DOVER, NH – A “Rolling Rally” at the Strafford County jail on Sunday will celebrate the release of 14 immigration detainees there, and urge Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to free those still held, with the message, “ICE Have a Heart.”
The event, expected to draw over 70 drivers, is set for Sunday, May 17, at 1 p.m. at Strafford County Department of Corrections in Dover. Never Again Action of New Hampshire is organizing the rally, its sixth in as many weeks. Its petition to free immigrants has gained nearly 800 signatures.
The quest to free the civilly-detained immigrants is heightened by the threat of Covid-19 contagion within the jail.
According to the Union Leader, U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty “chastised ICE on Thursday, May 14 for not doing enough to identify medically vulnerable immigration detainees at the Strafford County jail. The following day, a worker at the jail’s medical unit tested positive for COVID-19.” The judge “called for a May 29 hearing where ICE must address a host of issues such as COVID-19 risk reduction, testing of inmates and identification of high-risk inmates.”
The 14 freed men include seven medically vulnerable detainees released on bail and seven voluntarily released by ICE. Following a federal class-action lawsuit by the ACLU of New Hampshire, Judge McCafferty on May 14 issued a written decision ruling that civil immigration detainees at Strafford County Department of Corrections are entitled to bail hearings if they are medically vulnerable.
The ACLU reports this statement by Ernest, an asylum seeker from Cameroon, who was released following a May 7 bail hearing:
“I have been in detention for about 21 months after applying for asylum at the border. During this time in detention, my health deteriorated very badly. When I was transferred to New Hampshire after several transfers in Arizona, Alabama, and other places, I started to be concerned about the coronavirus and detention. I thank the Court and everyone including lawyers for my release. It is wonderful to now be finally free for the first time in the United States.”
Never Again Action, a national organization, was founded in 2019 by Jews motivated by their prophetic tradition and their history of oppression. Its goal is to prevent ICE, DHS, CBP, and the corporations that support them from doing business as usual. The New Hampshire chapter has the added goal of engaging citizens directly in the issue. Activists in the New Hampshire chapter are diverse, including Jews and people from a wide range of religious backgrounds.
