Yuba Liberation Coalition

We recently learned that ICE plans to transfer the individuals detained at Yuba County Jail instead of releasing them. Please help us get them home in time for the holidays!

TAKE ACTION TO STOP TRANSFERS HERE!

Yuba County was the last county in California to hold a contract with ICE to detain immigrants.

READ OUR PRESS RELEASE HERE

MEDIA ON CONTRACT TERMINATION

Dec 9, 2022 | CBS News | ICE terminates contract with Yuba County Jail, last county contract in California

Dec 9, 2022 | KQED | 'Waste of Federal Funds': ICE Ends Contract With Northern California Jail After Years of Outrage Over Conditions

Dec 9, 2022 | SF Chronicle | It's The Last California Jail To Get Out Of The Immigrant Detention Business

Dec 9, 2022 | Appeal Democrat | ICE ends contract with county: Yuba County Jail to no longer house federal immigration detainees

Dec 9, 2022 | Sac Bee | ICE will end contract with the Yuba County Jail. Pact was last of its kind in California

Dec 10, 2022 | Davis Vanguard | DHS Cancels Yuba County Jail Contract, Ending Last ICE Contract with California Jail

Dec 12, 2022 | WBUR | ICE ends contract with California jail after years of outcry

DECADES OF VIOLATIONS AT THE YUBA COUNTY JAIL -AN URGENT CALL TO END THEIR CONTRACT WITH ICE

Learn more about the background information on Yuba County, details about the contract between ICE and Yuba County Jail, and the depopulation efforts from legal service providers, organizers and the community in the brief below.

ABOUT THE YUBA LIBERATION COALITION

The Yuba Liberation Coalition was previously the #FreeTheYuba11 Coalition. It began in April 2021 when 11 individuals were still detained at Yuba County Jail. The coalition has two goals: release everyone detained at Yuba County Jail and end the contract between Yuba County and ICE. On October 27, 2021, we were able to achieve our first goal: Ricardo, the last person detained by ICE at the facility was released!

However, as of December 27, 2021 the jail has been populated again as a detention facility.

Secretary Mayorkas’ failure to swiftly act and terminate the contract between ICE and YCJ is already resulting in more community members being detained at this notorious jail. We will not stop until our community members are safe from detention and until there is an end to the contract between Yuba County and ICE.

The Yuba Liberation Coalition is made up of immigrant rights organizations and formerly and currently detained leaders such as: Carlos Sauceda, ACLU Norcal, California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, Faithful Friends, and Pangea Legal.

Protest outside of Yuba Government Center.jpg

JOIN US IN OUR DEMAND:

Release the remaining 4 individuals detained at the Yuba County Jail.

SO THAT NO ONE WALKS IN THESE SHOES EVER AGAIN

At YCJ they don’t give detained individuals shoes, they give them sandals. In the fall and winer it is freezing cold, people's feet go numb. One day someone was able to buy a pair of shoes. Once people realized what a difference a pair of shoes could make they made sure everyone had a pair of shoes.

"That was the only humanity we were allowed to have at the Yuba County Jail," remembers Carlos, detained at the Jail for two years. "We always had a pair of shoes for everyone new. People who were deported and released would leave their shoes behind so others could wear them. Those shoes have become a symbol. Today I ask you first, to put yourselves in those shoes, in the shoes of those who have suffered the inhumane treatment of immigrant detention. And second, to help us so no one has to wear those ugly grey shoes ever again. Those shoes belong in the trash, they shouldn’t be used by any human being."

- Carlos Sauceda, detained at the Yuba County Jail by ICE for 2 years.

12 REASONS TO END THE CONTRACT BETWEEN YCJ & ICE:

Yuba County is the last local government in California to agree to detain people for ICE, and this contract is set to be in effect “indefinitely”

During the holiday season, on December 27th, 2021, Yuba County Jail began its repopulation efforts and currently houses 3 individuals for ICE.

Yuba County receives $24,000 daily from the federal government for their contract with ICE, regardless of how many people are detained at Yuba County Jail.

It is well reported and documented that Yuba County Jail is guilty of a myriad of civil rights violations, and subjects individuals to inhumane living conditions. Carlos Sauceda, who endured 2 years of detention at Yuba County Jail, recounts his story here.

Since 1979, the Yuba County Jail has been under federal court oversight because conditions there were said to be so bad they violated the Constitution.

In response to the lack of PPE, medical care, and recently the lack of general protection from COVID-19, individuals detained at Yuba County Jail have gone on at least 6 hunger strikes over the span of 4 years.

Yuba County Jail's grossly inadequate response to the COVID-19 pandemic led to a major outbreak in December 2020 of 30% of the incarcerated population and 9 out of 20 of the individuals detained for ICE.

Yuba County Jail responded to the COVID-19 outbreak by using solitary confinement as quarantine, and forcing sick individuals to clean their own cells.

25 members of Congress support the call to terminate the contract between ICE and YCJ, including the Representative in whose district Yuba County Jail is located.

Yuba County jail has a record for retaliation against individuals detained for exercising their First Amendment Rights, leading to the ACLU and other organizations filing a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Right and Civil Liberties highlighting these abuses.

Individuals who were once detained for several months at Yuba County Jail while awaiting their immigration proceedings have now been released into their communities. They are a living testament to the possibility of a world without immigration detention!

Yuba County Jail and it’s horrible conditions are not unique - ending the contract between Yuba County Jail and ICE is part of a larger push to end inhumane immigration detention everywhere.