📢Now is the time to end New York’s complicity with immigrant detention! 🧵 thread + 📝 statement from 75+ groups on why we need to pass the #DignityNotDetention Act:

freedomforimmigrants.org/policy-updates… COVID-19 exacerbated the dangers of ICE detention, which has *always* been inhumane. 2020 was the deadliest year in detention since ‘05, with 21 deaths - and over 10K COVID cases. #DignityNotDetention

ICE is seeking to expand detention in NY. It’s up to us to end ICE contracts in NY by passing #DignityNotDetention @NYSA_Majority @NYSenDems

What exactly does this bill do? Read thread ⬇️: 1. #DignityNotDetention prohibits NY State government from entering into immigration detention contracts & prohibits them from receiving any payments related to immigration detention.

BREAKING: Freedom for Immigrants and 9 partner orgs submitted a civil rights complaint against the Glades County Detention Center in Florida. Link to the full CRCL in comments. freedomforimmigrants.org/news/shut-down… With 25 testimonies, it details atrocities happening inside Glades, including: ICE’s failures to follow court orders to release individuals; retaliation for protests and public reporting; use of toxic chemical spray in enclosed spaces; hospitalizations, deaths, and disappearances

BREAKING:

Our National Detention Hotline received a disturbing call from a Black immigrant in an ICE prison who had experienced physical abuse at the hands of the guards.

Hotline volunteers acted quickly to file a civil rights complaint on his behalf. In an interview, our Director of Visitation Advocacy Strategies, Sofia Casini, highlighted the connection between the abuse of Black immigrants in ICE prison with abuse at the hands of law enforcement.

BREAKING: We @MigrantFreedom @AlOtroLado_Org @_AIRLegal_ & Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention have filed a civil rights complaint against @ICEgov & @LaSalleCorr‘s use of force in Louisiana to coerce immigrants into signing deportation papers. freedomforimmigrants.org/crcl/2021/2/2/… The complaint was submitted on behalf of 3 Cameroonian asylum seekers at Winn Correctional Center who were physically assaulted, choked, beaten and handcuffed in attempts to force their signatures.

The full complaint is available here: static1.squarespace.com/static/5a33042…

This morning, we @ Freedom for Immigrants and @DetentionWatch Network delivered a letter to @POTUS on behalf of 217 groups demanding President Biden address COVID-19 inside immigration detention by releasing everyone within the first 100 days #FreeThemAll

freedomforimmigrants.org/news/freethema… Our organization has documented at least
199 instances of retaliation at 49 detention facilities since the onset of the pandemic, underscoring the systemic nature of this abuse. You can follow our up-to-date COVID-19 reporting at freedomforimmigrants.org/covid19

🧵#THREAD

“The abuse we are witnessing, especially right now against black immigrants, isn’t new, but it is escalating," said @ChristinaFialho, executive director of @MigrantFreedom.

#FreeBlackMigrants
#FreeCameroonians
theguardian.com/us-news/2020/o… "...we began to receive calls on our hotline from Cameroonian and Congolese immigrants detained in [ICE] prisons across the country. And they were being subjected to threats of deportation, often accompanied by physical abuse.”

#FreeBlackMigrants
#FreeCameroonians
#FreeThemAll

DHS itself is confirming what we & other immigrant rights advocates have been documenting since the start of the #COVID19 pandemic: that transfers are deadly & have contributed to #COVID19 outbreaks.

#EndICETransfers #FreeThemAll
buzzfeednews.com/article/hameda… A reminder that @JeffMerkley & @MichaelBennet have introduced a bill that would:

1. Stop inter-facility transfers during the pandemic
2. Stop jail/prison to ICE transfers during the pandemic
3. Require ICE to comply with CDC guidance
4. Require ICE to release people to comply

🧵 #Thread: 6 mo. ago we launched a #COVID19 Hotline to document abuses in ICE prisons. Since then, we’ve received over 10k calls. We just published our latest report analyzing data from the Hotline, attorneys, advocates & media reports.

Here’s what we found 👇 #FreeThemAll Since our last update, ICE officials announced three deaths in custody. Fernando Sabonger-Garcia; Cipriano Chavez-Alvarez; and Romien Jally.

21 people have lost their lives in ICE custody this fiscal year, the highest in 15 years.

#DetentionKills #FreeThemAll

ICYMI: @JeffMerkley & @MichaelBennet introduced a bill that would:

1. Stop inter-facility transfers during the pandemic
2. Stop jail/prison to ICE transfers during the pandemic
3. Require ICE to comply with CDC guidance
4. Require ICE to release people to comply

https://twitter.com/MigrantFreedom/status/1309638220511154177

@JeffMerkley @MichaelBennet Our meticulous reporting on documenting ICE's failed response to the #COVID19 pandemic helped this bill become reality.

Transfers have accelerated the number of #COVID19 cases in detention and have even directly to death:
freedomforimmigrants.org/covid19

Thank you Senators @MichaelBennet & @JeffMerkley for introducing legislation that would place a moratorium on ICE transfers.

We join in calling for an immediate end to transfers and continue to demand that ICE #FreeThemAll bennet.senate.gov/public/_cache/… As we’ve documented since the beginning of the pandemic, transfers have accelerated the number of #COVID19 cases in detention and have even directly to death #FreeThemAll

freedomforimmigrants.org/covid19

#Thread: The news of forced hysterectomies at a private ICE prison in GA has shocked the nation.

Even more shocking, however, is how routine medical abuse is at these immigrant prisons, including those run by private prison companies where transparency is beyond zero. In CA, the vast majority of people in ICE custody are jailed at private prisons. @AGBecerra MUST investigate these facilities to hold GEO & CoreCivic accountable.

This is important as GEO wants to expand the largest ICE prison on the West Coast: desertsun.com/story/news/pol…

#THREAD: In May we began to receive distressing calls to our Hotline about a toxic chemical disinfectant being used at #Adelanto. Callers described bloody noses, nausea, & skin burns.

As a result, we filed a civil rights complaint with @IC4IJ. laist.com/2020/05/22/adv… The chemical is called HDQ Neutral. According to the label, this toxic substance should only be used outside in well-ventilated areas. Not in cages.

A fact-sheet from @Earthjustice describes just how dangerous HDQ Neutral is.

#FreeThemAll

Our Co-Executive Director, @ChristinaFialho, explains why the @CityofAdelanto's attempt to ram the GEO Group's proposed expansion of immigration detention through the approval process is completely illegal, and what we plan to do about it.

desertsun.com/story/news/pol… In February, we at Freedom for Immigrants, and our partners @IC4IJ, @the_ILRC and @ACLU_SoCal , appealed the city Planning Commission's decision to approve GEO's proposal to convert its 700-bed prison into an immigrant prison.

NEW: We filed a lawsuit against the Sheriff of #Etowah Co.

Last fall, following a peaceful protest outside the jail, the Sheriff retaliated & blocked volunteers from visiting men detained there.

This violates the free speech rights of community members:
freedomforimmigrants.org/news/2020/9/1/… “Once again, the Etowah Co. Sheriff’s Office is trying to make visitor volunteers choose between their First Amendment rights & supporting people in immigration detention [...] This is not a choice the government can legally ask them to make,"

@ChristinaFialho

#THREAD: Today is #InternationalDayoftheDisappeared. This day draws attention to those individuals imprisoned at places and under poor conditions unknown to their loved ones #InternationalDayoftheDisappeared was created in response to the secret imprisonment, abduction, & forced disappearances of people in a number of Latin American countries.

Those disappeared are known as desparecidos.

Abolishing immigration detention takes a global movement. And it can #StartWith1visit.

Today, we & @AVIDdetention released an open letter to the US & UK to #FreeThemAll from immigration detention on behalf of 40 visitation groups at 47 immigrant prisons
static1.squarespace.com/static/5a33042… We & our partners at @AVIDdetention convene networks of volunteer visitor groups across the US & UK. Volunteer visitor groups not only provide interpersonal support to people isolated in detention centers, they also monitor for human and civil rights abuses.

This stunning story from @dglaun exposes exactly what we've been documenting in our #COVID19 reporting since the start of the pandemic: ICE is lying and people are dying.

pbs.org/wgbh/frontline… Each month we publish a report on #COVID19 in ICE prisons using data through our National Immigration Detention Hotline and advocacy networks.

Find those reports here:
freedomforimmigrants.org/covid19

🧵 #Thread: 4 mo. ago we launched a #COVID19 Hotline to document abuses in ICE prisons.

Since then, we received over 10k calls.

We just published our latest report analyzing data from the Hotline & media reports.

Here’s what we found 👇 #FreeThemAll freedomforimmigrants.org/covid19 Since our last update, ICE officials announced three deaths in custody.

Kuan Hui Lee, James Thomas Hill, Freddy Guillen Vega.

The number of in-custody deaths this year so far is double what ICE reported for all of fiscal year 2020

#DetentionKills #FreeThemAll

"The [toxic chemical disinfectant] HDQ is accumulating and the air that we breathe is just full of HDQ. As I am writing now I am unable to breathe,"

- A letter sent to @ClueJustice from a woman detained at #Adelanto

#FreeThemAll @ClueJustice For more information, join us on Facebook now for a press conference on toxic chemical use of #HDQ Neutral at #Adelanto.

facebook.com/FreedomforImmi…

🧵 #Thread: 3 mo. ago we launched a #COVID19 Hotline to document abuses in ICE prisons. Since then, we received nearly 10k calls.

We just published our latest report analyzing data from the Hotline & media reports. Here’s what we found 👇 #FreeThemAll freedomforimmigrants.org/covid19 Since our last update, ICE officials announced two additional deaths in custody.

Onoval Perez-Montufa
Luis Sanchez-Perez

Rest in Power

#FreeThemAll