Pressroom

Memphis, TN — Today, Comunidades Unidas en Una Voz, Detention Watch Network, and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition called on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to immediately release Manuel Duran, a well-known Spanish language journalist in Memphis. Manuel was arrested on April 3rd by the Memphis Police Department while he was conducting his work as a reporter and covering an immigrant detention protest held by local groups outside of the county jail. CUUV, DWN, TIRRC and thousands of people launched a campaign to urge MPD to drop all charges and for…

Washington, DC — After months of negotiations, today, the House of Representatives paved the path for a proposal to fund the federal government to the tune of $1.3 trillion with the Senate set to vote on it ahead of tomorrow’s midnight deadline. As it relates to immigration, the funding bill includes money for: $14.018 billion for Customs and Border Protection (CBP, $1.831 billion more than fiscal year 2017 $7.076 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), $641 million more than fiscal year 2017. $370 million of this increase is for “Custody Operations,” the account that funds…

Washington, DC — Today’s release of a congressional letter led by Representatives Gutiérrez, Espaillat and Grijalva is the latest addition to a growing demand from constituents, advocates and Members of Congress for significant cuts in funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). “The massive amount of engagement over the appropriations process to cut funding for ICE and CBP has reached a fever pitch. It shows the pure outrage over Trump’s hate-fueled anti-immigrant agenda and the resolve to fight it,” said Mary Small, Policy Director of…

Washington, DC — Today, Tuesday March 13, immigrant activists will deliver over 130,000 petition signatures gathered by American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), CREDO, Detention Watch Network (DWN) and MoveOn to demand that Members of Congress #DefundHate by publicly calling for significant cuts in funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), and fight against any funding bill which wastes taxpayer dollars on this unaccountable and abusive immigration enforcement system. Activists delivered the petitions to lead appropriators and Congressional…

Miami, FL — Immigrant rights organizations, including Florida Immigrant Coalition, Southern Poverty Law Center and Detention Watch Network, are demanding an immediate investigation and public release of the findings on the death of Luis Ramirez-Marcano. Cuban immigrant Ramirez-Marcano, 59, died on February 19 while in the custody of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being detained at the Krome Detention Center in Florida. “We demand to know the circumstances that led to the deaths of these detainees,” said Maria Rodriguez, Executive Director of Florida Immigrant Coalition. “We…

Washington, DC — A new report, ICE Lies: Public Deception, Private Profit, released today by Detention Watch Network and the National Immigrant Justice Center, exposes Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) egregious patterns of fiscal irresponsibility, opacity in management, and disregard for congressional oversight in its detention system. Such irresponsible governance results in system-wide abuses and even deaths. The report comes a day after the Trump administration released its budget proposal for fiscal year 2019 requesting $2.8 billion to detain 52,000 immigrants each day. “For too…

Washington, DC — Today, the Trump administration released their proposed budget for fiscal year 2019. Trump is asking taxpayers to support massive cuts to social and environmental 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. “Trump’s proposal is a clear reflection of this administration’s anti-immigrant agenda guiding its every move,” said Mary Small, policy director at Detention Watch Network. “The out-of-control, reckless and dangerous nature of this proposal…

New York, NY — Immigrant rights leader Ravi Ragbir, together with the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, CASA de Maryland, Detention Watch Network, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and the New York Immigration Coalition, filed suit ( Ragbir v. Homan) in federal district court in the Southern District of New York today to challenge the recent targeting of immigrant rights activists by federal immigration officials.Pending briefing and consideration of a preliminary injunction motion, the government has agreed to stay Mr. Ragbir’s deportation temporarily. Mr…

Atlanta, GA — Immigrant rights organizations, Georgia Detention Watch, Project South and Detention Watch Network demand an immediate investigation and public release of the findings into the death of Yulio Castro-Garrido. Castro-Garrido, 33, died on Tuesday while in the custody of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being detained at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. "This is tragically the third death in Georgia immigration detention centers in less than a year,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, Legal & Advocacy Director of Project South. “As our year-long documentation showed…

Washington, DC — In response to Trump’s divisive State of the Union address, Detention Watch Network’s Organizing Director, Danny Cendejas issued the following statement: “Despite his claims, Trump’s mission is the antithesis of righteous. He used the address as yet another depraved call for the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda to come to fruition at the expense of immigrant lives and healthy communities nationwide. Trump exploited isolated tragedies to demonize immigrant communities — a signature move from the administration’s playbook to stereotype immigrants at large to justify…

A full recording of today’s call can be found here. Washington, DC — Faith leaders, advocates and undocumented individuals in Sanctuary held a press call today to unveil a first-of-its-kind report on the faith based Sanctuary movement and highlight the growth of the movement and how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are increasing retaliation tactics against immigrant rights organizers and humanitarian activists. Key highlights from the report include: Over 1,100 congregations are now part of the Sanctuary Movement. There are over 40 state Sanctuary coalitions representing 25 states…

Washington, DC — Today, Detention Watch Network, immigrant rights activists and allies joined together for a press conference and rally to condemn Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) recent targeting of leaders and activists of the immigrant rights movement. “ICE is an agency that regularly lies, actively hides information from the public and retaliates against anyone who speaks out,” said Danny Cendejas. “The ramp up of targeting immigrant rights activists to silence political opposition to ICE’s cruel and unjust practices is a clear example of the degradation of democratic values…