Wednesday night, a guard at a for-profit ICE Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island drove a truck into a group of peaceful protesters. Then a squad of prison guards came out and pepper sprayed us in the face. Five people were hospitalized, including one person with a fractured leg. These assaults are just a small example of the horrifying violence that ICE uses against our immigrant neighbors every day.

The violent incident occurred after more than three hours of peaceful protesting outside the facility where more than 100 asylum-seekers are currently detained. Some 500 Jews and allies had gathered to demand the prison end its contract with ICE and to call for an end to the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrant communities.

Please add your name to our petition supporting the call from immigrants and protesters in Rhode Island - shut down the Wyatt Detention Center and release our immigrant neighbors!

The Rhode Island protest followed more than 30 nonviolent demonstrations and actions since June 30 affiliated with the national Jewish movement Never Again Action (#JewsAgainstICE). The protests have occurred in cities across the country including Portland, New York, Cleveland, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Denver.

In addition to calling on the Wyatt Detention Facility to end its contract with ICE, Never Again protesters in Rhode Island initially demanded that the Wyatt administrators allow local organizations in to the facility to meet with immigrants being held in detention, that they allow doctors to tour the facility and observe its medical services, and that they release information on any collaboration between the Wyatt and ICE detention facilities in Plymouth and Bristol counties in Massachusetts.

But those demands were met with violence, and Never Again Action protesters in Rhode Island are now calling explicitly for the closure of the Wyatt Detention Facility and immediate release of all ICE detainees.

Will you add your name to this petition supporting those demands?

As Jews, our families taught us the lessons of the Holocaust, and we promised that we would speak out and act if we ever saw a group of people being targeted, dehumanized, and rounded up. We will continue to answer the call of our ancestors and sound the alarm: #NeverAgainIsNow.

Every person in the United States needs to join the fight to close the concentration camps, shut down ICE, release imprisoned asylum-seekers, and secure permanent protection for all undocumented people in the U.S.

Will you join the growing chorus of immigrants, Jews and allies demanding safety, freedom, and dignity at the border and in our neighborhoods? Will you add your name to this petition supporting immigrants and the Never Again protesters calling for the Wyatt Detention Center to close?

Photo credit: Kris Craig of the Providence Journal