Why Hasn’t Joe Biden Shut Down the Worst ICE Detention Facilities? May 25, 20212:17 PM
Eli Fernandez, a volunteer for Catholic Charities, speaks to immigrants, most seeking political asylum, who were released from U.S. government detention in McAllen, Texas, on Nov. 3, 2018.
John Moore/Getty Images
On May 13, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress he would be “taking action very quickly” on immigrant detention centers. Within a week, he ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to cut contracts with two detention centers that have been the targets of extended organizing and community-led shutdown campaigns.
At one of them, the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, more than 40 predominantly Black or Latina immigrant women came forward last fall with reports of unnecessary, invasive, and nonconsensual gynecological procedures following a whistleblower complaint, leading to investigations by the FBI, Justice Department, and Homeland Secu
Without a federal mandate to end immigration detention in county jails and private detention centers, advocates continue turn to local and state lawmakers to act.
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Caption Dawn Wooten (left), who filed the whistleblower complaint about conditions at the Irwin County Detention Center, participates in a news conference on Sept. 16, 2020. Credit: GPB file photo
The Biden administration has ordered the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla and a second county jail in Massachusetts to stop housing immigrant detainees,
The Washington Post reported Thursday.
An order signed by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is part of a broader review of how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) handles immigrant detainees.
Both the Irwin County facility and the jail in Bristol County, Mass., are under federal investigation following complaints of abuses of detainees.
Homeland Security Tells ICE to Cut Ties With Jail That Sicced Dogs on Migrants
Protesters drive in a caravan around Immigration and Customs Enforcement s El Paso Processing Center to demand the release of migrant detainees on April 16, 2020, in El Paso, Texas.
Paul Ratje / Agence France-Presse / AFP via Getty Images
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In a move hailed as “a major win” by migrant rights advocates, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday announced it is moving to end migrant detention at two county jails under federal investigation for alleged abuses including forced sterilizations and unleashing dogs on detainees.
DHS said in a statement that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to “discontinue use” of the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center at the Bristol County Jail in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts and to “prepare to discontinue the use” of the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georg
ICE to End Contracts with Two County Jails Where Immigrants Faced Abuses democracynow.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from democracynow.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.