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…
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 — 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 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, D.C. — The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and Detention Watch Network (DWN) condemn the Biden administration’s move this week to expand its use of private prisons for immigrant detention and demand that the president reverse course quickly to abide by his campaign promises to end the use of for-profit immigrant detention centers. Local news outlets reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has entered into an agreement to detain as many as 1,875 immigrants at the GEO Group-operated Moshannon Valley Correctional Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. The…