Berks Detention Center Closed for Good
A version of this article originally appeared in Pacific Citizen.
On January 31, 2023 the Berks County Residential Center (otherwise known as Berks Detention Center) has finally closed its doors.
PC readers may remember the Berks Detention Center coverage from 2019-2020 when JACL Philadelphia and Tsuru for Solidarity participated in a series of protests at the immigrant detention center located about 65 miles Northwest of Philadelphia. After years of community advocacy, the center had stopped detaining children in March 2021 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, after sitting empty for nearly one year, in January 2022, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began using the center to hold adult women. It should be noted that nearly all of these women, and the families detained at Berks before them, were legal asylum seekers.
Prior to its closure, families had reported verbal abuse, workers' rights abuses, medical neglect, and at least one case of sexual assault. In its more recent iteration as an immigrant women’s prison, detainees were isolated by denying visitation rights, fed with poor quality food that lacked nutritious value, given little time outdoors, and the detainees themselves were forced to clean their own facility.
Thankfully, after more than eight years of community organizing, Berks has finally closed its doors. A member of immigrant rights group Casa Pennsylvania, and former Berks detainee Liliana Perez shared her reaction to the news. "This victory feels like a dream. I feel happy, content, and free. Closing Berks Detention Center is the best thing that could have happened. I spent more than one month in detention and my sick daughter was never cared for or given the medicine she needed while I was in prison. This detention center created a lot of suffering, and I am overjoyed to see it finally close. The same freedom that I have (now) should be given to other immigrants in Pennsylvania and across the country."
This victory was achieved through the dedicated organizing efforts of more than a dozen immigrant rights groups from across the region who since 2015 have combined their efforts through the Shut Down Berks Coalition. The coalition regularly organized site-based vigils, rallies at the state capitol in Harrisburg, protests at ICE regional headquarters in Philadelphia, and countless other direct actions and letter writing campaigns.
Sansei incarceration survivor and longtime member of the Shut Down Berks Coalition Hiro Nishikawa attended the event and shared some memories of his involvement in the campaign. “I've lost count of how many times and which orgs led the vigils and rallies I joined in front of the Detention Center where undocumented aliens were housed. It was frustrating when we learned that the building facilities were own by the surrounding municipality which had a financial interest in 'renting' the facility for revenue income - regardless of the nature of incarceration.” Nishikawa was first alerted to the Shut Down Berks movement through the immigrant rights advocacy work he was involved in, which called for comprehensive immigration reform. The last significant effort in Congress for immigration reform took place in 2013 when a bill that had passed the Democratic controlled Senate failed to gain traction in the Republican majority House of Representatives. Given the lack of comprehensive legislative reform in the past decade, site fights like Berks have become more pronounced in the overall advocacy strategy for many immigrant rights groups.
It is impossible to estimate how many hours were devoted by the many diverse groups of activists who contributed to the efforts of the Shut Down Berks Coalition, but a victory party hosted last week in Reading Pennsylvania (7 miles from Berks) demonstrated the diversity of the individuals involved in this movement.
About 75 people were in attendance, among whom were members of Pennsylvania Immigrant and Citizenship Coalition (PICC), Make the Road PA, Juntos, Casa Pennsylvania, Free Migration Project, Council on American Islamic Relations Philadelphia, Berks Stands Up, Universalist Unitarian Church Reading, Tsuru for Solidarity, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, New York Day of Remembrance Committee, and JACL Philadelphia Chapter. The event was celebratory in nature, bringing together members of the coalition for a buffet style meal, drinks, and dancing. In the background played a slide show featuring photos taken throughout the eight-year campaign.
A highlight of the event were the powerful remarks from Lorena, a young mother who was incarcerated with her son at the detention center for nearly two years. In a heartfelt speech that she spoke in Spanish before being translated into English, Lorena said, "for me it is a pleasure. The best news I have heard. Happy to know that there will never again be families in Berks Detention. No more depressed children locked up. Freedom is the most valuable thing that can be had, thanks to the support from everyone. Families should not arrive to be confined, no matter where they are from. I am more than happy that it will be closed down."
While the coalition members spent the evening basking in the warm glow of victory, many are now looking at the fight ahead as their organizations plan to continue advocating for comprehensive immigration reform and an end to the immigrant detention system. Becca Asaki from the Tsuru for Solidarity and New York Day of Remembrance Committee shared the following statement about what the closure of Berks means within the larger context of the immigrant rights movement.
“In the face of an escalation of criminalization, militarized targeting, and continued cruel treatment of migrants across the country, it is more important than ever to celebrate wins like shutting down the Berk Family Detention Center. This win demonstrates the power of communities coming together to demand an end to harmful detention sites that inflict trauma on children and families. Tsuru for Solidarity and the New York Day of Remembrance are proud of the role we played in bringing the moral authority of Japanese Americans into this fight and in building a multiracial coalition with directly impacted communities in this effort.”
Indeed, Japanese Americans in Pennsylvania and throughout the country must continue to stand against immigrant detention. Our community knows better than many, the lasting trauma that incarceration has wrought across generations.
Hiro Nishikawa was present at the very first Berks vigil organized by the Universalist Unitarian Church in 2015, so it was fitting for him to be present at a victory celebration he was not sure would ever come to pass. Nishikawa shared his reactions to the closure, “given the public ownership of the Berks facility many of us did not expect this ‘shut down’ outcome. But we are happy to see it happen. The unexpected impact of attending the Shut Down Berks celebration was the joy of meeting folks from the past vigils under pleasant circumstances. However recent events are presenting new situations involving refugees from armed conflicts, natural disasters, political upheavals, and so forth. So how will the busloads of refugees being shipped to U.S. cities be managed fairly and humanely?”
As Japanese Americans, it is a moral responsibility to contribute our historical perspective and lived experience to these movements, as Nishikawa has so eloquently modeled through his years of allyship to contemporary immigrant communities. As JACL members we must continue this work as we amplify the voices of the frontline communities who are currently being impacted by the institutional violence of mass incarceration.