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Folkston, Georgia — The death toll in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody continues to rise with the tragic passing of Luis Sandoval, a 48-year-old, who was found with a ligature around his neck at the Folkston Detention Center (Folkston) on October 23. His official cause of death remains under investigation. The Shut Down Folkston Campaign is calling for a full independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Sandoval, who spent 21 days detained there. Currently, there is a hunger strike at Folkston, beginning in early October with approximately 500 people. There are now 12 people who are continuing to refuse meals into their 19th day to protest their detainment and the inhumane conditions they are subjected to. People on hunger strike have faced solitary confinement and are now being threatened with force feeding, both widely considered torture. At this time, it’s unclear if Mr. Sandoval was participating in the hunger strike.

Opened in 2017 under the first Trump administration, the Folkston Detention Center is operated by The GEO Group, a private prison corporation notorious for abuse. In 2022, the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security found that poor conditions at Folkston “endangered the health, safety, and rights” of detained immigrants, citing squalid conditions, excessive and inappropriate use of physical restraints, mishandling of detained immigrants’ property, inadequate medical and mental health care, deficient ICE communication practices, and systemic failures to respond to grievances or provide required services to immigrants in solitary confinement. Last year, the facility grew in scale and capacity, making it the second largest ICE detention center in the country, a cornerstone of the Trump administration’s massive expansion of the immigrant detention system. Trump’s mass detention expansion has caused record breaking deaths in ICE custody, increased ICE violence across the country, and come at a massive cost with Congress giving ICE more than $113 billion since 2025, more than 10 times the agency’s typical annual budget.

Fiscal year 2026 was the deadliest fiscal year in ICE’s history. There have now been 59 deaths in ICE custody since Trump was inaugurated. Immigrant justice advocates have been ringing the alarm demanding members of Congress act now to zero out ICE funding in upcoming appropriations bills, revoke the billions of dollars they have already given the agency, get ICE out of communities nationwide, and shut down ICE detention centers, including Folkston and all Georgia detention centers, for good. Georgia advocates will make these demands clear while honoring and remembering the lives lost to ICE custody and violence, including Mr. Sandoval, on November 1 at the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta as a part of the national “Day of the Dead” actions in partnership with Detention Watch Network and Disappeared in America.

Immigrants’ rights advocates in Georgia and across the country responded with the following statements:

Murtaza Khwaja, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, said: “Luis Sandoval’s life mattered, and we grieve his death. He should not have died in a cage owned by a company that gets paid to fill them. GEO Group and ICE have turned the incarceration of people into revenue streams. We hold both accountable for the acts and omissions that led to his death, and for ignoring years of warnings about inadequate medical and mental health care, and grievances that went unanswered.  This system that profits from human suffering will keep producing it. We demand a full independent investigation into Mr. Sandoval’s death, and demand that Folkston Processing Center be shut down permanently."

Li Ann Sanchez, Community EsTr(El/La), said: “Hundreds of people have decided to risk their own health by means of a desperate hunger strike, simply so that their voices and their complaints may be heard. Now, someone has lost their life. How many more lives must be lost for the world to pay attention to what is happening at the Folkston ICE Processing Center? I was detained in Georgia, and I know the desperation of reporting abuses, asking for help, and feeling like nobody hears you. No one should have to risk their life to demand respect for their human rights. We cannot keep waiting for another tragedy to occur! Folkston should be closed indefinitely before it is too late. We demand justice, answers, and freedom for all people in detention!"

Uchechukwu Onwa, National Civic Engagement Coordinator, Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), said: “BAJI mourns Luis Sandoval and stands with his loved ones in demanding answers, transparency, and accountability. His death underscores the human cost of an immigration system built on criminalization, incarceration, and profit. As someone who has survived detention here in Georgia, I know what it means to have your freedom taken away and your well-being placed in the hands of a system that treats you as disposable. That experience deepens my commitment to BAJI’s solidarity with everyone subjected to immigration detention and our demand for collective freedom. We call for an independent investigation into Luis’s death, accountability for those responsible for his care, and the closure of Folkston. Public resources should sustain our communities through housing, healthcare, and support not expand a detention system that puts lives at risk.”

Alma Salazar Yong, UFW Foundation, said: “We keep hearing the warnings. Detainees continue to report civil rights violations during their arrests and inhumane conditions inside detention centers. We hear accounts of for-profit detention facilities cutting corners on necessities like food, medication, and essential medical care. And yet, we mourn another death. Luis Sandoval was a human being, not a number. As such, every death demands answers and accountability. No one should have to fear for their life while in government custody. ICE does not get to act as judge, jury, and executioner of immigrants in the United States. Detention does not erase a person's humanity or their right to dignity, due process, and adequate medical care. And this country cannot keep looking away while condemning others as criminals without first looking in the mirror. If we claim to stand for human rights, justice, and the rule of law, those principles must apply to everyone — including immigrants in detention. Enough is enough. Shut down the Folkston Detention Center.”

Singing Resistance Jacksonville, said: “The death of Luis Sandoval is unacceptable. Every death that has occurred at this facility, and all ICE facilities across the nation, are unacceptable. Taken lives are the worst outcomes but ICE does everything it can to torture and neglect everyone under their watch, so death is the last sorrowful result in their daily operations. Every single individual has the right to humanity, whether in the immigration process or not. The constitution also guarantees due process for all on US soil. ICE must be held accountable for the kidnapping, the trampling of rights, and untimely deaths. We demand the shut down of Folkston ICE Processing Center and an abolishment of ICE altogether.”

Amilcar Valencia, Executive Director of El Refugio, said: “We mourn the death of Luis Sandoval. No one should die in detention; sadly, detention deaths have dramatically increased under this regime. Mr. Sandoval has become the 23rd person who died under ICE custody in Georgia. ICE endangers the lives of thousands of people every day, putting at risk immigrants who otherwise could be in their communities and with their loved ones. In detention, people are routinely tortured, abused, endure neglectful conditions, and ultimately lose their lives in a system that doesn't need to exist. We can not allow more human lives to be put at risk. We demand justice, a full independent investigation into his death, and to shut down the Folkston Processing Center.”

Anton Flores-Maisonet, Founding Director, Casa Alterna: “Luis Sandoval’s death is a heartbreaking reminder of the human cost of policies that dehumanize and demonize immigrants. We must close Folkston and reject a system that responds to human displacement with confinement rather than compassion. We must also address the root causes that force people to flee their homes and build communities of welcome grounded in dignity and solidarity.”

Eduardo Delgado, Civic & Advocacy Coordinator, Migrant Equity Southeast, said: “We are deeply devastated to hear about the tragic death of another person in immigration detention. We are mourning the life of Luis Sandoval, an immigrant from El Salvador. Regardless of what he's accused of, Luis was a human being deserving of dignity and should still be with us. We demand transparency and accountability for Luis and every community member inside the Folkston facility who face gruelling, inhumane conditions daily. Our thoughts are with Luis's loved ones; we wish them peace in this moment of immeasurable pain and confusion.”

Stephanie Alvarez-Jones, Southeast Regional Attorney, National Immigration Project, said: “It is a tragedy that Luis Sandoval has been added to the ballooning number of people who have died while in ICE detention. We have watched in horror as this immigration incarceration system has claimed people’s health, hope, and lives. Make no mistake: this is an unavoidable consequence of a bloated ICE budget and corporate gain from immigration detention. More people detained means more people will die. The administration wants to dehumanize immigrants in detention; but we join with our community in saying Mr. Sandoval’s name and sending our heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones.”

Necessary Trouble GA, said: “Yet another preventable death screams out for our attention to a place that has shown itself to be a cruel corporate warehouse of refugees and asylum-seekers. Folkston should be closed and its prisoners should get speedy and fair resolution of their cases in accordance with U.S. and international law.”

Priyanka Bhatt, Senior Staff Attorney at Project South, said: “We mourn the loss of Mr. Luis Sandoval—yet another life taken by ICE. This death comes amid urgent warnings from detained immigrants at Folkston, who for weeks have courageously exposed the inhumane conditions inside through videos, letters documenting violations, and hunger strikes. Instead of listening, ICE and GEO Group responded with retaliation: transfers, deportations, solitary confinement and threats of force-feeding. These reports continue to raise red flags about the conditions inside Folkston and the treatment of those held there. We demand an independent investigation into the death of Mr. Sandoval, the horrid conditions and the retaliation taking place at Folkston.There is no reforming this agency or prison—it must be shut down. ”

Monica Whatley, Campaign to Shut Down Folkston ICE Processing Center, said: “No family should receive the news that their loved one died while in the custody of our United States government. No family should worry if their loved one is next. ICE says on the death notice that it is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in ‘safe, secure and humane environments.’ They have completely failed in their commitment, yet again. Who is holding them accountable? Where is the justice? We call for an investigation into Mr. Sandoval's death and a comprehensive rehaul of our immigration system. ICE is too broken to fix and should be abolished. In the meantime, free our loved ones from this deadly detention center."

Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network, said: “We are deeply saddened and equally enraged to learn of Luis Sandoval’s death. Detention is deadly. People in immigrant detention are describing it as ‘hell on earth’ because it is. In immigrant detention, deprivation of freedom, isolation, uncertainty, and abysmal conditions, including inadequate medical care and mental health services, are a lethal combination that puts lives in jeopardy. What we’re seeing now is a heightened cruelty under the Trump administration. People are dying in ICE detention at a record-breaking rate. We must demand members of Congress act now to get ICE out of communities nationwide, redirect ICE funding, and shut down ICE detention centers for good. No more abuse and death at the hands of ICE.”

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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.