Pressroom

Gadsden, Alabama – Just over a month since the Etowah Visitation Project celebrated the reinstatement of the project at the Etowah Detention Center on December 18, the group has learned that the agreement previously in place between Sheriff Horton and the visitation project is not being upheld despite being notified by his office that visits would resume. Rather, people detained are no longer being formally connected to community support, as they were previously, and barriers imposed make visitation nearly impossible. Today, groups across the country amplified the need to reinstate the program…

Macclenny, Florida — Detention Watch Network and Friends of Miami-Dade Detainees are demanding an immediate investigation into the deaths of Ben James Owen, a 39-year-old man from the United Kingdom, and a 63-year-old man from Cuba. Owen died on January 25 while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after being detained at the Baker County Detention Center in Macclenny, Florida. ICE is reporting his death as a suicide. Buzzfeed is reporting that the individual from Cuba passed away in ICE custody after being taken to a Florida hospital for cardiac arrest. ICE has yet to release…

Washington, DC —Today, Texas Representatives sent a letter to the Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Acting Director of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Director of the Office of Management Acquisition urging them to immediately suspend the current solicitation for three ICE detention center contracts in Texas in violation of federal procurement laws. The congressional letter also outlines abuse and inadequate, often times life-threatening, medical care, while underscoring ICE’s ongoing lack of transparency and accountability. The request by ICE is…

Gadsden, Alabama – In response to a letter addressed to Etowah County Sheriff Jonathon Horton signed by 62 community organizations and a cease and desist letter issued by Freedom for Immigrants on behalf of the Etowah Visitation Project, visitation has resumed at the Etowah Detention Center. “We are delighted that Etowah Visitation Project visits resumed on Wednesday, December 18, 2019, after approval was granted on December 16. I was personally overwhelmed by the response of the men we visited. They were surprised and happy to receive a visit yesterday. They spoke to us of how meaningful EVP…

Washington, DC — On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1158 (116), which will allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to continue expanding its detention and deportation force. The bill allows ICE and CBP to continue taking money from other Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies and gifts DHS $1.37 billion to continue building deadly border walls. Just a few days before the vote, a Buzzfeed report exposed even more abuse immigrants have endured at the hands of ICE and CBP, including a child having part of his forehead…

Washington, DC —Today, more than 45 non-governmental organizations that work in Texas sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to use their oversight authorities to investigate Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) attempt to evade procurement law and disregard community opposition to contract extensions in Texas for immigration detention. On November 21, 2019, ICE published a solicitation notice for three 10-year contracts for federal detention facilities within the Enforcement and Removal Office’s Houston and San Antonio Areas of Responsibility. The request is tailored to three…

Gadsden, AL — In retaliation of a group of volunteer visits that was followed by a rally outside of the Etowah Detention Center in November, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Etowah County Sheriff's Office have suspended the Etowah Visitation Project. On behalf of the Etowah Visitation Project, Freedom for Immigrants issued a cease and desist letter today to ICE and the Etowah County Sheriff's Office. “By suspending our visitation program without any indication of when we will be able to visit again, the government is further isolating immigrants whose lives are already in…

Lumpkin, Georgia — As people detained at the Stewart Detention Center (Stewart) headed into the 26th day of being denied access to outdoor recreation, a group of people currently detained there filed a formal complaint with a federal watchdog agency today detailing abuse by facility staff and deepening the existing criticism of Immigration Judge Dan Trimble. The complaint, lodged with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, was written in the name of hundreds of people held at the facility in Lumpkin, Georgia, just two hours outside of Atlanta.…

Tacoma, Washington — Today, more than 100 people detained at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) entered their fourth day on hunger strike from inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility operated by GEO Group. This is the 13th hunger strike to occur this year alone (see list of hunger strikes below) that immigrant rights’ advocates are aware of in over nine states, indicating the rising use of hunger strikes as a protest tactic to denounce immigration detention. “The ongoing and increasing number of hunger strikes at facilities across the country underscores the urgent…

Monroe, Louisiana — Detention Watch Network and Congreso de Jornaleros at the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice are demanding an immediate investigation into the death of Roylan Hernández Diáz, a 43-year-old man from Cuba. Hernández Diáz died on October 15 while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after being detained at the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana. ICE is reporting Hernández Diaz’s death as a suicide, who was being held in solitary confinement at the time, a practice internationally recognized as torture. “Fostering hopelessness is an…

Sacramento, CA — Today, after years of sustained local activism led by immigrant rights groups, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed groundbreaking legislation that will ban the use of private immigrant jails in California starting in the New Year, eventually entirely phasing out their use in the state. On the heels of HB2040 in Illinois, California’s AB32 builds momentum towards dismantling the profit motives that are deeply intertwined with mass incarceration and immigration detention. “This is a landmark victory, not only for the state of California and the thousands of people behind bars, but for the…

Washington, DC — The Defund Hate Coalition applauds appropriations committee leadership for enforcing Congress’s power of the purse and rejecting future attempts to misuse federal appropriations laws to expand Trump’s detention and deportation force and continue to build his border wall. A letter signed by Rep. Nita Lowey, Sen. Patrick Leahy, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, and Sen. Jon Tester — chairpersons and ranking members of the full appropriations committees and immigration subcommittees in both congressional chambers — was sent today to the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of…

San Diego, CA — Detention Watch Network and Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice are demanding an immediate investigation and public release of the findings related to the death of 37-year-old man from Cameroon in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Buzzfeed reported the man died after being detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Center (Otay) in San Diego. “The ongoing loss of life in immigration detention is not only heartbreaking, it’s infuriating,” said Lizbeth Abeln, Immigrant Detention Coordinator with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. “There is a bill sitting on…

Washington, DC — At a House Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for Thursday morning, members of Congress will hear testimony from immigrants who have been detained in the abusive U.S. immigration detention system and have the opportunity to question former government officials who have played a role in the rapid expansion of that system. The National Immigrant Justice Center, Detention Watch Network and Freedom for Immigrants call on members of Congress to use this opportunity to hold U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accountable for the suffering that has occurred in its…

Washington, DC — During a briefing with members of Congress, the National Immigrant Justice Center, Detention Watch Network, Freedom for Immigrants, and the American Civil Liberties Union called for routine visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jails in their districts and states. The coalition of organizations is calling this effort the “Eyes on ICE Detention Oversight Initiative,” and will be working with members of Congress to follow their visits with concrete actions to improve oversight and accountability of immigration detention centers. As part of the initiative, three…

Woodstock, Illinois — Detention Watch Network, Organized Communities Against Deportations, and the National Immigrant Justice Center are demanding an immediate investigation and public release of the findings related to the death of Roberto Rodriguez Espinoza, a 37-year-old man from Mexico. The man died on September 10 while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after being detained at the McHenry County Adult Correctional Facility in Woodstock, Illinois. This is the eighth death to occur in ICE detention in Fiscal Year 2019. “Roberto’s death is the eighth in ICE custody we have…

Washington, DC — More than 200 non-governmental organizations sent a letter to Congress today calling for members to cut the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget for detention, enforcement, and border militarization, and to put accountability measures in place to stop the agency’s pattern of abuse of the appropriations process. In the letter, human and civil rights advocates and faith-based organizations call on members of Congress, who are debating the federal government’s fiscal year 2020 budget, to reassert their authority over federal budgeting decisions, “in the face of a White…

Washington, DC — Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement in response to a sweeping plan by the administration to indefinitely detain children and families: “Trump will stop at nothing to perpetuate immigrant suffering. By dismantling the Flores Settlement Agreement, which limits child detention and provides critical safeguards, the administration will indefinitely incarcerate kids and families alike. Incarceration exacerbates the trauma many are fleeing, while subjecting people to egregious conditions and at times fatal medical care. In…

Washington, DC — Detention Watch Network denounces Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) latest raid operation in Mississippi that tore nearly 700 people from their loved ones, including parents from their children, and drove more people into the expanding and inhumane immigration detention system. The following is a statement from Bárbara Suárez Galeano, Organizing Director of Detention Watch Network: “The raids across Mississippi were an act of terror against the immigrant communities rooted in white supremacy. Orchestrated by the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs…

Lumpkin, Georgia —Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, and Detention Watch Network are demanding an immediate investigation and public release of the findings related to the death of Pedro Arriago-Santoya. Arriago-Santoya, 44, died on July 24 while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after being detained at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. “We call for an immediate investigation into the medical care that Pedro received,” said Kevin Caron, member of Georgia Detention Watch. "Stewart, like many prisons and detention facilities throughout the US, has a long…

Washington D.C. — Today, Mijente, Just Futures Law and Detention Watch Network released a summary report, “ Blueprint for Terror: How ICE Planned its Largest Immigration Raid in History,” exposing the targets, tactics and coordinated practices between federal prosecutors and local police in large scale immigration raids. Through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the FOIA summary report uncovers Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) culture of secrecy by examining the 2017 “Operation MEGA,” a mass detention and deportation operation planned by ICE. Billed by ICE as what would…

Washington, DC -- In response to the news that the Trump administration will be using Fort Sill, a U.S. Army base once used as an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II, to detain up to 1,400 immigrant children, Tsuru For Solidarity, Detention Watch Network, Densho and ACLU Oklahoma announced the following peaceful protest event at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and issued the following statements: Dr. Satsuki Ina, co-chair of Tsuru For Solidarity said: Seventy five years ago, I was born in an American concentration camp. 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated without…

Washington, DC — In response to the FY2020 markup of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Bill, the Defund Hate coalition released the following statement: “We welcome long overdue decreases in funding to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), such as no funding for additional border barriers and a prohibition on fund transfers for further barriers, that are proposed in this bill, however these cuts are not enough. CBP’s budget has tripled since its creation 15 years ago and has become notorious for its shocking track record of abuse, neglect and death, including six child…

El Paso, Texas — The Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee (DMSC) and Detention Watch Network are demanding an immediate investigation and public release of the findings related to the death of a transgender asylum seeking woman, Johana Medina Leon. Leon, 25, died on June 1 while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after being detained at the Otero County Processing Center in El Paso, Texas. “ICE completely disregards the well-being and dignity of people in their custody,” said Jennifer Apodaca, member of DMSC. “Immigration detention is not the answer: not for asylum seekers…

Washington, DC — On a press call today, the Trump Administration shockingly released new details on the unprecedented growth of the immigration detention apparatus, revealing that the U.S. government is now collectively detaining 80,000 people. Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement in response: “The United States is grossly obsessed with incarceration, and there is no more horrifying proponent of a system designed to strip brown and black people of their dignity than Trump. The shocking growth of the detention system where endemic issues such…