San Diego group named 2023 recipient of the Rev. John Guttermann Legacy Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@freedomforimmigrants.org

SAN DIEGO — Freedom for Immigrants (FFI) has announced Detention Resistance as the 2023 recipient of the Rev. John Guttermann Legacy Award in celebration of the group’s achievements, including its investments in developing the leadership of those most impacted by immigration detention, organizing of direct actions to amplify demands for freedom, and public advocacy work advancing the organizers’ expansive abolitionist values.

The Rev. John Guttermann Legacy Award is presented annually to local Visitation Groups in the FFI National Visitation Network in recognition of their achievements and critical contributions to the detention abolition movement.

“The Detention Resistance collective is honored for this recognition of our work in San Diego,” said Miguel-Angel, member of Detention Resistance. “We would not be able to carry out our mission in the way we do without the support of our friends at Freedom for Immigrants. We will continue to carry out our mission in accompaniment with compas inside and outside of detention, and persevere in the fight to shut down the Otay Mesa Detention Center.”

Established in 2018 by San Diego community members, the grassroots group evolved out of the organizers’ existing relationships both with those detained locally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at Otay Mesa Detention Center and with migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, who were also subject to the violence and harm of past or future detention at Otay Mesa.

“In just a few short years, Detention Resistance has grown into an indispensable ally and partner in the movement to abolish immigration detention,” said Layla Razavi, interim executive director of Freedom for Immigrants. “Through its work building relationships at the local level, Detention Resistance has built a powerful community that is grounded in the visionary leadership of those most impacted by detention — and the impact of this work will continue to be felt in Southern California and across the country. We’re excited to recognize Detention Resistance with this honor, and we look forward to continuing to work alongside them as we build toward our collective liberation.”

Detention Resistance’s efforts to elevate the voices of those inside Otay Mesa only strengthened with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite ongoing government retaliation. In April 2020, the group helped secure critical media coverage of CoreCivic staff pepper-spraying women for expressing frustration for being required to sign contracts releasing the company from liability in order to obtain face masks.

Later that year, Carlos Escobar Mejia died of COVID-19 at Otay Mesa, marking the first known COVID-19 death to occur in ICE custody. Days later, Detention Resistance transcribed and publicly shared a collective letter from 43 detained individuals to California lawmakers demanding that they intervene. Within a month, ICE had blocked calls from the inside to Detention Resistance, citing the “highly disrupting behavior” of those detained. Not to be deterred, Detention Resistance helped found Free Them All San Diego, a powerful coalition of over a dozen immigrants rights organizations committed to the closure of Otay Mesa.

Detention Resistance has continued to help expose serious abuses at Otay Mesa in addition to the ongoing COVID-19 negligence, including the detention facility’s sole psychologist’s harmful and unethical behavior and the retaliatory out-of-state transfers of those who have organized and publicly advocated for their release. The group strategically supports policy efforts such as state legislation that would stop the practice of community members being funneled from local jails and the state prison system into ICE detention. FFI is especially inspired by the creative direct actions and powerful communications that Detention Resistance has organized over the years, such as podcasts, phone zaps and Día de los Muertos altars.

Learn more about Detention Resistance here.

For more information about the FFI National Visitation Network, click here.

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Freedom for Immigrants established the annual Reverend John Guttermann Legacy Award in honor of Rev. John Guttermann, a leading voice in the detention visitation movement who passed away suddenly in 2016 after a diagnosis of brain cancer. Rev. Guttermann was the founder of Conversations with Friends, a Minnesota-based Visitation Group. Click here to learn more.

Freedom for Immigrants (FFI) is devoted to abolishing immigration detention, while ending the isolation of people currently suffering in this profit-driven system. FFI monitors the human rights abuses faced by immigrants detained by ICE through a national hotline and network of volunteer detention visitors, while promoting community-based services that welcome immigrants into the social fabric of the United States.

Photo: Detention Resistance receiving the 2023 Rev. John Guttermann Legacy Award at FFI's 10th Anniversary Celebration in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 27, 2023. Photo by Arash Afshar.