Free Them All was the message during the protest at the North Lake Concentration Camp on July 4th

I don’t celebrate the 4th of July. I don’t celebrate the US Empire. I don’t celebrate a country that was founded on genocide and slavery. I don’t celebrate US imperialism that has caused the deaths of tens of millions of people around the world from US military actions or the economic exploitation of of Capitalist policies that often drives US military conquest.

However, I do celebrate people. I celebrate the rich history of people resisting empire, resisting oppression and systems of power. On the 4th of July this year I was inspired by the courage and commitment of amazing people who are continuing the legacy of what radical historian Howard Zinn refers to as a people’s history.

In a previous post I wrote about the Cosecha led action during the Hollyhock Lane parade yesterday. Last night I participated in and witnessed the power of solidarity that people were demonstrating at the GEO Group-owned North Lake detention center in Baldwin.

The action at North Lake was organized by No Detention Centers in Michigan, which sent out a brief statement about the July 4th protest:

It has now been one year since the GEO Group reopened North Lake for ICE, six months since Nenko Gantchev died behind its walls, and three months since immigrants held inside launched hunger and work strikes that prefigured a massive wave of organizing inside ICE prisons around the country. People held at North Lake and across the immigration detention system have reported dire medical neglect, abuse, insufficient or spoiled food, foul drinking water, unsanitary conditions, lack of access to legal help or outside communication, forced labor, and retaliation for organizing. These are the inherent conditions of detention.

Our main goal in organizing these demos is to make sure the people inside know we care about them, their wellbeing, and their liberation.

The last time there was this kind of protest at the North Lake Concentration Camp people decided it was time to enter the North Lake detention center grounds to continue to stand in solidarity with those detained in the largest ICE detention center in the Midwest. Surprisingly the GEO Group security did nothing day, but there was plenty of evidence that they were going to try and prevent such an action again.

When people first arrived yesterday they discovered a two foot wide red line painted on the main entrance to the grounds of the North Lake Concentration Camp, with the words NO TRESPASSING written in white, as shown in the photo above. It’s as if the GEO Group was saying you can no longer cross this line. Most of the reactions to the newly painted red line were that of laughter, as if they thought that painting a no trespass message would stop people from resisting this oppressive place. I kept thinking of the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the Black Knight says, “None shall pass!”

Another response to the June protest where people entered the North Lake grounds was that they cut down at least 10 trees. The trees they cut down were most likely to create a clear line of sight from the main building to the front gate, so they won’t be caught off guard again (shown in the photo below). But they cut down 10 trees, a few close to the ground, but most of them were cut 2-3 feet above ground. The remaining stumps also create another barrier, like the concrete ones built at prisons or military bases so people can’t easily drive into those areas. It would seem that the same way that the GEO Group disregards the well being of those they are making money off of while detaining them, they have a similar disregard for other living beings, in this case trees, in order to protect their interests from people resisting their brutality.

There was something else that we witnesses yesterday in Baldwin, which we have not seen as much of over the past year. There were numerous people who were there to monitor what those demanding the release of all detainees were doing. We saw several people filming those who were protesting, but every time we started to film them they stopped. There were some that just drove past the protest, mostly at a slow pace, as if to signal that they were watching us. There were also people on foot that appeared from various side streets to see what was happening, without getting too close. It is difficult to know if these were curious locals, if they were people who were supporting the GEO Group’s concentration camp or if they were paid informants. It is likely a combination of the three, but as I mentioned the presence of people monitoring then protesters was significant.

As for what people were doing that were there to resist the North Lake Concentration Camp, there were messages shared with the group from some of the detainees, since No Detention Centers regularly receives messages from those inside. Some people also share information about detainees or from former detainees. One example was a story about a Venezuelan journalist who spent months in North Lake and was eventually deported back to Venezuela. This former detainee and journalist recently wrote about the devastating earthquake in Venezuela, along with talking about the fact that several people who have been deported by the US were killed in the recent earthquakes. This was yet another sobering reminder of the harm that ICE commits against immigrant communities all across the country, whether from the traumatic separation of families, the harsh detention conditions or the economic and human cost of deportation.

Later in the evening when the GEO Group shift change was occurring, those resisting blocked the entrance to the gates. However, one could easily conclude that the GEO Group security guards had prevents employees from getting in, since they close and chained the gates shut shortly after people arrived yesterday to demand that everyone be released from the detention center.

Driving back from the protest I was once again celebrating the people who resisted oppression and injustice. In fact, this 4th of July may have been the most inspiring in my life, since it was most definitely not about celebration 250 years of the American Empire, rather I celebrated the actions of those who resist and their aspirations for a liberated world for all.