Retired Minister Borrows $28,750 for Bail : 7 Immigration Detention Camp Hunger Strikers Freed

The seven remaining hunger strikers at an immigration detention camp here were released Monday after a local minister posted bail for them.

The Rev. Alex W. Koski, a retired Lutheran minister, borrowed $28,750 from a local bank to free the seven--two Salvadorans, a Chinese, Cuban, Peruvian, Guyanese and Honduran. On Friday, Koski posted $2,750 bail for another Salvadoran alien who had joined the hunger strike, which began on Memorial Day.

The release of the seven men on Monday marked the end of the weeklong strike, which was called to protest what the aliens say are overcrowding, poor sanitation and violations of their rights at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service camp.

Koski said that he might be risking losing the money he borrowed on behalf of the strikers, but he said he would “be repaid somehow.” The seven men have filed for political asylum, but they had been kept in detention for as long as 18 months because they could not post bond.

Koski said he decided to act because of his religious beliefs and because of his opposition to INS policies.

“We dare not close our eyes to human need and injustice. If we do, it can end up as a denial of our own rights,” Koski said.

Some strikers charged that INS officials run the camp without regard to the aliens’ rights. During the strike, attorneys for the strikers were denied access to their clients.

The denial prompted the attorneys to file suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and resulted in a judicial order forcing camp officials to allow the strikers to meet with their attorneys.

Robert C. Roll, agent in charge at the facility, said that INS officials considered the strike an “emergency” and decided it would be safer to keep the attorneys out of the camp during the first three days. Initially, 175 of the camp’s approximately 500 detainees participated in the hunger strike.

Koski said that the barring of attorneys from the facility is an example of the authoritarian power of the INS.

“In this country, we expect all people to be dealt with according to the law and not at the whim and fancy of those in power,” Koski said. “The INS has been acting as a law onto itself.”

On Monday, immigration officials took almost six hours to complete the procedure to release the men. Roll, who declined to comment on the release of the strikers, explained the delay, saying, “It takes time to complete the paper work,” which involves a single form for each alien.

The seven strikers were Walter Chu of China, Noe Zelaya Zelaya and Jose Hilario Martinez of El Salvador, Oscar Hernandez Rodriguez of Cuba and San Diego, Antonio Carassa Carassa of Peru, Rex Singh of Guyana and Emilio Javier Flores of Honduras. Also released was Jose Alberto Flores of El Salvador, who says that he was beaten by Border Patrol officers Thursday.