Washington, DC — Yesterday, the Daily Beast reported that Daniel Ragsdale, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Deputy Director, will be leaving ICE for an undisclosed position at the private prison company, GEO Group (GEO). Mary Small, Policy Director of Detention Watch Network responds: “Daniel Ragsdale’s move to GEO is another shameful example of the revolving door that exists between the federal agencies issuing lucrative immigration detention and prison contracts and the private prison companies receiving them. Highlighted in DWN’s 2016 report, A Toxic Relationship: Private Prisons…
Our latest press releases on important news and events relating to immigration detention in the United States. For media inquiries, contact media@detentionwatchnetwork.org.
Washington, DC – For weeks, hundreds of thousands of people across the country have gathered petitions, protested in the streets, and confronted members of Congress to oppose Trump’s funding request to bankroll his wholesale attack on immigrants. Over the weekend, Congress reached a preliminary deal which would fund the government through the end of September, pending a vote that could come anytime within the week. “The funding deal proves two main things,” said Silky Shah, co-director of Detention Watch Network. “It shows the power of our voices when we emphatically reject Trump’s anti…
Detention Watch Network Reflects on the Eve of Trump’s 100th Day in Office Washington, DC — Ahead of Trump’s 100th day in office, Silky Shah, Co-Director of Detention Watch Network reflects on the administration’s wholesale attack on immigrants and the growing resistance: “In the first 100 days of his presidency, the Trump administration has pursued a shock and awe rollout of anti-immigrant policies and executive orders to overwhelm and embed fear into the American people. The Trump playbook relies heavily on racist rhetoric to demonize immigrants in an attempt to further the administration’s…
Washington, DC — Yesterday, American Friends Service Committee, Detention Watch Network and United We Dream activists converged on Capitol Hill to confront Members of Congress to publicly commit to not a penny for Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Congress is scheduled to vote by the end of the week on federal government funding for the rest of the fiscal year. Negotiations include the administration’s request for an additional $3 billion for DHS which would bankroll the deportation force, mass detention of immigrants and the border wall. “The U.S. system of mass detention and…
Washington, DC — Immigrant rights organizations, Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), Detention Watch Network (DWN), Immigrant Youth Coalition, and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice demand an immediate investigation into the death of Sergio Alonso Lopez. Lopez, 55, died last Thursday while in the custody of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being detained at Adelanto Detention Center in California. This tragedy marks the second death to occur at Adelanto this year, after Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba died less than three weeks prior. “It…
Washington, DC – In a hearing today on the impact of Trump’s immigration executive orders at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), there was a noticeable absence – the United States government. The government’s nonattendance in the IACHR hearing, whose mission is to promote and protect human rights in the American hemisphere, is unprecedented and further demonstrates the Trump administration’s complete disdain for the people that his immigration executive orders are impacting. The hearing comes a week after the Trump administration requested Congressional approval for a $3…
Washington, DC — Immigrant rights organizations, Congreso de Jornaleros, Detention Watch Network and Southern Poverty Law Center demand an immediate investigation into the death of Roger Rayson. Rayson, 47, died earlier this week while in the custody of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being detained at LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana. This tragedy marks the fourth death to occur at LaSalle in the past 15 months and the fourth in ICE’s fiscal year 2017 — a fact that ICE inaccurately reported on their news release when announcing Rayson’s death. “It is appalling that this…
Washington, DC – Today, the White House asked Congress to cover the costs of President Trump’s immigration executive orders. In addition to billions already allocated for immigration enforcement, taxpayers would be footing the bill for an extra $3 billion to fund the president’s border wall and deportation force, including more border agents and a request for 45,700 immigration detention beds in total. Silky Shah, co-director of Detention Watch Network issued the following statement in response to the administration’s request to Congress: “This is a chance for Congress to say ‘no’ to Trump’s…
Washington, DC – Mary Small, policy director of Detention Watch Network (DWN) responds to the Associated Press report that the Trump administration is considering a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard to act as immigration enforcement agents: “Unfortunately, the inclusion of plans to mobilize the National Guard to act as immigration enforcement agents is only one of the many deeply disturbing aspects of the draft memo that was leaked earlier today. The draft also includes details about deputizing state National Guard components to act as immigrant enforcement agents…
New York – Today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal by private prison corporations seeking to block the release of government documents about their immigration detention practices. A federal judge ruled in July, in a case brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Detention Watch Network (DWN), that under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) the government must release details of its contracts with private prison corporations. The government chose not to appeal, but the United States’ two largest private prison corporations, the GEO Group and…
Washington, DC — In response to Trump’s executive orders on immigration Silky Shah, co-director of Detention Watch Network said: “As if it wasn’t already clear from Cabinet nominations like Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, Trump’s executive orders on immigration demonstrate what the next four years will look like — a hate-fueled attack on immigrants and people of color. With today’s executive orders, Trump not only threatens our universal values of human dignity and justice, but actively promotes xenophobia, discrimination, repression, and fear. In a move to swiftly increase the already…
Washington, DC — Confirmation hearings for the new administration begin today in rapid succession starting with Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General and General John F. Kelly as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. In response to today’s hearings, Silky Shah, co-director of Detention Watch Network said: “This is the first test for elected officials to actively resist cabinet picks. It’s clear with these nominees that the new administration aims to ramp up detentions and deportations, aggressively target immigrant communities, and widen the surveillance dragnet. Senator…
Washington, DC — Immigrant rights organizations, Detention Watch Network (DWN), Puente Arizona and Grassroots Leadership demand an immediate investigation before the end of the Obama Administration into the 13 deaths that occurred in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in 2016. Advocates are demanding that ICE be held accountable, as two more lives were lost in immigration detention just last month. The ICE Office of Detention Oversight investigates each death in detention, but has refused to publish its findings, forcing immigrant advocates to go through a long Freedom of…
New Report: Private Prisons Fail to Ensure Safety and Dignity of Immigrants Held in their Facilities
Washington, DC — A new report, A Toxic Relationship: Private Prisons and U.S. Immigration Detention, released today by Detention Watch Network (DWN) builds on the overwhelming evidence that the privatization of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention exacerbates due process violations, egregious conditions and transparency concerns that are endemic to the immigration detention system. In addition, the report amplifies the experiences of 42 individuals who were or are held in privately-run detention centers. The report comes as the Homeland Security Advisory Council subcommittee…
New York, NY – Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Detention Watch Network (DWN) urged a federal court to dismiss an appeal by private prison corporations seeking to block the release of government documents about their immigration detention practices. A federal judge ruled in July that under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the government must release details of its contracts with private prison corporations. The government chose not to appeal, but the prison corporations intervened to stop the release and filed an appeal of their own, seeking to prevent the release of…
“Throughout his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump has made it clear where he stands with immigrant communities. His racist and incendiary remarks have inflamed anti-immigrant sentiments across the country and given cover to far right and white supremacist agendas of exclusion and demonization. Trump’s hatred of immigrants and indifference toward their lives, must be met with resilience, unity and strength. Throughout the next four years our resolve and commitment to fight for racial justice must reach new heights and new audiences. As a community, we cannot accept and condone the…
“DWN calls on Secretary Jeh Johnson to immediately declare a moratorium on the expansion of immigration detention, which has reached a historic high. Skyrocketing detention numbers are exacerbating the well documented abuse and mismanagement that plagues the detention system, as a rising number of asylum seekers are being put behind bars. Yesterday Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), newly rebranded as “CoreCivic,” announced that it entered into an agreement with Cibola County, New Mexico and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain up to 1,116 people at the Cibola County…
Washington, DC – Marking the Latin American holiday, Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, Detention Watch Network (DWN) held a funeral procession from the White House to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Headquarters to bring awareness to the untimely deaths of immigrants in government custody. Recent investigations into deaths in immigration detention have found that inadequate medical care at detention centers has contributed to numerous deaths. The most recent death occurred just one week ago, when Olubunmi Toyin Joshua died on October 24 th after being detained for over eight…
“With recent reports of detention numbers at a record breaking high of over 40,000 people behind bars -- Detention Watch Network calls on Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson, to immediately intervene in operations at ICE. It’s clear that these inconceivable numbers are the result of ICE Director Sarah Saldaña’s mismanagement of an agency that has proven time and again that it is incapable of caring for people in its custody. ICE’s decision to enter into and renew contracts with private prison companies and county jails for increased detention capacity, is the latest shameful…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – More than 340 immigrant rights, faith-based and civil- and labor-rights organizations delivered a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson Wednesday calling for the government to end its use of private prison companies to detain immigrants. In the letter, advocates reject Secretary Johnson’s plan to review DHS’s use of private contractors, citing years of studies exposing the human rights violations and lack of accountability that plague the for-profit immigration detention system. Instead, the letter calls for the secretary to create a plan to…
Today, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) continued their fight against transparency and accountability, offering yet another reason why the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must immediately sever its ties with private prison companies. Earlier this summer, a federal judge ruled that the details of government contracts with private prison corporations are not exempt from public release under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). As a result, DHS was ordered to provide details of the contracts it has signed with private prison companies, including how…
Statement from Silky Shah, Co-Director of Detention Watch Network, on news that the United States Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons: “We are encouraged by today’s announcement that the Justice Department plans to end their toxic relationship with the private prison industry. For far too long, private prison companies have treated people’s lives as profit in the mass incarceration system, stripping people of their dignity and leaving a trail of abuse and mismanagement in their wake. Immigrant-only shadow prisons that are exclusively operated by private prison companies…
Washington, DC – “The U.S. Supreme Court’s inability to reach a decision today leaves the lives of millions hanging in the balance. As a result, immigrants will continue to be targeted by the unjust detention and deportation machine fueled by unconstitutional raids and police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) collaboration. With today’s disappointing announcement, we reflect on President Obama’s 2014 executive actions, which did not safeguard undocumented and documented immigrants with criminal convictions and instead put a target on their back. Excluding those who already…
New Report: Aggressive Immigration Enforcement Quotas Also Used to Detain Mothers and Their Children
Washington, DC and New York, NY —Today, Detention Watch Network (DWN) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) released a new report, Banking on Detention 2016 Update, that reveals for the first time that mothers and their children are jailed under guaranteed minimum bed contracts for local jails. The report shows the extent to which ICE grants financial benefits to private and public entities that detain immigrants through government contracts requiring ICE to pay for a set number of beds at detention facilities, rendering immigrants, including children and families, a source of profit…
WASHINGTON, DC — In response to the confirmed reports of a 30 day “surge” of raids to take place across the country, Danny Cendejas, Organizing Director at Detention Watch Network made the following statement: “With this latest announcement President Obama is cementing his legacy as a fallible leader who did not uphold the basic rights of society’s most vulnerable populations - asylum seeking women and children. Primarily targeted at Central American families, President Obama continues to deny the United States’ direct hand in creating violent and unstable conditions prevailing in the region…