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6 Nov, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Now: Hunger strike among ICE detainees at the Bergen County Jail in NJ. Began early this week. Some have resumed eating, says county sheriff, but 4 are under observation. ICE has force-fed hunger strikers in the past. They are refusing food because... 1/4
They were recently transferred, without explanation, from the Essex County jail in Newark. They said they weren't given all of their personal items, including legal papers. They say they're barely allowed out of their cells (county does this for social isolation due to Covid).2/4
They say there are rats that torment them at night (county sheriff said he has never heard of rats there.) They say they don't have access to law library to work on their cases (county says library access reduced due to Covid but they get laptops instead). 3/4
They say no one responds to the grievances they file & they have no outdoor or indoor recreation time (county denies this). @bergencountynj has a multimillion dollar contract with ICE to house & care for detainees. I'm waiting on comment from @ICEgov. I'll update this thread. 4/4
ICE just gave me a no comment. Told me to check in Monday, when hunger strike will be about a week old.

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More from @mattkatz00

Matt Katz Profile picture
15 Oct
Julio Colcas,55, Green Card holder who lived in NY-NJ for 40 yrs, had 2 old drug charges. ICE was detaining him in Newark but released him 6 months ago due to Covid. Then last week, ICE suddenly * re-arrested * him. Tonite he was apparently deported. And here's what's wild...1/9
Last Monday, he checked in with ICE -- as he has every month since his release. Last Wednesday, he said ICE called him & said there was something wrong with his ankle bracelet: Can you come in so we can swap it out? So he went to ICE's office in Newark, where he was cuffed.2/9
After 6 months out Colcas was brought back to the Essex County Jail's ICE detention. He is lucid, funny & smart, but he has physical & mental illnesses. A psychologist said he was suicidal, "emotionally fragile," and "not capable of defending himself independently" in court. 3/9
Read 11 tweets
Matt Katz Profile picture
3 Jan
News: A popular Facebook page that trafficked in anti-Semitic stereotypes under the guise of concern about overdevelopment in Orthodox Jewish areas around Lakewood, NJ, is now down, after months of complaints by the @NewJerseyOAG. It was called Rise Up Ocean County. A thread -->
Last April the state AG's office first wrote a letter to Facebook about the (very popular!) page, noting its menacing videos & the hateful comments under posts, like: “We need to get rid of them like Hitler did.” But Facebook apparently did nothing. nj.gov/oag/newsreleas…
Now, anti-Semitic violence in Monsey, Jersey City and Brooklyn has been linked to that very same kind of overdevelopment, as if Jews brought the violence on themselves by their real estate practices. That's what a Jersey City school board member said: hudsoncountyview.com/after-richards…
Read 10 tweets
Matt Katz Profile picture
16 Dec 19
I spent 6 weeks in Japan reporting on a thing that doesn’t get much attention: The thousands of asylum seekers from across the world who fly into Tokyo. Almost none win legal refugee status. Many get detained. And so I went to find out why, and what it means. #RefugeesInJapan 1/?
This week, @WNYC & @Gothamist launch an audio series detailing what I learned. Japan’s immigration issues parallel those in the U.S., because this is a global phenomenon: We’re in an age of mass worldwide displacement, and the systems we have to deal with that are obsolete. 2/?
Japan, the U.S. & 143 nations signed the U.N. refugee accords, but international law no longer protects asylum seekers fleeing for new reasons: Climate change, sexual violence, ethnic strife, police corruption, poverty. Many are dismissed as mere economic migrants. 3/?
Read 12 tweets
Matt Katz Profile picture
22 Feb 19
Scoop: Detainees at the largest immigrant lock-up in the New York region, the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, were held in their cells for days earlier this month as helmet-clad officers swept the facility for contraband, @WNYC has learned.
wnyc.org/story/immigran…
Immigrants were allowed 10 minutes, twice each day to leave their cells and use the shower, phone and microwave, according to attorneys and detainees. County officials said this went on for 2 days for some. Detainees said it was 5 days. The impetus? Unspecified security threat.
The lockdown came days before the inspector general for Department of Homeland Security-@DHSOIG-released a scathing report about conditions, safety & security at the facility. Essex, which is run by Dems, gets $40 million a year to hold ICE arrestees. wnyc.org/story/abandone…
Read 8 tweets
Matt Katz Profile picture
15 Feb 19
News: Essex County Jail in NJ, which has a $34 million contract with ICE to detain 800 immigrants, is the focus of a scathing ICE Inspector General report
that says there are "significant threats to detainee health and safety,” like a LOADED GUN that a detainee found & moldy food
Here's some slimy, discolored lunch meat and what the inspectors described as a "foul-smelling and unrecognizable" hamburger patty. When I first saw the picture I thought it was burnt toast. This is from a surprise visit last July.
Inspectors also found blood from raw chickens leaking all over the refrigerator & moldy bread that they were told was for bread pudding for detainees, who have been complaining about sickness & food poisoning. The county apparently fired the food manager...during the inspection.
Read 11 tweets
Matt Katz Profile picture
30 Jan 19
I just finished reading "LET ME FINISH" by Chris Christie. I think "I TOLD YOU SO, IDIOTS" would have been a more apt title, but he didn't ask me for my suggestion...I have some other thoughts on the book--hear me talk about it on @WNYC this am, or follow along with this thread->
He goes AFTER Jared Kushner, whom he emasculates with descriptions like his "soft quiver" voice, and whom he blames for not getting AG or VP. Kushner also fired Christie as chair of the transition, which Christie repeatedly blames for everything that has gone wrong with Trump.
YET: Trump himself avoids almost all criticism, as if Trump had no say over the "grifters" that Trump himself appointed. Christie calls Trump "utterly fearless" and says he has “unparalleled self-confidence” and a “keen understanding of what regular people are feeling.”
Read 21 tweets

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