Pressroom

Our latest press releases on important news and events relating to immigration detention in the United States

For media inquiries contact: media@detentionwatchnetwork.org

After over a decade of advocacy, ICE announces it will no longer use the Etowah County Detention Center — A huge win for the national immigrant rights movement

March 25, 2022

Gadsden, Alabama — Today, Adelante Alabama, the Shut Down Etowah Campaign and Detention Watch Network celebrate the news that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will no longer use  the Etowah County Jail (Etowah) in Alabama. To-date, Etowah has had the capacity to hold 357 people in ICE custody through a rider on an indefinite intergovernmental service agreement (IGSA) between Etowah County and U.S. Marshals Service (USMS).

New Damning DHS OIG report on ICE Detention Adds to the Overwhelming Bank of Evidence Detailing the Inherently Cruel and Abusive Nature of Immigration Detention

March 18, 2022

Washington, DC — In response to a deeply troubling report issued today by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) that exposes egregious conditions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Torrance County Detention Facility (Torrance) in New Mexico and calls on ICE to immediately empty the facility, Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement:

Biden Administration Doubles Down on Harmful Child Detention as ORR looks to Expand Network of Sites

March 17, 2022

Washington, D.C. - A year since the Biden Administration opened dozens of “emergency intake sites” in response to unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the US-Mexico border, at least three emergency intake sites and one “influx” site remain open. Advocates say that these sites that were meant to be temporary are simply child detention by another name.

85 immigrant and human rights groups call for investigation & demand private prison ban extend to ICE detention

February 9, 2022

Washington, DC — Today American Immigration Lawyers Association, American Immigration Council, American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, Detention Watch Network, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Immigrant Justice Center and the National Immigration Project (NIPNLG) sent a request to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the OIG for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) re

New report details Biden’s broken promises on ending the use of private prisons in federal incarceration and immigration detention

December 2, 2021

Washington, DC — The Biden administration has failed to deliver on the promise to end the use of private prisons in federal incarceration and immigration detention, according to “Broken Promises: Limits of Biden's Executive Order on Private Prisons” a new report released today by Detention Watch Network and Project South.

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