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The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency – or ICE – began a massive transfer yesterday of immigrant detainees from the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island. The transfers came rather unexpectedly and are following investigations into the case of a Chinese immigrant who died this past August while being held. The ACLU affiliate of Rhode Island is demanding records pertaining to the death as they claimed the detainee failed to receive proper medical attention in the facility and died as a result of undiagnosed and untreated cancer. Immigrant detention facilities and the ICE raids that partly fill them have long been criticized by immigrant rights organizations. Locally in Southern California, a new coalition has formed on the basis of calling on an end to such raids and for legalization for undocumented immigrants. On the occasion of International Human Rights Day, the Southern California Immigration Coalition is holding a vigil and a march at Olvera Street in what they say is just the first in a series of actions aimed at sustaining momentum for just immigration reform.

GUEST: Miguel Zavala, Union del Barrio

For more information, please visit www.immigrationcoalition.org