What: Zoom press conference immediately prior to federal district court hearing on lawsuits filed by troubled prison corp. GEO Group and the Trump admin. against California’s AB 32, which bans for-profit prisons and detention centers in the state. Advocates will denounce an “illicit scheme” by ICE and prison corporations to evade accountability, highlight the strong constitutional case for AB 32, and call out the COVID-19 crisis in detention.

NEW JERSEY -- After months of action by immigrant rights organizers, the Elberon Development Group has decided to cut ties with their tenant, CoreCivic and their property, the Elizabeth Detention Center (EDC), a private immigration detention center that has a long history of inhumane conditions. Advocates continue to press for the immediate closure of the EDC and the immediate release of all people detained there, for Elberon to establish a reparations fund from their rental profits for the individuals and families of those who have been detained at EDC, as well as the release of people from all detention facilities.

CALIFORNIA — Following an April decision by the city of McFarland to approve GEO Group’s request to expand immigration detention by 350 percent in Kern County, Freedom for Immigrants and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) have filed a lawsuit against the city. The city of McFarland’s plans to reuse former California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation facilities for the purposes of detaining immigrants flies in the face of sustained opposition by McFarland residents and is in clear violation of California state law.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 6, 2020) — The House Appropriations Committee this week proposed a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill for fiscal year 2021 that begins the long overdue process of defunding our nation’s deadly immigration detention system. This bill takes steps to hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) accountable for their wasteful spending, which has torn apart thousands of families and cost more than 55 lives in custody since 2017. The proposed spending bill also reduces money for detention, rescinds money for wall construction, and does not include any new money for border patrol agent

Nationwide – On Tuesday June 23, Inland Coalition For Immigrant Justice, For Freedom for Immigrants, Friends of Miami-Dade Detainees, American Friends Service Committee (Colorado), La Resistencia (Washington), and directly impacted voices from inside GEO owned Detention facilities denounced the dire situation hitting the limelight about ICE and GEO’s use of toxic chemical disinfectants. Aside from the dangerous side effects that these harmful chemicals are causing people held by ICE, they are also experiencing retaliation for speaking out.

Nationwide – Beginning in early May, both the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ) and Freedom for Immigrants began to receive a series of distressing calls from people detained at the Adelanto Detention Center in California. Callers described how a powerful chemical disinfectant called HDQ Neutral is causing bloody noses, nausea, and difficulty breathing. Similar reports of chemical disinfectants causing adverse medical reactions have now been reported at immigrant prisons across the country, including at the Glades County Jail in Florida, the for-profit GEO Detention Facility in Aurora, Colorado, and Northwest Detention Center in Washington.

Washington, D.C. – In solidarity with the millions of Black people and allies who have taken to the street to defend Black lives and demand justice for those who have been killed by police, the Defund Hate Coalition issued the following statement:

Freedom for Immigrants stands with Black communities across the United States who have risen up to demand justice and transformation in the face of the continued extrajudicial killing of Black people. We condemn the use of both militarized law enforcement and the military to violently quash dissent. We stand with the call that Black-led organizations and activists have made to #DefundPolice and invest in community-based, anti-violence programs, trauma-informed services, and restorative justice programming.