By NCLEJ Senior Attorney Leah Lotto 

NCLEJ filed FOIA and Georgia Open Records Act Requests seeking government records regarding public officials’ progress and timeline for ending ICE operations at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC), an immigration detention center in Georgia with a long track record of harrowing abuse.

Three months after ICE first announced plans to end its contract with the facility, 100 people remain caged there in ICE custody, and others continue to be transferred to equally inhumane immigrant detention centers rather than released to their families.

The FOIA request is part of a movement to shut down ICDC led by people formerly caged by ICE and supported by other activists and advocates.

Last fall, a whistleblower represented by Government Accountability Project revealed accounts of forced hysterectomies and other medical abuses against men and women caged in ICDC. The allegations prompted a Congressional delegation to visit the facility and condemn the alleged medical misconduct funded with taxpayer money.

Detention on its own is a harrowing experience, but detainees at ICDC have reported practices common in ICE detention centers that may constitute forced labor, such as requiring detainees to work to keep the facility up for a dollar a day.

NCLEJ filed these requests together with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Comunidad Estrella, Detention Watch Network, the Government Accountability Project, Innovation Law Lab, Migrant Equity Southeast, SisterSong, Somos South Georgia, and Sur Legal Collaborative.