Pressroom

Washington, DC — A new report released today by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Concerns about ICE Detainee Treatment and Care at Detention Facilities, supports longstanding concerns and documentation from immigrant rights advocates about egregious conditions, abusive treatment and abysmal mismanagement at immigrant detention centers across the country. The report comes as Trump calls for a massive cut in the OIG budget in an attempt to further embolden Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to act with impunity, erase measures of accountability and obscure any existing transparency…

Denver, CO — Immigrant rights organizations, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Colorado, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) and Detention Watch Network (DWN) are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Kamyar Samimi. Samimi, 64, died on Saturday while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Aurora Detention Center. This tragedy marks the first death to occur in ICE immigrant detention in fiscal year 2018. "RMIAN mourns the death of Mr. Samimi, whose preliminary cause of death is cardiac arrest, while detained at the for-profit civil…

In a dangerous abdication of its responsibility to good governance, the Senate appears poised to confirm Kirstjen Nielsen as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Ms. Nielsen, who has been a powerful right hand to White House Chief of Staff and former DHS Secretary John Kelly, bears direct responsibility for the abusive and harmful practices emanating from DHS under the Trump administration. Detention Watch Network, the National Immigrant Justice Center, and United We Dream strongly oppose Ms. Nielsen’s confirmation. The most recent entries in Ms. Nielsen’s resume include her…

WASHINGTON — Today, the Senate made public the details of the 2018 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill, including funding to expand President Trump’s persecution of immigrants. In response, Detention Watch Network Policy Director Mary Small issued the following statement: “The Senate’s budget bill is an outright attack on immigrants. The Senate seeks to increase funding for Trump’s runaway deportation machine — including bankrolling a wall designed to further divide communities and families. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border and Customs Protection (CBP)…

Click here to read the lawsuit Washington D.C. — Organizations around the country are highlighting local ICE enforcement tactics and filing a federal lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for refusing to release information regarding Operation Mega, the recent announcement of what was supposed to be the “largest raid in U.S. history.” The lawsuit is a response to the agency’s failure to disclose information requested by over 200 organizations and community leaders in early September via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The…

Washington, DC — For the second year in a row, Detention Watch Network (DWN) and immigrant rights advocates nationwide are marking the Latin American holiday, Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, with national actions. DWN members will host at least 15 vigils and actions from DC to Los Angeles starting Saturday, October 28 and concluding on November 6. The mobilization is in response to the growing number of immigrant deaths in detention, as the Trump administration looks to massively increase an already bloated and unnecessary system plagued with egregiously poor conditions and a lack of…

Today, the Supreme Court denied a petition by private prison corporations seeking to block the release of government documents about their immigration detention practices. In a case brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Detention Watch Network (DWN), under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a federal district court ruled in July 2016, that the government must release details of its contracts with private prison corporations. The government chose not to appeal; instead, the country’s two largest private prison corporations, GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of…

Washington, DC — Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, Silky Shah responds to Trump’s ‘immigration principles’: “In yet another attack on immigrants, Trump’s nativist ‘immigration principles’ are dangerously draconian. If implemented they would jeopardize the lives of hundreds of thousands of families and further erode democratic values. We reject Trump's plan to use DACA recipients as bait to pull Congress into a negotiation built on a nativist and white supremacist agenda. Trump’s egregious ‘immigration principles’ calls for: The hiring of 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement…

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman Adam Smith (WA-09) and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) introduced the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act , legislation to reform the systemic problems in our immigration detention system. Our current system is inhumane, unjust, and driven by private, for-profit corporations like The GEO Group, which operates the Northwest Detention Center located in Tacoma, Washington. This bill will end the use of private facilities and repeal mandatory detention, while restoring due process, oversight, accountability, and transparency to the immigration detention…

Washington, DC — Detention Watch Network denounces Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) operation ‘Safe City’ that targeted sanctuary cities with nationwide raids impacting nearly 500 individuals, their families and their communities. The following is a statement by Danny Cendejas, Organizing Director of Detention Watch Network: “On the heels of the public outrage over the leaked ‘Operation Mega,’ ICE used operation ‘Safe City’ to retaliate against immigrants and advocates, while also targeting jurisdictions that have taken steps toward protecting the rights and safety of all their…

Washington, DC — Detention Watch Network (DWN), the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), National Immigration Law Center, United We Dream (UWD) and the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) condemn Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) plan to conduct a nationwide immigration enforcement operation from mid- to late-September. Multiple sources within and close to ICE have shared information with advocates about the operation, which ICE is calling “Operation Mega.” In addition to apprehending targeted individuals prioritized in the president’s January 25 Executive Order, ICE agents will…

Washington, DC — Today Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The following is a statement by Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network: “Trump’s decision to end DACA is unconscionable. Trump has wielded countless attacks on immigrants, and today’s announcement is further proof that his white supremacist and nativist administration has no restraint when it comes to tearing apart families and upending lives. With the end of DACA, nearly 800,000 people, many of whom are immigrant youth, will become vulnerable to…

Washington, DC — With just two weeks left until members of Congress return to DC to vote on Trump’s funding proposal, last night’s campaign style rally in Arizona stoked the flames of upcoming funding negotiations. Trump threatened to shut down the government if he does not receive money for the border wall, demonstrating yet again the high stakes showdown slated to take place in September. The following is a statement by Mary Small, Policy Director for Detention Watch Network: “Members of Congress must hold strong. We must recognize this for what it is: an anti-immigrant budget steeped in a…

New York, NY — Immigrant rights organizations, Center for Constitutional Rights, Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP), Families for Freedom, Immigrant Defense Project (IDP), and Detention Watch Network (DWN) are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Carlos Mejia-Bonilla. Mejia-Bonilla, 44, died on Saturday while in the custody of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This tragedy marks the 10th death to occur in ICE detention since the start of the fiscal year. In the case of Mejia-Bonilla, ICE has yet to reveal the New York area detention center where he was held prior to his…

Adelanto, CA – It has now been 31 hours since nine individuals, known as the #Adelanto9, began a hunger strike at the Adelanto Detention Center in California yesterday morning. Within hours of refusing to eat food or drink water, the #Adelanto9 reported that they were drenched with pepper spray, beaten and transferred into a high security area by GEO Group (GEO) guards, the notorious private prison company that operates the facility. “The retaliation that the #Adelanto9 endured as a result of their hunger strike is a shameful attempt to suppress efforts to expose the shocking realities of…

Washington, DC — Immigrant rights organizations, Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), Detention Watch Network (DWN), and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Vicente Caceres-Maradiaga. Caceres-Maradiaga, 46, died last Wednesday while in the custody of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being detained at Adelanto Detention Center in California. This tragedy marks the third death to occur at Adelanto this year, after Sergio Alonso Lopez and Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba. “Adelanto is now the…

Washington, DC — Yesterday, the Trump administration released their proposed budget for fiscal year 2018. Trump is asking taxpayers to support massive cuts to domestic programs while allocating billions of dollars to put more people behind bars and ramp-up the deportation force that will rip people from their families and tear communities apart. “Unsurprisingly, Trump’s proposed budget is a continuation of his anti-immigrant agenda,” said Silky Shah, co-director of Detention Watch Network. “The budget is an immoral roadmap that would dramatically expand the deportation force, surveillance…

Washington, DC — Immigrant rights organizations, Georgia Detention Watch and Detention Watch Network demand an immediate investigation into the death of Jean Jimenez-Joseph. Jimenez-Joseph, 27, died on Monday while in the custody of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being detained at Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. ICE is reporting the death as a suicide, which provides a heartbreaking perspective into the state of mind of Jimenez-Joseph who had spent 19 days in solitary confinement prior to his passing. Georgia Detention Watch and Detention Watch Network would like to…

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…

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…