Pressroom

Washington, DC — Today, Detention Watch Network and organizations representing immigrant communities from across the country took action calling for all people to be released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. The day of action follows a number of protests by people in detention demanding to be released over growing concerns of coronavirus infection. “DWN members are taking action today to demonstrate the urgent need to release all people from detention while amplifying the courageous protests people inside detention are taking,” said Bárbara Suarez Galeano, Organizing…

Cameron County, Texas — As the result of ongoing advocacy efforts by the Rio Grande Valley Equal Voice Network and Detention Watch Network the Cameron County Commissioners Court passed a resolution on May 12 calling on the release of people from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, prison, and jails to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The resolution impacts the over 900 people currently detained at the Port Isabel Detention Center (PIDC) where the first confirmed case of the coronavirus among people detained was made public on May 14. Additionally, on April 9 it was reported…

Washington, DC — Today, Detention Watch Network (DWN) and immigrant rights advocates from across the country are joining in a national day of action calling on their elected officials to demand Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) release all people from immigration detention now. Today’s action follows the death of Carlos Escobar-Mejia last week at the Otay Mesa Detention Center due to the coronavirus and the breaking news of . ICE is reporting over 900 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in detention centers, and the number is believed to be larger as people in detention are reporting symptoms…

Washington, DC — In response to the untimely passing of Oscar Lopez Acosta due to complications from COVID-19 after being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, Silky Shah, Director of Detention Watch Network offered the following statement: “Let's be clear, immigration detention is verging on a death sentence. People in detention are susceptible to contracting infectious disease, as was likely the case with Lopez Acosta, while existing medical conditions worsen as the result of being in detention. There have been numerous investigations into ICE’s fatally inadequate…

Washington, DC — Today, House Democrats hosted a virtual forum on the “response” by Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) to the COVID-19 pandemic and current conditions in ICE detention. This hearing comes a week after the death of Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, who was detained at Otay Mesa Detention Center, and after a federal judge, earlier this month, described ICE as acting with “deliberate indifference” to the condition of people detained in three south florida detention centers. During the forum, Johannes Favi, a father of three who was recently released from ICE detention in…

San Diego, CA— In response to the first COVID-19 related death of a detained person at the CoreCivic operated Otay Mesa Detention Center in California, immigrant rights advocates issued the following statements: Pedro Rios, Director of the American Friends Service Committee’s US-Mexico Border Program in San Diego, said: “We are saddened and outraged that a person detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego County has died with complications related to COVID-19. For months, advocates have been raising concerns that the detention facility would exacerbate deadly conditions for those…

Washington, DC — Today, the Trump administration is expected to announce an executive order impacting immigration to the United States. In anticipation of this announcement Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network issued the following statement: “Trump has consistently underestimated the impact of the coronavirus causing thousands of preventable deaths. Instead of leading the country he has spread deadly lies, left states to fend for themselves to find life-saving health care resources, and kept tens of thousands of people behind bars in immigration detention centers where…

Adelanto, CA — Today, the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ) and Detention Watch Network released a new video on the Adelanto Detention Center in California, one of the largest and deadliest immigration detention centers in the country, and the ongoing efforts to shut it down. Watch the video here: https://www.facebook.com/DetentionWatchNetwork/videos/161264158487617 “We have been working tirelessly to get people out of detention, expose the Adelanto Detention Center for the abuse that it perpetuates, and shut it down for good,” said Lizbeth Abeln, Detention Abolition Coordinator of…

Tacoma, Washington — Today, news broke of a hunger strike at the Northwest Detention Center in Washington State with approximately 50 people participating to protest their incarceration at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. Hunger strikers then spelled out the distress signal, SOS, in the yard of the detention center with their own bodies to reflect the emergency they are facing and demand ICE release them from detention immediately. Today’s hunger strike marks the third to occur at the facility in just three weeks, following over 60 immigrant women who were on strike last…

Washington, DC — In response to the rise of COVID-19 cases in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and ICE’s refusal to release all people in detention, Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement: “Thousands of doctors and hundreds of advocates have been urgently sounding the alarm since early March that people in immigration detention are sitting ducks in a system notorious for its fatally flawed medical care and abysmal conditions that only worsen in times of crisis. Even the former acting director of ICE, John Sandweg, has…

Washington, DC — Today, news broke of a hunger strike at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island that began on Saturday with approximately 60 people participating, while across the country there are over 60 immigrant women who are on hunger strike at the Northwest Detention Center in Washington state. Two weeks since the first person in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody tested positive for coronavirus, hunger strikes are growing across the country as people are refusing food amidst the fear of exposure. “We are trapped,” said a person on hunger strike at the…

Chicago, IL — In response to the news of the first death due to the coronavirus pandemic at the Stateville Correctional Center and over 100 people reported infected at the Cook County Jail, Bárbara Suárez Galeano, Organizing Director of Detention Watch Network offered the following statement. Bárbara Suárez Galeano, Organizing Director, Detention Watch Network: “Immigrant rights advocates, criminal justice reform advocates, and doctors have been consistent in our demand for weeks: release people now from detention centers, jails, and prisons. Detention Watch Network has laid out the…

Washington, DC — Today, advocates, lawyers, public health experts, and a person formerly detained convened for an urgent briefing on the state of COVID-19 in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, and the immediate need to release people now to protect public health. The call coincided with the release of a new mini report from Detention Watch Network, Courting Catastrophe: How ICE is Gambling with Immigrant Lives Amid a Global Pandemic. On Tuesday, an immigrant being held in detention in New Jersey became the first person in ICE custody to test positive for COVID-19…

Washington, DC — In response to the breaking news that the first person in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody tested positive for coronavirus, Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement in response: “ Doctors and advocates have been sounding the alarm for weeks that people in immigration detention are sitting ducks in a system notorious for its fatally flawed medical care and abysmal conditions. Even the former acting director of ICE, John Sandweg, has called for the release of people in detention. Yet Trump’s racist and anti…

Houston, TX — Last week Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) awarded the Houston Processing Center a nearly $50 million contract to keep the for-profit immigration detention facility open for the next decade. The 10-year contract is the first of a three facility solicitation for increased detention capacity in Texas that ICE initiated in November. The other two facilities are the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall, Texas and the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas. All three are operated by for-profit prison corporations. “ICE is exploiting this moment of crisis to…

Washington, DC — Over the weekend Buzzfeed reported the death of a 42-year-old Mexican man in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at a hospital on Saturday. The death is the second to occur in Texas within just three days following the suicide of a 27-year-old Honduran man at the Karnes Detention Center on March 18. The two deaths come as doctors and advocates are urgently calling for people to be released from immigration detention amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak within facilities. “In no uncertain terms, ICE has proven repeatedly that they are not capable of caring for…

Washington, DC — Today, 763 non-governmental organizations sent a letter to Matthew T. Albence, Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), calling for ICE to immediately release all people currently detained in immigration detention, cease all local enforcement operations, and eliminate ICE check-ins and mandatory court appearances. In the letter, immigrant rights advocates, human and civil rights advocates and faith-based organizations from across the country underscore how lives are already at risk in immigration detention. With the spread of coronavirus, choosing to…

Washington, DC — The Defund Hate Coalition issued the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s request for massive funding increases for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in response to Covid-19: The administration’s request to Congress to increase funding for ICE with $249 million to convert four facilities into dedicated quarantine facilities and CBP with $567 million for nine quarantine facilities is immoral, puts lives at risk, and further illuminates the racist, anti-immigrant agenda fueling this administration — most…

Washington, DC — With the rising spread of the coronavirus across the United States, the threat of a deadly outbreak at immigration detention facilities is imminent. Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement in response: “The threat of a coronavirus outbreak in immigration detention facilities is imminent and the government needs to act immediately by releasing people from detention. Lives are already at risk in detention, and with the spread of coronavirus, people are sitting ducks in a system notorious for its fatally flawed medical care…

Youngstown, Ohio — Detention Watch Network is demanding an immediate investigation into the death of David Hernandez Colula, a 34-year-old man from Mexico. Hernandez Colula died on February 20 while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after being detained at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, Ohio. ICE is reporting his death as an apparent suicide, marking the seventh death in ICE custody during FY2020. “Being trapped in a cage and ripped apart from loved ones for an unforeseeable amount of time is pure psychological torture,” said Bárbara Suarez Galeano…

Washington, DC — The Defund Hate Coalition issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2021: “For his final budget proposal before the election, the Trump administration is clear on its core motivations: a wholesale, hate-fueled attack on immigrants. In the four years Trump has put forth his annual budget proposal, he has requested a cumulative total of $36.4 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $72.1 billion for Customs and Border Protection (CBP). These totals are on top of the billions of dollars in additional funding…

Washington, DC — On Thursday, news media reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot two people in an attempt to arrest an immigrant outside their home in Brooklyn, New York. The Defund Hate Campaign, which is made up of 38 organizations comprising directly impacted communities, faith leaders, and civil rights and immigrant rights advocates, released the following statement: “Yesterday’s assault and state-sanctioned gun violence shows us what we’ve known all along: that our communities are safer without the deportation force of ICE and CBP. For the last three years, we’ve seen…

Annapolis, Maryland — Today, Maryland Delegates introduced the Dignity Not Detention Act, a bill that would ban new state and local contracts with for-profit immigration detention companies and start to phase out existing contracts by July 2020. Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement in response: “Today Marlyand joins Illinois, California and Washington State in laying out a roadmap to end the United States’ shameful history of criminalization and reliance on incarceration as a profit-driven industry. It is a bold step in the right direction…

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…