Pressroom

Our latest press releases on important news and events relating to immigration detention in the United States

For media inquiries contact: media@detentionwatchnetwork.org

Another death in ICE Custody after ICE grabs $271 million from FEMA and other DHS agencies 

September 13, 2019

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.

200+ Human and Civil Rights Organizations Call on Congress to Hold DHS Accountable and Cut Funding for ICE and CBP

September 12, 2019

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.

Day after Mississippi raids: Details are sparse, ICE motives are clear

August 8, 2019

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 death toll in ICE custody rises to 194, groups demand an immediate investigation

July 25, 2019

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.

Japanese Americans to protest the detention of migrant children at Ft Sill Oklahoma

June 14, 2019

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:

Advocates demand answers and justice amid latest loss of life in ICE custody

June 3, 2019

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.

Trump Administration: 80,000 people in ICE and CBP detention facilities

May 31, 2019

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.

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