Michael Wriston, of Project Salt Box, Appears on CABLE Evening News Occasionally.
This Newly Revised Paperback is a Very Disturbing Account of how the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States” by a College Professor Reece Jones.
Since last Friday, many have been watching in horror and anger on cable news stations the protests outside of Delaney Hall in New Jersey. That is what prompted a report from Michael Wriston, of Project Salt Box, (PSB) a non-profit that monitors ICE activity nationwide, to issue the following yesterday based on information he received from Sussex Visibility Brigade. Follows is an excerpt from a 26 page report from the Sussex Visibiity Brigade via Project Salt Box.
Governor Mikie Sherill must take forceful, immediate action to halt inhumane and deadly conditions at Delaney Hall, where detainees last week were beaten and threatened for speaking out (Thursday, May 28th) and engaged in a hunger and labor strike that began on Friday, May 22nd.
Public officials must act NOW.
We were disappointed that instead, Sherrill and her administration focused on restricting and suppressing protestors under the guise of protecting them and “ensuring everyone’s safety.” Sherrill dispatched the New Jersey State Police to Delaney Hall and armed with riot shields, tear gas and rubber bullets, they guarded the property, where protestors had attempted to block vans used to transfer hunger-striking detaainees to other facilities.
The report continues: “Instead of ‘lowering the temperature,” which Sherrill announced as her goal State Police used tactics that inflamed tensions and left severala protestors injured, including those who were obeying commands.
Be clear: Protestors arre there because lives are at stake and no one has effectively intervened. Some detainees have medicala conditions that could be fatal if left untreated. There is a severe lack of medical care, which is sometimes withheld as a punitive measure, according to reports.
Family members say their loves ones, who began hunger and labor strikes last week to draw attention to their abuse, have been bludgeoned, assaulted and pepper spraed for refusing to ear ot perform the $1-a-day ‘voluntary’ jobs they are coerced into accepting. They use the mone to buy toilet paper, toothpaste and sanitary napkins, which are missing or undersupplied — even though the GEO Group has a $1 billion contract to run Delaney Hall.
The detainees want basic human and constitutional rights:
A meeting with the governor inside Delaney Hall; Immediate release of medically vulnerable, elderly, pregnant and young detainees; Meaningful review of immigration cases; and An end to coercive pressure to sign deportation papers or voluntary separation documents.
We understand that Sherill has liited authority in challenging a vindictive and authoritarian federal government. But both the governor and her administration must demand oversight of Delaney Hall, release all detainees and shut it down permanently.
Governor Sherrilll insists that she is “protecting constitutional rights’ but law enforcement from the state, county and local offices have continuously violated the rights of New Jerseeans AND other members of the public over the course of 3 nights (5/29-5/31). These moments have been captured by independent media sources who continuously livestreamed every interaction and witnessed by legal observers on the ground.
Statements made by the Office of the Attorney General have incuded many falsehoods that push narrative to justify their repression of free speech and the right to peacefully assemble.
Both the Governor’s statements and the OAG’s about the “violence” of “outside agitators” mirror right wing talking points/myths used to undermine the legitimacy and mission of peaceful demonstrations — setting a dangerour precedent for protestors throughout our state that law enforcement can use such force with little to no justification.