Shut Down Stewart Detention Center!

Alejandro Mayorkas Secretary at DHS Alejandro.Mayorkas@hq.dhs.gov, Joseph B. Williams Chairman Stewart County Commission JosephBWilliams@bellsouth.net, Jarvis McMillar Assistant Field Office Director ICE Atlanta Office Jarvis.McMillar@ice.dhs.gov

Immigrant women in ICE custody have once again been abused inside Georgia’s ICE prisons. The July 2022 complaint underscores graphic accounts of immigrant women facing sexual assault inside The Stewart County Detention Center (SDC) by a nurse working at the detention center. These horrifying accounts come less than 2 years after the news of immigrant women at Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC), about 100 miles away from Stewart, being subjected to medical abuse including invasive gynecological procedures without full consent. The prevalence of these instances of undue violence against detained immigrants across different detention centers demonstrates that the problem is much larger than any one facility, and that the closure of a singular facility will, at best, fail to deter violence elsewhere and, at worst, outright shift the means for violence and the officers perpetrating it from one location to the next. In short, the problem is systemic and requires not only the closure of Stewart Detention Center individually but the defunding of ICE as a whole.

“I’m livid knowing that this man is still working at Stewart after having abused me and so many girls, even when the entire Stewart staff knew what happened,” stated Complainant Viviana Doe. “It scares me so much to see Stewart staff cover up to allow the abuse of so many women, and that the employee who sexually harassed me is still there, exposed to hundreds of women.”

Unfortunately, this is not the first time SDC has been at the forefront of human rights violations. SDC is one of the largest and deadliest ICE prisons in Georgia and has a track record of violations including: lack of mental health care, arbitrary use of solitary confinement, unsanitary conditions, failure to follow pandemic response requirements, medical neglect,and the use of force against the detained population. SDC also has the highest reported number of deaths due to COVID of any ICE facility nationwide, and one of the highest reported numbers of COVID cases in ICE detention centers nationwide.

Nine men have died while detained at SDC. Community members also mourn the loss of Roberto Medina Martinez, Yulio Castro-Garrido, Pedro Arriago Santoya, Santiago Baten Oxlaj, Felipe Montes, Cipriano Chavez-Alvarez, Jeancarlo Jiménez-Joseph, Efrain Romero De La Rosa, and Jose Guillen-Vega. Because of the overuse of solitary confinement and lack of medical and mental health care, Jeancarlo Jiménez-Joseph and Efrain Romero De La Rosa died by suicide after being held for more than 15 days in solitary confinement.

In addition to these horrible preventable tragedies, Stewart is a site of forced labor where immigrants are made to work out of necessity for $1-4 a day. Investigations have also found use of force against detained immigrants at Stewart including shooting at them with pepper balls, pepper spraying, or even beating them. Shockingly, some of these SWAT-like officers have celebrated their own brutality on social media, such as by describing their shooting pepper-ball projectiles at detained immigrants as entering “call of duty mode”—a reference to the first-person shooter games—and by saying that a wheelchair-bound detained immigrant “felt them [motherfuckers].”

Advocates have been raising red flags about SDC for more than a decade. We are tired of hearing about our immigrant communities being abused by ICE without any accountability or recourse. The July 2022 announcement of multiple allegations of unaddressed sexual assault by a nurse at SDC during an active period of investigation underscores the ineffectiveness of these current oversight attempts, and counsels for the immediate closure of SDC. ICE’s continued failure to provide adequate medical care, mental health care, access to legal services, access to linguistically and culturally competent support services, and access to basic necessities like food and water are left unchecked at SDC.

SDC has historically failed to protect detained individuals from sexual assault. The complainants named herein urge the responsible components of DHS and DOJ to investigate and render consequences under law for these alleged actions of ICE staff and their contractors, subcontractors, and detention administrators at Stewart, including private contractor CoreCivic. A Stewart survivor stated, “I, along with the rest of the surviving women who endured this abuse, deserve and demand justice! Let’s stop this aggressor. May we not allow any more victims of sexual assault at Stewart.”

We are united in the call for the immediate closure of SDC, the release of people still detained there, reparations and a path to immigration relief in the United States for the brave survivors who were formally detained there, and the defunding of ICE.

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Mujeres inmigrantes bajo custodia de ICE han sido abusadasuna vez másdentro de las prisiones de ICE de Georgia. La denuncia de este julio de 2022 destaca relatos gráficos de mujeres inmigrantes que enfrentan agresión sexual dentro del Centro de Detención del Condado de Stewart (SDC por sus siglas en Inglés) por parte de un enfermero que trabaja en el centro de detención. Estos terribles reportes salen a menos de dos años después de las noticias de las mujeres inmigrantes del Centro de Detención del Condado de Irwin, a aproximadamente 100 millas de Stewart, siendo sujetas a abusos médicos incluyendo procedimeintos ginecólogos invasivos sin el consentimiento completo de las pacientes. La frecuencia de estas ocurrencias de violencia en contra de los inmigrantes detenidos a través de diferentes centros de detención demuestran que el problema es mucho más grande que cualquier instalación, y que el cierre de una instalación en particular, en el mejor de los casos, no impedirá la violencia en otros lugares y, en el peor de los casos, cambiar directamente los medios para la violencia y los oficiales que la perpetran de un lugar a otro. En corto, el problema es sistemático y requiere no solamente el cierre individual del Centro de Detención Stewart si no el desfinanciamiento de ICE en su totalidad.

“Es tan indignante para mi el saber que ese hombre sigue trabajando en Stewart después de haber abusado de mi y tantas chicas, aun mas cuando todo el personal de Stewart sabe lo que sucedió, dijo la Demandante Viviana Doe. “Me da tanto miedo ver como se encubre el personal de Stewart para seguir abusando de tantas mujeres, y que el empleado que me acosó sexualmente todavía esté allí, expuesto a cientos de chicas.”

Desafortunadamente, esta no es la primera vez que SDC ha estado al frente de las violaciones de los derechos humanos. SDC es uno de las más grandes y el más mortal centro de detención de ICE en el estado de Georgia y tiene un historial de violaciones, incluyendo la falta de atención en salud mental, el uso arbitrario de confinamiento solitario, condiciones insalubres, incumplimiento de los requisitos de respuesta a la pandemia de Covid-19, abuse medico, y el uso de la fuerza contra la población detenida. SDC también tiene el mayor número de muertes debido a COVID-19 de cualquier instalación de ICE en todo el país, y uno de los números más altos de casos de COVID-19 en los centros de detención de ICE en todo el país.  

Nueve hombres han muerto mientras estaban detenidos en SDC. Miembros de la comunidad han lamentado las muertes de Roberto Medina Martinez, Yulio Castro-Garrido, Pedro Arriago Santoya, Santiago Baten Oxlaj, Felipe Montes, Cipriano Chavez-Alvarez, Jeancarlo Jiménez-Joseph, Efrain Romero De La Rosa, and Jose Guillen-Vega. Dado a el execivo uso de confinamiento solitario y la falta de atencion a la salud medica y mental, Jeancarlo Jiménez-Joseph and Efrain Romero De La Rosa murieron por suicidio después de haber sido detenidos en confinamiento solitario por mas de 15 días.

Además de estas horribles y prevenibles tragedias, SDC es un lugar de trabajo forzado donde inmigrantes son puestos a trabajar por necesidad por $1-4 por día. Investigaciones hechas también han encontrado que el uso de fuerza en contra de los inmigrantes detenidos en Stewart incluye ser disparados con bolas de pimienta, uso de la spray de pimienta, en incluso ser golpeados. Inclusive, algunos de estos violentos guardias han celebrado la brutalidad en las redes sociales, como la descripción de cómo usaban balas de pimienta para dispararles a los inmigrantes detenidos como si estaban en el video juego “call of duty”- un videojuegos violenta de de tiradores- y al decir que un inmigrante detenido en silla de ruedas “las sintió [hijos de puta].”

Defensores han alzado varias alertas de alarma sobre SDC por más de una década. Estamos cansados de oír cómo las comunidades inmigrantes son abusadas por ICE sin que haya responsabilidad y se haga algo al respecto. El anuncio de Julio del 2022 de múltiples alegaciones impunes subraya la ineficacia de los actuales intentos de supervisión, y sugiere el cierre inmediato de SDC. El continuo fallo de ICE en proveer adecuados servicios médicos, servicios de salud mental, acceso a servicios de apoyo culturales y lingüísticos, y acceso a necesidades básicas como comida y agua se mantiene sin ser abordados en SDC.

SDC a históricamente fallado en proteger a los individuos detenidos de agresión sexual. Las denunciantes aquí nombradas urgen a los componentes responsables de Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS por sus siglas en Inglés) y el Departamento de Justicia (DOJ por sus siglas en Inglés) a investigar y nombrar las consecuencias bajo ley por las dichas acciones de los trabajadores de ICE y sus contratistas, subcontratistas, y administradores de detention de SDC, incluyendo al contratista privado CoreCivic. Un sobreviviente de Stewart dice, “¡Yo, como el resto de las mujeres sobrevivientes que soportaron este abuso, merecemos y demandamos justicia! Paremos a este agresor. No dejemos que haya mas victimas de acoso sexual en Stewart.”

Estamos unidos en el llamado para el cierre inmediato de SDC, la liberación de las personas que aún siguen detenidas allí, reparaciones y un camino hacia el alivio migratorio en los Estados Unidos para los valientes sobrevivientes que han sido formalmente detenidos allí, y el desfinanciamiento de ICE.  



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To: Alejandro Mayorkas Secretary at DHS Alejandro.Mayorkas@hq.dhs.gov, Joseph B. Williams Chairman Stewart County Commission JosephBWilliams@bellsouth.net, Jarvis McMillar Assistant Field Office Director ICE Atlanta Office Jarvis.McMillar@ice.dhs.gov
From: [Your Name]

Dear Secretary Mayorkas, Stewart County Commission Chairman Williams and Atlanta ICE Field Office Director McMillar:

Immigrant women in ICE custody have once again been abused inside Georgia’s ICE prisons. The July 2022 complaint underscores graphic accounts of immigrant women facing sexual assault inside The Stewart County Detention Center (SDC) by a nurse working at the detention center. These horrifying accounts come less than 2 years after the news of immigrant women at Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC), about 100 miles away from Stewart, being subjected to medical abuse including invasive gynecological procedures without full consent. The prevalence of these instances of undue violence against detained immigrants across different detention centers demonstrates that the problem is much larger than any one facility, and that the closure of a singular facility will, at best, fail to deter violence elsewhere and, at worst, outright shift the means for violence and the officers perpetrating it from one location to the next. In short, the problem is systemic and requires not only the closure of Stewart Detention Center individually but the defunding of ICE as a whole.

“I’m livid knowing that this man is still working at Stewart after having abused me and so many girls, even when the entire Stewart staff knew what happened,” stated Complainant Viviana Doe. “It scares me so much to see Stewart staff cover up to allow the abuse of so many women, and that the employee who sexually harassed me is still there, exposed to hundreds of women.”

Unfortunately, this is not the first time SDC has been at the forefront of human rights violations. SDC is one of the largest and deadliest ICE prisons in Georgia and has a track record of violations including: lack of mental health care, arbitrary use of solitary confinement, unsanitary conditions, failure to follow pandemic response requirements, medical neglect,and the use of force against the detained population. SDC also has the highest reported number of deaths due to COVID of any ICE facility nationwide, and one of the highest reported numbers of COVID cases in ICE detention centers nationwide.

Nine men have died while detained at SDC. Community members also mourn the loss of Roberto Medina Martinez, Yulio Castro-Garrido, Pedro Arriago Santoya, Santiago Baten Oxlaj, Felipe Montes, Cipriano Chavez-Alvarez, Jeancarlo Jiménez-Joseph, Efrain Romero De La Rosa, and Jose Guillen-Vega. Because of the overuse of solitary confinement and lack of medical and mental health care, Jeancarlo Jiménez-Joseph and Efrain Romero De La Rosa died by suicide after being held for more than 15 days in solitary confinement.

In addition to these horrible preventable tragedies, Stewart is a site of forced labor where immigrants are made to work out of necessity for $1-4 a day. Investigations have also found use of force against detained immigrants at Stewart including shooting at them with pepper balls, pepper spraying, or even beating them. Shockingly, some of these SWAT-like officers have celebrated their own brutality on social media, such as by describing their shooting pepper-ball projectiles at detained immigrants as entering “call of duty mode”—a reference to the first-person shooter games—and by saying that a wheelchair-bound detained immigrant “felt them [motherfuckers].”

Advocates have been raising red flags about SDC for more than a decade. We are tired of hearing about our immigrant communities being abused by ICE without any accountability or recourse. The July 2022 announcement of multiple allegations of unaddressed sexual assault by a nurse at SDC during an active period of investigation underscores the ineffectiveness of these current oversight attempts, and counsels for the immediate closure of SDC. ICE’s continued failure to provide adequate medical care, mental health care, access to legal services, access to linguistically and culturally competent support services, and access to basic necessities like food and water are left unchecked at SDC.

SDC has historically failed to protect detained individuals from sexual assault. The complainants named herein urge the responsible components of DHS and DOJ to investigate and render consequences under law for these alleged actions of ICE staff and their contractors, subcontractors, and detention administrators at Stewart, including private contractor CoreCivic. A Stewart survivor stated, “I, along with the rest of the surviving women who endured this abuse, deserve and demand justice! Let’s stop this aggressor. May we not allow any more victims of sexual assault at Stewart.”

We are united in the call for the immediate closure of SDC, the release of people still detained there, reparations and a path to immigration relief in the United States for the brave survivors who were formally detained there, and the defunding of ICE.

Sincerely,