Pressroom

Nationwide — In response to reports of abuse and horrendous conditions during ICE’s third country deportations, Stacy Suh, Program Director of Detention Watch Network issued the following statement: “The Trump regime is attempting to normalize detaining people in other countries through third-country deportations as a new and expanded model of incarceration and deportation. This violence is an extension and continuation of the administration’s mass detention and deportation agenda, where ICE subjects people to horrific abuse every day. Third-country deportations serve to expel people out of…

Alexandria, LA — Communities across Louisiana strongly oppose the opening of a family and child ICE detention facility at the England Airpark adjacent to the Alexandria International Airport, which is already notorious as ICE’s busiest mass deportation hub. Despite overwhelming community resistance, numerous testimony, and an open letter to the board members at the company’s board meeting in July, the England Authority continues to silence community opposition to the facility, which is expected to open at the end of September. The Authority is refusing to allow public comment or provide…

Lumpkin, Georgia — Advocates are mourning the loss of Priciliano Trejo, 29, who died at a hospital last week after being detained at Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. According to his family, Trejo, who had leukemia, was detained in North Carolina and sent to Stewart on June 19. On July 6, he wasn't feeling well and asked for medical care, but ICE did not provide it for eight days until they took him to the hospital on July 13. On July 15, Trejo was in a coma, and ICE contacted his family to give them custody of him. He died on Friday, July 24, at the hospital. Because custody of Trejo was…

Nationwide — While the nation grapples with the horror of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) murders in Maine and Texas last week, and amidst the deadliest fiscal year in ICE’s history, Detention Watch Network, Immigrant Defense Project, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and Bend the Arc are launching End The ICE Age, a new campaign calling on Members of Congress to shut down ICE detention centers, stop detention expansion, cut funding for ICE, and get ICE out of communities. The evidence against ICE is indisputable. As evidenced just last week with the horrific killings of Lorenzo…

Ocilla, Georgia — As the nation grapples with the horror of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) murders of Joan Sebastián Guerrero, 26, in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, in Texas, the agency’s death toll within its custody continues to grow at a record-breaking pace. Jesus Manuel Arenas-Silva, 45, tragically died in ICE custody on July 13 while being transferred from the Irwin Detention Center to the Folkston Detention Center in Georgia. His sister said, "Jesus Manuel Arenas Silva was a loving son and brother, a caring and hard-working man who came to this country to seek…

In response to reports of a fatal shooting by ICE in Biddeford, Maine, Carly Pérez Fernandez, Communications Director, issued the following statement: “We are deeply saddened and equally enraged by the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and now, the reported death of a 26-year-old in Maine at the hands of ICE just today, both deaths occurring within a week of each other. ICE kills people and threatens community safety across the country. No one is safe when ICE is present – whether on the streets or in one of the agency’s more than 200 abuse-ridden detention facilities. People are dying in ICE…

Houston, Texas — In response to the shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Houston, Texas on Tuesday, Carly Pérez Fernández, Communications Director at Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement: “The evidence against ICE is indisputable. ICE kills people and threatens community safety across the country. No one is safe when ICE is present – whether on the streets or in one of the agency’s more than 200 abuse-ridden detention facilities. ICE was hastily created just two decades ago. Its existence is neither necessary, nor a…

Washington, DC — In response to the Roberts Court’s decisions terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian and Syrian refugees, and blocking migrants from seeking asylum at the US border, Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director at Detention Watch Network, said: “Today, the right wing Justices on the Supreme Court doubled down on Trump’s cruel and racist anti-immigrant agenda with two decisions that will put countless people at risk of detention and deportation.The decisions, stripping away critical Temporary Protected Status from community members and delaying or outright denying…

Washington, DC — According to documents obtained by the New York Times, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to sell or get rid of seven detention warehouses, a significant shift in the agency’s cruel mass detention and deportation agenda. Immigrant advocacy groups and local community organizers across the country are calling this development a major win in opposition to the Trump administration’s massive expansion of immigrant detention. In December 2025, ICE announced it was purchasing and planning to convert warehouses nationwide into new immigrant detention and processing…

Everglades, Florida — Yesterday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that they have transferred all people detained at the Everglades Detention Camp, cruelly dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” to other facilities across the country without specifying how many people were moved or where they were taken, effectively disappearing people into ICE’s immigrant detention system. The Everglades Detention Camp has served as a focal point of the Trump administration’s cruel mass detention expansion, piloting a model of governors offering make-shift, state-run detention camps. The embattled…

Washington, DC – In response to the House passing a reconciliation bill that gives the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) an additional $70 billion, Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director at Detention Watch Network issued the following statement: “The billions in additional funding that Congress just handed to DHS to expand the administration’s detention and deportation agenda is unconscionable. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is already the largest enforcement agency in the country, operating with never-before-seen funding to maintain and expand the largest immigration detention…

Nationwide — From California to New Jersey, people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention have launched hunger and labor strikes, bravely putting their lives on the line to demand their freedom and protest the horrendous and inhumane conditions they are subjected to in detention. At Delaney Hall in New Jersey, the labor and hunger strike began in response to people being denied fresh food, medical care, and functioning air conditioning. Reportedly, over 200 people remain on a labor and hunger strike inside the facility. At Adelanto in California, at least 20 people have gone on…

Social Circle, Georgia — The city of Social Circle, GA has filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the agency’s plans to convert a local warehouse into a massive, 10,000-bed detention site. For months, ICE has been moving to open the detention facility without complying to environmental regulations or coordinating with the town and local community. ICE is scouting, purchasing, and retrofitting warehouses nationwide for immigration detention, which are expected to detain between 1,500-10,000 people each. These detention warehouses are a part of the Trump regime’s…

Washington, DC — In response to former GEO Group executive, David Venturella, being named as the new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director, Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement: “If there was ever a classic example of the revolving door phenomena it’s David Venturella. Venturella has gone from high ranking positions at ICE to GEO Group to ICE once again, now poised to serve as the new acting director of ICE starting June 1. “Since Trump returned to office, GEO Group and other private contractors have been teeming over the…

Washington, DC — Yesterday, HuffPost reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is shutting down the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, the office responsible for investigations into misconduct and abuse in the immigration detention system. On the same day, the Washington Post published an alarming report exposing widespread use of force and retaliation across the detention system. Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director at Detention Watch Network issued the following statement: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) purposefully obscures the truth, hides information…

Lumpkin, Georgia — The death toll in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody continues to rise with the tragic passing of Denny Adán González, 33, who died on April 28 at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. His official cause of death remains under investigation. Gonzalez was reportedly in solitary confinement at the time of his death, a practice internationally recognized as torture. Advocates are calling for a full independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. González and the rampant use of force at the Stewart Detention Center. González’s…

Washington, DC — Today the House ended the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown by passing the Senate approved FY 2026 DHS funding bill that zeroes out funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other parts of the mass detention and deportation machine. At the same time, both chambers of Congress recently passed a budget resolution, paving the way to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection through yet another reconciliation process in the coming weeks. Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement: “Congress’s…

Nationwide — Today, over 200 actions, including in Hagerstown, Maryland, Atlanta, Georgia, Alexandria, Louisiana, and Salt Lake City, Utah, occurred across the country to denounce immigration detention expansion for the Communities Not Cages National Day of Action to Stop ICE Warehouse Detention. The day of action is as a part of a coordinated nationwide mobilization against Trump’s cruel mass detention and deportation agenda organized by Disappeared In America, Detention Watch Network, Indivisible, MoveOn, Public Citizen, and Workers Circle. ICE is scouting, purchasing, and retrofitting…

Washington, DC — Today, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) introduced the Ban Warehouse Detention Act, which would prohibit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), from establishing, operating, expanding, converting, or renovating any warehouse or similar building or structure for the purposes of detaining people. The bill would also prevent the administration from establishing any new immigrant detention models. View the full press conference here “From Romulus to cities across the country, we do not want ICE cages in our communities…

Washington, DC — In response to the tragic death of Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, 49, in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody this week and ICE reaching a staggering 16 deaths in just four months of 2026, Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement: “We are deeply saddened and equally enraged that a shocking 16 people have died in ICE custody this calendar year — and 47 deaths total under this administration. ICE kills people and threatens community safety across the country. No one is safe when ICE is present – whether on the…

Washington, DC — In response to another tragic death in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody on March 16, Carly Pérez Fernández, Communications Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement: “We are deeply saddened by the passing of Royer Perez-Jimenez, 19, reported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a ’presumed’ death by suicide. We are equally enraged that a shocking 13 people have died in ICE custody this calendar year — four people in March alone, and 44 deaths total under this administration. ICE kills people and threatens community safety…

Washington, DC — As Senator Markwayne Mullin undergoes his confirmation hearing today to become the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Stacy Suh, Program Director at Detention Watch Network issued the following comment on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the state of the administration’s immigration detention expansion plans: “We are glad to see Noem gone, and yet the musical chairs over who holds leadership within the administration, a trademark of Trump’s first term, does not solve the systemic issues with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The…

Nationwide — The Trump administration is ruthlessly pursuing a multi-layered immigration detention expansion plan, skyrocketing the number of people in detention. Looming large is the imminent threat of using warehouses to detain up to 92,600 more people, but people across the country are fighting back to make sure ICE warehouses stay out of their communities - and they are winning. Reporting shows that ICE is actively scouting, purchasing, and planning to convert approximately 23 warehouses nationwide into new immigration detention and processing facilities. To date, there are nineteen…

Washington, DC — The surge of disapproval over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Trump administration’s cruel mass detention agenda has resulted in a fight over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with Democrats rejecting the original proposal which included billions of dollars for ICE and Border Patrol. With the deadline for passing the 2026 Homeland Security Appropriations bill set to expire tonight, Congress will be faced with a decision about whether to continue funding ICE and Border Patrol, the agencies that are carrying out the Trump administration’s…

Dilley, Texas — Yesterday, beloved educator and child advocate, Ms. Rachel, posted to her nearly five million followers on Instagram her concern for the children detained at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) South Texas Family Detention Center (nicknamed Dilley) in Dilley, Texas. The National Coalition to End Family and Child Detention, composed of more than 40 organizations across the country, applauds Ms. Rachel, and calls on all elected leaders and prominent individuals with public platforms to demand children and their parents be released from Dilley immediately, a permanent end…