Our latest press releases on important news and events relating to immigration detention in the United States
For media inquiries contact: media@detentionwatchnetwork.org
Lumpkin, Georgia — Today the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the death of Cipriano Chavez-Alvarez, 61, who died from COVID-19 early Monday morning after being detained at the Stewart Detention Center (Stewart) in Georgia. Chavez-Alvarez is the third person to die from COVID-19 this year at the facility where there have been over 330 total confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Lumpkin, Georgia – El Refugio, Georgia Detention Watch, Project South, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), and Detention Watch Network extend their deepest sympathies to the family of Jose Freddy Guillen Vega, who died Aug. 10 of complications from COVID-19 while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
Taylor, TX — Last week, in a move seemingly designed to ensure mass detention continues for another decade, ICE awarded 10-year contracts to private prison corporations to operate two notorious Texas detention centers — CorecCivic’s T. Don Hutto and GEO Group’s South Texas Detention Complex.
Washington, DC — This week two deaths were reported in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) custody, Kuan Hui Lee, a 51-year-old man who died after being detained at the Krome Detention Center in Miami, and a unidentified 72-year-old man who tested positive for COVID-19 while detained at the Immigration Centers of America (ICA)-operated Farmville Detention Center in Virginia.
Washington, DC — In response to the announcement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Matthew T. Albence is retiring, Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network made the following statement:
Washington, DC — This week Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported two deaths of people in its custody, Onoval Pérez-Montufa, 51, who died Sunday after contracting the coronavirus and Luis Sánchez-Pérez, 46, who died yesterday on July 15.
Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network offered the following statement in response:
Washington, DC — On Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced it is recruiting for the inaugural class of a new Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Chicago Citizens Academy (ECA). This will build upon similar programs that exist within Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). In response to this news, Detention Watch Network and the St. Louis Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America offered the following statements:
Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, said:
Washington, DC — The House Appropriations Committee this week proposed a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill for fiscal year 2021 that begins the long overdue process of defunding our nation’s deadly immigration detention system. This bill takes steps to hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) accountable for their wasteful spending, which has torn apart thousands of families and cost more than 55 lives in custody since 2017.
Washington, DC — Today the Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The following is a statement by Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network:
Washington, DC— A year after the Defund Hate campaign warned Congress that increasing funding for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) under an emergency supplemental bill would result in wasteful spending rather than improved care for migrants at the southern U.S. border, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that is exactly what happened.
