Three day hunger strike wraps up in Santa Cruz
A group of women from around the Central Coast and Bay Area are wrapping up a three day hunger strike in Santa Cruz.
They held the strike to call for the reunification of families separated at the border, “we really need to put pressure on our government to reunite these families,” says participant Susan Schweik.
Rae Steward, who help organize the hunger strikes that are happening across the nation says they started these to stand in solidarity with the women who are hunger striking at Port Isabel Detention Facility in Texas.
Those are some of the women who were separated from their children at the border.
“That just really resinated with me and saw it as an action we could do to kind of follow their leadership and support the actions that we’re already doing and we just started brain storming and organizing and this really just took on a life of its own. Now we have this whole national rolling hunger strike that’s happening.”
Participant Masina Hunnicutt says she came to the US 12 years ago and knows the immigration process is difficult. She says it’s especially hard when you do not have anyone in the states to help.
“I know their are immigrants like myself who support this zero tolerance policy. We wouldn’t be here if there weren’t people here in the states that supported us and that’s the situation that these parents are in. And then as a parent there is absolutely nothing I wouldn’t do for my kid. I would literally kill to make sure my kid is safe, and that’s what these parents are doing,” says Hunnicutt.
Aside from the reunification of families, Hunnicutt hopes for an immigration reform, “I don’t believe in just opening our borders and hey come free for all because that’s not sustainable but we need to have laws and understanding that people, you know make it easy make it simpler.”
President Donald Trump’s Administration says they are working to get the families reunited, but with some parents already in another country or serving time in jail for crimes, it has been difficult.
According to the Department of Justice there are more than 500 children still separated from their parents.
