Protesters in Birmingham today clanged forks and spoons against empty plates and marched in a show of solidarity for the 40 detainees currently on a hunger strike at a U.S. Immigration and Customs detention center in Etowah County.
Demonstrators wore black tape over their mouths as they marched up and down 11th Avenue South. Written on the tape was the message “Shut Etowah Down.”
“We believe that as one of the cheapest detention centers in the nation and one that has been [designated] by a bunch of human rights organizations as being the worst, the one with the worst conditions in the United States, we are advocating for it to be shut down,” says Lucia Hermos. She’s with the American Civil Liberties Union in Alabama and helped organize the event.
According to the group Detention Watch Network, the average amount spent per detainee at the Etowah center is about forty dollars a day — that includes food and health care. By comparison, the national average is 160 dollars a day.
Detainees have been on hunger strike since Thanksgiving, after joining a nationwide movement to stop alleged abuse.
Yesterday, a federal judge ordered the force-feeding of one Etowah detainee reportedly in deteriorating health.
Calls to detention center officials were not immediately returned.