Things are quickly changing for the Cameroonians at Prairieland Detention Center, and we wanted to give you an update.
Our friends at RAICES and North Texas Dream Team spent the night outside Prairieland Detention Center, protesting this mass deportation and bearing witness. For live updates from the ground, check out NTDT’s Facebook page.
Buses have been transporting people throughout the night and this morning. Organizers are reporting that the number and sizes of the buses suggest that about 100 to 120 people could easily be transported through them.
You know that the deportation of these folks is incredibly dangerous and that they risk reprisal by government actors if they are returned. We believe that these deportations are retaliation against Cameroonians for protesting and hunger striking against anti-Blackness, sterilization, and general medical negligence in detention. Legal organizations have raised the alarm that Cameroonians have been coerced into signing paperwork giving up their claims for safety and that the U.S. government has relied on false travel documents to try to deport Cameroonians in the past.
We need your continued help to try to stop these deportations.
Can you help by doing the following TODAY?
- Lifting this work on social media with hashtag: #freecameroonians
- Flood social media pages to demand an end to the impending deportation.
- Call the members of the Congressional Black Caucus: 202-224-3121
Ask for Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Karen Bass, Joyce Beatty, Brenda Lawrence, Donald McEachin, Hank Johnson, Steven Horsford, Yvette Clarke. Leave them a message!
Here’s a suggested call script:
My name is , and I am a resident of _ calling to demand a stop to the planned deportation of Cameroonian nationals today, many of whom were detained at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado outside of the DFW metroplex. Given the current conditions in Cameroon, it’s extremely likely that anyone returned will face a high risk of being detained, beaten, disappeared, tortured, or possibly killed, for the reasons outlined in the recent bipartisan Senate resolution on Cameroon’s five armed conflicts and human rights abuses. These deportations are retaliation for Cameroonians going on hunger strike to protest anti-Blackness, sterilization, and general medical negligence in detention. I am concerned that their travel documents have been faked; we know this is a frequent issue for Cameroonians, and ICE is refusing to show their documents. It is our moral and legal responsibility never to return people into the hands of persecutors. I call on you to stop these planned deportations now.
Honored to fight alongside you.