PORT ANGELES — Manuel Abrego and Maru Mora Villalpando of La Resistencia will present “Fighting to End All Detentions and Deportations in WA State” at Peninsula College’s Thursday Studium Generale.
The presentation, offered both in person and via Zoom, will begin at 12:35 p.m. in the Little Theater on the campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd. Lesley Hoare and Kate Reavey will facilitate the dialogue.
The event will be free and open to the public and also will be live-streamed through Zoom at https://pencol-edu.zoom.us/j/82308557946. The meeting ID is 823 0855 7946.
La Resistencia is a grassroots organization led by undocumented immigrants based in Washington state. The group is working to end the detention of immigrants and stop deportations, according to the program’s website laresistencianw.org.
Originally founded in 2014 to support a hunger strike launched by people detained in Tacoma to protest their confinement, La Resistencia began under the umbrella of the national #Not1More campaign as “NWDC Resistance.”
Today, members support and engage with people detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, organize for “their own survival and in protest against the detention and deportation regime.”
Abrego has direct experience with the immigration enforcement system. He organized hunger strikes while in detention, one of those efforts led to the end of a contract NORCOR County Jail in The Dalles, Ore., with ICE, and he’s been a leader with La Resistencia since his release from detention in 2018.
Villalpando is the founder of La Resistencia and is a community organizer. She was born and raised in Mexico City.
