#tacomawa — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #tacomawa, aggregated by home.social.
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05-01-2026 - Tacoma WA - GEO Group “CERT” employees hiding in NWDC parking lot.
Background: The Northwest Detention Center, also known as the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWDC/NWIPC), is for-profit owned and operated by GEO Group, located in Tacoma, Washington.
“CERT Teams are SWAT-Like units meant to surveil and repress detained people at NWDC”. “Every time I see that uniform with CERT, I have a panic attack, think something is going to happen to me. I got assaulted once CERT staff. When I see them, I stay away from them” - NWDC detainee, 04/28/2025, La Resistencia
On September 1st 2025, we attended a protest at the NWDC in Tacoma WA, and took a photo of a GEO Group employee in a black uniform wearing a black tactical vest with a unique patch. We researched the patch at the time, but didn’t find anything conclusive. *If you have a better photo, specific insight, or design-identifying information on this patch, let us know.*
“I have been a subject of sheer retaliation by GEO (officer Berame) and his CERT gang due to my grievances. They have been retaliating with bogus write up, biased hearings, and solitary confinement with the blessing of higher management and ICE. Subsequently, i submitted a couple of grievances against Berame he told me, I’m ‘just an immigrant. Nobody is going to believe (me).’ He is right about that because no one does anything about these dehumanizing and abusive behaviors. They can do anything with impunity, including sexual harassments.” – 02/20/2024, La Resistencia
During a May 1st 2026 protest at the NWDC, we noticed (2) GEO Group employees hiding behind a tinted, black 4x4 Ford F150 truck. Both kept peering over the back of the truck bed off/on. One of them was wearing a black “CERT” hat. Once they decided to stop hiding and go inside, both appeared to be wearing “CERT” hats along with (the now-identified) “CERT” patches on their uniforms.
According to a 2023 PDF on geogroup.com, “C.E.R.T.” is cited as an acronym for “Correctional Emergency Response Team”. However, according to a later 2024 PDF on geogroup.com, “C.E.R.T.” is listed as “Community Emergency Response Team”. This slip-up in the 2024 document is not entirely an accident.
Both 2023 and 2024 documents detail separate instances of CERT directing up to (50) middle school students (in Folkston GA, from a Junior Sheriff’s Academy) in use-of-force demonstrations. In 2023 and 2024 photos, middle school students are pictured “in full riot gear” handcuffing people.
https://geogroup.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GEO-World-Q2-2023.pdf – (Page 11)
https://www.geogroup.com/media/d4nfxbbz/2q-geo-world-2024_final-resize.pdf – (Page 19)
“GEO Prison sent their CERT Team to demonstrate the importance of their rapid response to unruly prisoners!” - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10222593249916209&set=pb.1120666873.-2207520000&type=3
NPR’s 2025 article on GEO Group and ICE in Folkston GA is worth the read: https://www.npr.org/2025/10/13/nx-s1-5538441/ice-detainees-folkston-georgia
“How awful for carceral facilities to co-opt the term CERT! The COMMUNITY Emergency Response Team program (in contrast to the correctional Emergency Response Team program), has a history of outstanding support during times of distress and duress during natural disaster, mobilizing citizens and residents to aid in emergency communications and service to anyone regardless of status.” – social media response.
This comment highlights the “CERT” acronym being widely understood and utilized for purposes quite different than instilling fear within a privately operated detention center. A quick Google search for “Community Emergency Response Team” returns a variety of local and federal services across the U.S.
https://www.google.com/search?&q=Community+Emergency+Response+Team
When the (2) GEO Group employees exited from hiding behind the truck, they weren’t just wearing “CERT” gear, they were also wearing name tags. One of the name tags was “Berame”. It would seem certain there’s only one Tacoma GEO Group employee with that name. See quotes from “La Resistencia”
Berame is mentioned 15x in graphic detail within a recent 02/12/2026 article on prospect.org:
“The three plaintiffs, all Black men in Tacoma, Washington’s Northwest ICE Processing Center, say that the assaults reflect a “recurring pattern by a group of guards,” especially defendants Justin Berame and Kobe Suafoa.”
https://prospect.org/2026/02/12/ice-immigration-prison-geo-group-trump/
So, that’s why GEO Group “CERT” employees were hiding in the parking lot.
“The guard was also involved in the alleged assaults on the two other plaintiffs, and he carried a mug adorned with a sticker of the Proud Boys, the right-wing extremist group, according to the suit. The filing, noting each plaintiff is Black, alleges that GEO Group “determined it appropriate to allow openly racist employees substantial power over non-white incarcerated persons.”
https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article314608363.html
Assaults and sexual assaults are not new topics at the NWDC. Last year, the University of Washington Center for Human Rights released a detailed report on assaults at the NWDC, largely pinning inaction on the Tacoma Police Department, ICE, and GEO Group. In 2024, TPD erroneously reported the privately run for-profit detention center was “Not TPD jurisdiction” and to “let staff know they can handle the complaint in house”
--> 10 slides, see thread below
#Tacoma #TacomaWA #ICE #GEOGroup #NWDC #NWIPC #ShutdownNWDC #ShutdownNWIPC
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05-01-2026 - Tacoma WA - May Day + NWDC
Photos from Tacoma's May Day Rally & March to NWDC
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🚨 The #GhostFlights: #Deportation Flights #Disappearing Thousands Arrested by #ICE
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Feb. 6, 2026
"We've been tracking the Ghost Flights, disappearing migrants, moms, asylum seekers, and others arrested in Minneapolis, who are quickly grabbed and taken away at a private terminal at Minneapolis international airport.
"The charter airlines are making it harder to track them, but here's what we found: #GlobalX, #Eastern and #Omni based in #TulsaOK, have operated most of these, with Sun Country also operating some of the flights.
"These secretive flights take those arrested to deportation hubs in isolated areas, where they are sent to prison, deported to other countries, or constantly shifted on flights. These secretive hubs are in #DadeCollier in the Florida Everglades; Alexandria in central Louisiana; and Harlingen on the Texas border.
"Those arrested are boarded shackled in chains from their wrists to their feet, and often denied water and food, and abused. While these secretive flights disappear people, their families desperately search for them.
"The flights out of #MesaAZ in the #Phoenix area are deporting hundreds on each flight to #Venezuela. A recent flight out of Mesa deported those arrested to #Russia and #Iran. The past flights show the men were immediately given #Draft notices for military service when they arrived in Russia. Protesters and political #AsylumSeekers face worse.
"As for the chartered airlines, the main contract is held by #CSI in #AlbuquerqueNM, who contracts out the other airlines.
"Yesterday, a Ghost Flight landed in #Guantanamo and then #Haiti. These are #moms, #workers, asylum seekers, #LegalResidents, and most are whisked away and denied due process. More than 2,000 have been deported from #Minneapolis.
"Other major hubs for deportation flights are #ElPaso, #Miami, #SanAntonio, and #TacomaWA. The deportation flights are arriving in every region of the world, the Americas, Asia, and Africa." 😱
Read more (includes flight maps):
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-ghost-flights-deportation-flights.html#ReaderSupportedNews #DefundICE #StopTheDeportations #DefundDHS #BorderPatrol #MurderPatrol #ICESucks #KristiNoemSucks #USPol #SilencingDissent #Disappeared #Orwellian
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For awareness:
GEO Vans, or GEO Group vans.
- From Washington State
- As pictured from April 2025 at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) aka Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) located in Tacoma Washington
Typically with "GEO Transport" on the side, US DOT # and standard (non-exempt/non-XMT) WA license plates.
#Portland #PortlandOR #PDX #Oregon #ICE #NWDC #Tacoma #TacomaWA #TacomaWashington #GEOGroup #ShutdownNWDC #NWIPC
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> This is a preventable consequence of medical violence due to delayed treatment at the hands of the NWDC and GEO Group. The Tanggol Migrante Movement is also appalled by the blatant inaction of the Philippine Consulate.
Short link:
https://tinyurl.com/DefendKuyaGPetitionLong link:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/justice-for-kuya-g/#TanggolMigrante #NWDC #GEOGroup #ICE #Philippines #Filipino #Tacoma #TacomaWA #TacomaWashington
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Iiiiiiii should've linked to the shop's website!!
#Tacoma #TacomaWA #Bookstore #BrickAndMortar #GrandOpening #romance
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We've been standing in line more than two hours but we're closing in on the entrance at last. 📚💘
#Tacoma #TacomaWA #BookStore #romance #BrickAndMortar #GrandOpening
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09-01-2025 - All Out for Migrant Defense, Northwest Detention Center
Immigrants make America great and this labor day supporters from all over the state, #PDX and even #California came to one of the worst places on earth, the NWDC.
The #NWDC is a terrible place right in our backyard and we stand in solidarity with anyone and everyone who showed.
We wanted to show our support for @laresistencianw for another well organized event, along with @tanggolmigrantemovement and @imapnw - (INSTAGRAM) - They are on the front lines of dealing with this cesspool of a place. NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL.
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Two Real Change Vendors Detained by ICE
"This is not merely an unfortunate incident; it is a calculated act of cruelty and intimidation that goes against the very fabric of our mission and our city's values," said Krystal Marx, Executive Director of Real Change.
.. "being held at the Tacoma Detention Facility"
https://www.realchangenews.org/support-ice-detainees
https://givebutter.com/RCLegalDefense
https://www.instagram.com/realchangenews/
#ICE #Seattle #NWDC #FreeThemAll #ShutDownNWDC #AbolishICE #TacomaWA
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05-01-2025 - #TacomaWA - May Day
Check out our previous posts on the #NWDC:
03-29-2025: https://kolektiva.social/@iNFoPiG/114252729347439954
03-16-2024: https://kolektiva.social/@iNFoPiG/112114742709558439
2022: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd17DCRDUxe/
laresistencianw @ https://www.instagram.com/laresistencianw/
#FreeThemAll #ShutDownNWDC #AbolishICE #ChingaLaMigra
Follow us on Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/iNFoPiG2/
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03-29-2025 - #TacomaWA - Northwest Detention Center (ICE)
La Resistencia Solidarity Day - https://www.instagram.com/LaResistenciaNW
"Demand the release of everyone detained, those that have been detained and have made the news, and those that no media cares about"
"Stand with Immigrants! Defend Humanity, Reject the Alien Enemies Act"
Check out our 2024 #NWDC post @ https://www.instagram.com/p/C4pHKtML5m8/
#FreeThemAll #ShutDownNWDC #AbolishICE #ChingaLaMigra
Mastodon users: Higher-quality video @ https://www.instagram.com/p/DH1TXm7SCeL/
________________
Music: Down The Rabbit Hole
Arist: Produced by Danya Vodovoz
Royalty Free Music
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03-16-2024 - Northwest ICE Detention Center - Tacoma WA
A vigil was held on Saturday to support hunger strikers inside and outside the NWDC @laresistencianw
Recently, Charles Leo Daniel is believed to have calmittedd sewwisseyed (sp) on March 7th. Charles had been held in solitary confinement for years. Charles had served the second-longest stretch of solitary confinement of any person in ICE custody since 2018. Charles had a long history of mental illness, and had been previously convicted of second-degree murder of Raymond Lindsay aka Ras Bongo, a known Seattle reggae musician. Charles was from Trinidad and Tobago and Raymond was from St. Catherine (Jamaica)
On Saturday the weather was warm and attendance was lively. Many people spoke on topics of immigration and prison reform. We had previously visited the NWDC around two years ago and while the area seemed the same surrounded by fences, pavement and razor wire, one thing we didn't expect was a new clear pattern of aggression by GEO Group employees entering and exiting the facility. Exiting employees quite literally speed their way out of the gate absent of caution or regard, as the same with employees entering at a high rate of speed. No caution for those who might be crossing using a public sidewalk. On two separate occasions we were informed that GEO Group likely employs white supremacists, possibly explaining their hasty attempts to avoid being seen including those with out of state plates.
The NWDC is a private for profit immigration prison operated by GEO Group. NWDC has been in the headlines a countless amount of times on topics such as a recent fire at the facility, self dispatching attempts from inmates, denying medical aid, other inmate deaths, and denying entry to state labor and health agencies, despite hundreds of complaints. Locally, the Tacoma City Council recently approved $10,000 to help fund the 50 cent per minute cost for inmates to make phone calls, which had likely been preventing inmates from getting legal support.
The number of serious concerns with this facility is difficult to summarize. Last week conflicts continued over House Bill 1470, which has recently been ruled unenforceable despite being signed into law. House Bill 1470 would've afforded certain legal protections to inmates, allowed state agency oversight actions including health inspections, and prohibited solitary confinement.