergensana this 
past September, and Mr. Mergensana faced threats of forced-feeding 
throughout his hunger strike.

“We are horrified and saddened by Amar Mergensana’s death. He died 
protesting his detention and imminent deportation in the only way that 
was left to him. His death makes clear that ICE and GEO Group cannot 
guarantee the health and safety of people they cage. The more than one 
dozen hunger strikes by people detained since 2014, in which hundreds 
have taken part, speak to the need to shut down these cages for 
immigrants once and for all,” stated Maru Mora Villalpando of NWDC 
Resistance. “In the last written statement he gave us, Amar described 
being left in a cold locked room, naked, and with nothing but a bed 
sheet and a thin blanket. We demand that ICE and GEO Group be held 
accountable for their role in Amar’s death,” Villalpando continued.

Mr. Mergansana’s death follows reports of extreme medical neglect at the 
facility. Most recently, Saja Tunkara was deported from the facility and 
separated from his US citizen wife and children days after the Seattle 
Weekly published a story about the facility’s medical failures, in which 
Mr. Tunkara was prominently featured. This year has also been marked by 
multiple outbreaks of chickenpox and mumps among people detained. 
Between 2003 and 2018, 185 people have died in ICE custody, with many 
deaths connected to medical neglect, and ten deaths this past fiscal 
year alone. Mr. Mergansana’s death may be the first death of a hunger 
striking detained immigrant.

NWDC Resistance will be holding a vigil and rally at the facility to 
commemorate Mr. Mergansana’s life and honor his protest. Details will be 
available at https://www.facebook.com/events/196594297896475/ 
<https://t.e2ma.net/click/rayplp/nv30oq/vdbx3tp>. Audio of Mr. 
Mergansana, as well as a handwritten note by him are available upon 
request.

*###*

NWDC Resistance is a grassroots collective led by undocumented 
immigrants and U.S. citizens located in Tacoma, Washington.

It is an unincorporated association formed for the purposes of 
confronting human rights violations at the Northwest Detention Center 
and dedicated to ending the detention and deportation of immigrants. 
www.nwdcresistance.org
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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