人兽性交

Over the past month,听听at the Irwin County Detention Center听in Ocilla, Georgia 颅鈥� including women being sterilized without their consent 鈥� have shocked millions of Americans. But the Irwin detention center is just the tip of the iceberg; tens of thousands of people held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers across the country are subject to medical neglect and abuse every day.

The women at the Irwin detention center who suffered these injustices are organizing themselves. They are speaking out. They are asking for support and demanding action. And in the meantime, they are doing their best to take care of each other.

While the allegations of coerced sterilizations at Irwin have been the primary focus of recent news reports, women at Irwin听describe horrible and abusive conditions overall, beyond just medical care. In a seven-page, handwritten account dated Aug. 13, a woman named Ana (not her real name) described the appalling conditions:

This detention center does not pay attention to, or comply with, adequate maintenance or biosecurity and hygiene conditions for living. Our unit 鈥� has leaks in the roof, leaks in the plumbing, fungus on the shower walls, as well as water leaks in the surroundings and drips, the toilets give out bad odor (black water) and the basins have leaks, towels have to be used so water does not flow across the floor and cause accidents or develop a bad odor. Insects are present, cockroaches, ants, spiders, etc. The Detention Center makes everything mentioned above look better for one to two days just before there is going to be an inspection, afterwards everything goes back the way it was.

Letters from an Irwin County Jail

The conditions described in Ana鈥檚 account, which was signed by 26 other women, are longstanding. Eight years ago, the ACLU of Georgia听听on conditions in the state鈥檚 immigration detention centers that faulted the Irwin County Detention Center for its 鈥渟erious and systematic problems鈥�:

Irwin鈥檚 remote location inhibits detainees [sic] ability to find representation and be able to communicate and visit with their families; living conditions are substandard; female hygiene is an area of particular concern; and detainees often go untreated or receive inadequate treatment because of understaffed medical and mental health units.

Ana鈥檚 account makes clear that ICE鈥檚 tactics discourage people at Irwin from seeking the medical care they need:

We want to make known that in Unit [redacted] there are detainees with serious medical conditions, grave illnesses, tachycardia, anemia, gastritis, etc. Knowing that these illnesses are high-risk. On April 20, 2020, a federal suit was won against ICE, so they must review cases of detainees who present these illnesses, but this order is not being respected or attended to by ICE. Some detainees refuse to seek medical attention for fear of being punished as has been done in the cases described above. We are sure they do this to sow fear and not receive Medical Requests.

Ana鈥檚 descriptions and suspicions are corroborated by an account from another woman detained at the Irwin detention center, Emilia (also not her real name). Emilia鈥檚 account (dated Aug. 12, signed by 32 detained women) is handwritten, too, but in a tighter, more slanted script that suggests it was written urgently, almost as if the text is italicized:

The staff cover up their identification so we don鈥檛 report the incidents with their names.

Those in charge of medical care do not report the medical emergencies in order to ensure that there is no evidence.

We are subject to lack of care, mistreatment, and negligence from Immigration.

The detention center says that ICE is responsible and ICE says the detention center is responsible because they pay for each one of us.

We here are nothing to them but a number and money. That鈥檚 what interests them.

In a postscript, Ana echoes Emilia鈥檚 last point about the Irwin detention center鈥檚 profit motive: 鈥淣ote: We have always understood that this is a For-Profit Detention Center, and for this reason the complaints that we detainees file are not important or listened to.鈥�

Irwin is one of more than 100 ICE detention centers operated by for-profit corporations. Nationwide, an estimated听听are in some kind of privatized detention facility. A handful of large corporations are fattening their bottom lines by warehousing people who rightfully belong with their families and communities, not in private jails where abuse is the norm.

An inherently unjust system

Thanks in part to a听听filed by a nurse who worked at the Irwin detention center, the alleged atrocities committed there have received national attention. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has听. California Rep. Nanette Barrag谩n, after touring Irwin with fellow lawmakers,听, 鈥淪poke to women detained in ICE鈥檚 prison here in Irwin County about the horrors they face. Many more wrote letters, because they were afraid to speak up or because we didn鈥檛 have enough time to talk to everyone. 鈥� Their stories break my heart.鈥�

One of the letters pictured in Barrag谩n鈥檚 tweet听听迟辞:

Hello! How are you? We are not good.

I'd like to be able to give you a nice speech. But I am going to speak the truth, from my heart.

Why have you taken so long to come here? For ages we have been shouting 鈥淗ELP.鈥� You don't know all that we have suffered. Someone must stop it.

Unfortunately, the conditions and experiences at Irwin are all too common in ICE detention centers. Individuals represented by听the Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚听Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative听are subjected to them every day.

A detention center in Louisiana听听in a COVID-19 quarantine dormitory. A Georgia detention center responded to requests for medical help with violence, including听. At another Louisiana facility, guards听听three times in three days, once during an informational briefing on the coronavirus. A听听at yet another Louisiana center ended with the strikers thrown into solitary confinement and threatened with tear gas.

While shocking, these abuses are the predictable outcome of a system that treats immigrants as dollar signs instead of people. Injustices like these are not the result of 鈥渂ad apples鈥�; they鈥檙e indicative of a system where abuse is intrinsic, not incidental. And the continuation of such a system is indefensible.

Detention centers should be closed听

It doesn鈥檛 have to be this way. We can have a fair, just and functioning immigration system that doesn鈥檛 incarcerate people. A system that treats everyone with dignity and respect. A system that lives up to our nation鈥檚 highest ideals. That鈥檚 the goal of the 人兽性交 and our local partners who听, including听, the听,听听and the听.

A key part of that goal is shutting down 鈥撎齨ot reforming,听closing听鈥� Irwin and all other ICE detention centers across the country.

There is nothing radical about closing detention centers. We know that when migrants are given support and help navigating the immigration system, they show up for their court appearances.听听have compliance rates of 90% or higher and cost up to 80% less than holding someone in a detention center. And for most of our country鈥檚 history, until just the past few decades, we did not hold migrants in jails as we do now.

Immigrants are our neighbors, our friends, our family members, our colleagues. Like many of us and our ancestors, they have made the difficult decision to come to this country in search of a better life, more freedom and greater opportunities. In this, they are part of a long and deeply American tradition of striving for a better future. Their dedication should be validated, not discouraged, and certainly not punished.

The alternative to change is the status quo, in which most people are only forced to think about ICE detention centers a few times a year when yet another scandal over monstrous and inhumane conditions erupts. But that status quo has never been sustainable for people trapped within the system 鈥� and a growing number of Americans who may have no contact with the system at all are recognizing that they can鈥檛 abide by it, either. That鈥檚 why we and our partners are hearing the pleas of people like Ana and Emilia and echoing their call: Irwin and all other ICE detention centers should be shut down. We hope you will join us.

You can learn more about the 人兽性交鈥檚 Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative听here.

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