ICE Targets Western Wyoming as Debate Over Prison Heats Up

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Contact
Antonio Serrano, antonio@juntoswyo.com, (347)758-2497

Community member targeted by ICE at his place of employment

Kemmerer, Wyoming — Yesterday, in yet another attack on the stability of communities nationwide, Kemmerer resident, Javier Hernandez Arriaga, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at his place of employment, Gonzalez Mexican American Grill. The father of two young children, Javier, 42, has lived in the community for six years — now his family is demanding his release as the community rallies behind him.

“Javier is a loving father and husband,” said Javier’s wife, Irene Hernandez. “He is so loving that on top of raising his two daughters he also raised two step children as his own. He is also a hard worker who provides for his family and his parents in Mexico.”

The targeting of Javier comes as Evanston and Uinta County are considering a proposal for a new immigration detention prison. The facility would be run by the Management and Training Corporation (MTC), a private prison company that is looking to expand after ICE issued a request for additional detention beds late last year.

“ICE is an agency rotten to its core,” said Antonio Serrano, member of the #WyoSayNo Coalition. “They cruelly separate families like Javier’s everyday and now under the guidance of the racist Trump administration they are rapidly working to expand the unjust and inhumane detention system here in Wyoming.”

The #WyoSayNo Coalition is fighting alongside Javier’s family as they demand his release while educating the community at every turn on ICE’s egregious track record of abuse and the overwhelming reasons to oppose the detention center proposal.

“The political spin of prisons as an economic driver for local economies is an outright lie,” said Sabrina King, member of the #WyoSayNo Coalition. “The only pockets that prisons benefit are the toxic corporations and that profit off of people’s pain, like Javier.”

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#WyoSayNo is a grassroots coalition of individuals and organizations dedicated to stopping the proposed Uinta County immigration prison. We are here to keep our families together, protect our rural communities, and to say Wyoming won’t detain for private gain.