WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the world and the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is poised to continue to recklessly endanger the lives of the people in its custody. ICE currently detains nearly 22,000 people in its network of abusive immigrant detention centers—a 54 percent increase in detention population since the beginning of the Biden administration.
‘Unchecked Culture of Abuse’: Groups Demand Federal Intervention Amid ICE Field Office’s Anti-Blackness and Life-Endangering Violations
NEW ORLEANS –– A coalition of immigrants’ rights and human rights organizations today delivered a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, demanding immediate intervention from the Biden administration to address torturous and racially discriminatory abuses, unlawful conduct and lack of oversight within immigrant detention centers under the jurisdiction of the New Orleans Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Field Office.
‘Takes the human out of a person’: Black Immigrants in Detention Describe Anti-Blackness, Egregious Abuses in New Civil Rights Complaint
MIAMI — Nine Black immigrants in federal custody today filed a civil rights complaint with the Biden administration, speaking out against a disturbing pattern of anti-Black racism and abuse at the Krome North Service Processing Center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Miami, Florida. Advocates with The UndocuBlack Network, Haitian Bridge Alliance, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and Freedom for Immigrants submitted the complaint with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL).
Freedom for Immigrants: DHS Doubles Down on Criminalization of Our Communities
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced new immigration enforcement guidelines, which keeps the mass incarceration and deportation system intact while granting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents broad discretion in its decisions to detain and deport immigrants.
Celebrating Over a Decade of Visionary Leadership: Christina Fialho and Christina Mansfield, Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors of Freedom for Immigrants, to Transition
OAKLAND, CA — Today, Christina Fialho and Christina Mansfield announced they will be transitioning out of their roles as co-executive directors of Freedom for Immigrants (FFI), after over a decade of transformational leadership. Fialho and Mansfield have been working alongside the senior leadership of the organization to prepare for the transition and will continue to support the organization during this time of growth. Layla Razavi and Sierra Kraft will serve as co-interim executive directors while the Board launches a national search for a new executive director.
Use of Toxic Chemicals Endangering Safety, Reproductive Health of Immigrants in Detention
GLADES COUNTY, Fla. – A disturbing investigative report published in Scientific American reveals that officials at a federal immigration detention center in Glades County, Florida, routinely use toxic chemicals at highly dangerous levels, exposing immigrants held at the facility to severe health effects including damage to reproductive health.
‘Detained and Disappeared’: New Report Documents Hundreds of Disappearances in U.S. Immigration Detention System
WASHINGTON, D.C., on International Day of the Disappeared –– In violation of international law, the United States is engaged in a pattern and practice of regularly disappearing immigrants in its federal immigration detention system, according to a startling report published today [link final report] by Freedom for Immigrants (FFI).
Women at Florida Immigration Detention Center File Federal Complaint Over Sexual and Medical Abuse, Toxic Chemical Spray, and Racist Treatment
GLADES COUNTY, Fla. – Today, seven immigrant women held at a remote immigration detention center in Florida filed a complaint with federal officials, shedding light on an appalling pattern of abuses including sexual abuse by guards and a psychiatrist amounting to violations of the Prison Rape Elimination Acts (PREA), exposure to a highly toxic chemical spray, life-threatening medical neglect, violations of COVID-19 safety protocols, and racist and degrading treatment.