Protesters Slam Gates Foundation for Private Prison Profits
"Unless they divest, the Gates Foundation will drag their legacy into the mud of wasteful, overcrowded and abusive immigrant prisons"
Dozens rallied outside the Seattle headquarters of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Thursday to protest their investment in GEO Group--a notorious private prison company profiting from high levels of deportation and detention of suspected undocumented people under President Obama.
Immigrant justice campaigners, prison divestment advocates, and Gates Foundation grantees delivered 10,000 petition signatures demanding "immediately withdraw its investment in the GEO Group."
"GEO Group makes billions of dollars putting people in cages -- and they drive profits by lobbying to put more people behind bars for minor crimes," said Arturo Carmona, Executive Director of Presente.org. "With Latinos now the largest group in federal prisons and detention centers--mostly for minor or non-existent crimes--the Gates' investment is particularly galling for us. Unless they divest, the Gates Foundation will drag their legacy into the mud of wasteful, overcrowded and abusive immigrant prisons."
During the rally, Jose Moreno, 25--who is one of the hundreds of people detained at the nearby Northwest Detention Center that recently partook in a hunger strike--told the crowd in Spanish that he wanted to draw attention to the conditions at the facility, saying it's "jail not a detention."
"The Gates Foundation should be ashamed for putting money into the business of separating families and into the business of making money off those that are the most vulnerable," added Maru Mora Villalpando, an immigrant and activist with the anti-deportation group Not1More.
The Gates Foundation, which is chaired by Bill Gates, invests $2.2 million in the GEO Group by way of a trust.
Under increasing attention due to the growing protest movement, GEO Group has faced accusations of prisoner abuse, medical neglect, rampant violence, and civil rights violations in their prison facilities, including hundreds of lawsuits -- many of them settled before trial.
_____________________
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Dozens rallied outside the Seattle headquarters of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Thursday to protest their investment in GEO Group--a notorious private prison company profiting from high levels of deportation and detention of suspected undocumented people under President Obama.
Immigrant justice campaigners, prison divestment advocates, and Gates Foundation grantees delivered 10,000 petition signatures demanding "immediately withdraw its investment in the GEO Group."
"GEO Group makes billions of dollars putting people in cages -- and they drive profits by lobbying to put more people behind bars for minor crimes," said Arturo Carmona, Executive Director of Presente.org. "With Latinos now the largest group in federal prisons and detention centers--mostly for minor or non-existent crimes--the Gates' investment is particularly galling for us. Unless they divest, the Gates Foundation will drag their legacy into the mud of wasteful, overcrowded and abusive immigrant prisons."
During the rally, Jose Moreno, 25--who is one of the hundreds of people detained at the nearby Northwest Detention Center that recently partook in a hunger strike--told the crowd in Spanish that he wanted to draw attention to the conditions at the facility, saying it's "jail not a detention."
"The Gates Foundation should be ashamed for putting money into the business of separating families and into the business of making money off those that are the most vulnerable," added Maru Mora Villalpando, an immigrant and activist with the anti-deportation group Not1More.
The Gates Foundation, which is chaired by Bill Gates, invests $2.2 million in the GEO Group by way of a trust.
Under increasing attention due to the growing protest movement, GEO Group has faced accusations of prisoner abuse, medical neglect, rampant violence, and civil rights violations in their prison facilities, including hundreds of lawsuits -- many of them settled before trial.
_____________________
Dozens rallied outside the Seattle headquarters of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Thursday to protest their investment in GEO Group--a notorious private prison company profiting from high levels of deportation and detention of suspected undocumented people under President Obama.
Immigrant justice campaigners, prison divestment advocates, and Gates Foundation grantees delivered 10,000 petition signatures demanding "immediately withdraw its investment in the GEO Group."
"GEO Group makes billions of dollars putting people in cages -- and they drive profits by lobbying to put more people behind bars for minor crimes," said Arturo Carmona, Executive Director of Presente.org. "With Latinos now the largest group in federal prisons and detention centers--mostly for minor or non-existent crimes--the Gates' investment is particularly galling for us. Unless they divest, the Gates Foundation will drag their legacy into the mud of wasteful, overcrowded and abusive immigrant prisons."
During the rally, Jose Moreno, 25--who is one of the hundreds of people detained at the nearby Northwest Detention Center that recently partook in a hunger strike--told the crowd in Spanish that he wanted to draw attention to the conditions at the facility, saying it's "jail not a detention."
"The Gates Foundation should be ashamed for putting money into the business of separating families and into the business of making money off those that are the most vulnerable," added Maru Mora Villalpando, an immigrant and activist with the anti-deportation group Not1More.
The Gates Foundation, which is chaired by Bill Gates, invests $2.2 million in the GEO Group by way of a trust.
Under increasing attention due to the growing protest movement, GEO Group has faced accusations of prisoner abuse, medical neglect, rampant violence, and civil rights violations in their prison facilities, including hundreds of lawsuits -- many of them settled before trial.
_____________________