READ OUR LATEST BRIEF!
This brief outlines strategies and lessons the coalition learned throughout the years, with the intention of assisting other campaigns focused on liberation and the closure of detention centers.ā
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 (YLC), formerly Somos 15 and then
Free The Yuba 11, was created in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic when legal service providers, organizers, and advocates joined efforts to free as many people from ICE custody at Yuba County Jail (YCJ) as possible. For two years the Yuba Liberation Coalition worked closely with currently and formerly detained individuals, faith groups, grassroots and immigrants’ rights organizations, and community members to fight for the liberation of everyone in immigrant custody at the Yuba County Jail and to terminate the contract between the jail and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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Organizations that make up the Yuba Liberation Coalition include the ACLU of Northern California, California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, Carlos Sauceda, Faithful Friends, and Pangea Legal Services.
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.
MEDIA
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2022.01.21 | Appeal Democrat | ICE halts new intakes at Yuba Co. Jail
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2021.12.17 | KQED | Protesters Demand ICE Stop Using Yuba Jail to Detain Immigrants
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2021.10.28 | La Opinión | Liberan al último inmigrante detenido en cárcel del norte de California
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2021.10.21 | SF Chronicle | Congressional Lawmakers Take Aim at Three Detention Centers
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2021.10.21 | La Opinión | Piden a Mayorkas cierre de centros de detención de Adelanto y Otay Mesa
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2021.10.21 | Davis Vanguard | And Then There Were Two: Legal Counsel for Last Two Immigrants Held by ICE in Yuba County Jail Tell Court Migrants’ Detention Unlawful
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2018.05 | AP News | Yuba County sheriff: $6.5M ICE contract critical
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PRESS RELEASES
PUBLIC DOCUMENTS OF INTEREST
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”
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During the holiday season, on December 27th, 2021, Yuba County Jail began its repopulation efforts and currently houses 3 individuals for ICE.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Yuba County Jail responded to the COVID-19 outbreak by using solitary confinement as quarantine, and forcing sick individuals to clean their own cells.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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