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 — 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
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
