Content warning: This email discusses sexual assault and violence.
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Earlier this month, media reported a disturbing account of a nurse at Stewart Detention Center sexually assaulting multiple immigrant women who are currently detained by ICE. This latest story, while horrifying on its own, is part of a broader pattern of abuse and inhumane treatment. The bottom line is that Stewart must be shut down and we need to do everything we can to make that happen.
A remote facility in Lumpkin, Georgia, Stewart Detention Center detains the largest number of people in the country — an average of 1,098 per day. It also has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths of any ICE detention center, and the highest death rate of all immigration detention facilities in the last five years (Source: TRAC Immigration and The Intercept). Stewart is run by a private prison company called CoreCivic, which profits from caging human beings.
After several women bravely issued reports of the sexual assault, harassment, and abuse they experienced at Stewart, ICE officials called them liars and threatened them with prison time.
There is only one solution: shut down Stewart Detention Center.
We cannot stand by while people are in danger at ICE’s Stewart Detention Center. Add your name to our petition in our urgent call for the Biden administration to shut down Stewart immediately. >>>
President Biden has failed to fulfill his commitment to ending the use of private facilities for detention – including the detention of undocumented immigrants. The Biden administration is well aware of the inhumane conditions at Stewart Detention Center and has all the power to take corrective action and close it down.
We commend the work of our partners at Southern Poverty Law Center, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, El Refugio, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Human Rights Clinic, and Project South who helped shed light on this issue.
We stand with survivors of sexual assault at Stewart and all ICE detention facilities. It's past time for justice.
Sincerely,
Lisa Graybill
Legal Director
National Immigration Law Center
