Families of People Detained at Richwood, Site of Recent Death, Protest Detention and Use of Force

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- Dozens of local activists, members of faith-based groups, attorneys, and loved ones of Cuban asylum seekers in detention staged a protest in front of the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana this weekend. The group gathered to draw attention to the indefinite and abusive detention of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and the alleged retaliation they face in detention for speaking out. According to firsthand accounts from two men detained and their families, on Oct. 16th a hunger strike of around 40 men protesting the death of another Cuban detainee and their own conditions and mistreatment was met with excessive force.

BREAKING: Two asylees attempt suicide, others threaten mass action in New Mexico ICE detention facility

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — This week, two Cuban asylum seekers detained at the Otero County Processing Center (OCPC) slit their wrists and at least 19 others are planning on doing so in an act of mass resistance. Conditions and rights violations at OCPC have become so untenable that many view this drastic step as their only option to bring about change. The two men are in medical care, others have been placed in solitary confinement, and the situation is escalating.

CA Gov. Gavin Newsom signs bill banning private prisons into law

LOS ANGELES, CA. – On Friday California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 32, a piece of legislation that effectively phases out the use of private prisons in the state beginning on January 1, 2020. Freedom for Immigrants applauds Gov. Newsom for putting people over profits and continuing to make California a model state in the movement to abolish immigration detention.

Freedom for Immigrants Celebrates the Release of El Paso Hunger Strikers

Freedom for Immigrants and Advocate Visitors with Immigrants in Detention (AVID) in the Chihuahuan Desert are elated that Ajay Kumar and Gurjant Singh have both been released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in El Paso, Texas and are free to pursue their asylum cases free from the confines of immigration detention. They both faced over a year of prolonged detention.