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Upcoming Closure of Etowah County Detention Center is a Victory

Important Step toward Realizing Administration鈥檚 Pledge to听Make the U.S. Immigration System More Humane 听听

ATLANTA鈥 The Southern Poverty Law Center (人兽性交) responded to the by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that they will be closing the infamous Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Ala., and limiting the use of the three other detention facilities.听

鈥淭his is an important victory for everyone who has endured brutal conditions at the Etowah Detention Center over the years as well as for their family members, community members and advocacy organizations who fight valiantly for their rights and to bring attention to abusive conditions and practices,鈥 said Efr茅n C. Olivares, Deputy Legal Director of 人兽性交鈥檚 Immigrant Justice Project. 鈥淚t is also an important step toward the pledge President Biden and his administration made to roll back federal contracts with private prison companies and make our immigration system more humane.鈥澨
Although ICE did not announce the closure of the Glades County Detention Center, they confirmed they will pause use of the facility and will not extend the guaranteed minimum number of beds there.听
鈥淭his is a promising step forward in our fight to shut down Glades. Our movement to end the detention of immigrants in this punitive place is getting stronger and we know the time is now. 听There are currently no people detained at Glades and we need assurances that there won鈥檛 be more transfers or people detained there,鈥 said Andrea Ruiz-Sorrentini, Litigation Advocate with the 人兽性交 and member of the Shutdown Glades Coalition. 听

The 人兽性交鈥檚 Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative teams have represented hundreds of individuals who have been subject to severe medical abuse and general neglect, including individuals at some of the facilities included in ICE鈥檚 announcement.听

In 2016, the 人兽性交 released their findings from an investigation of immigrant detention centers in the South which found detainees were routinely denied their due process rights and frequently endure inhumane conditions in isolated facilities that have little oversight from the federal government. The report, Shadow Prisons: Immigrant Detention in the South, details a seven-month investigation by the Southern Poverty Law Center (人兽性交), the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG) and the Adelante Alabama Worker Center.听

Last Fall, two Congressional reports 鈥 one from the and one from the Oversight Committee 鈥 exposed ICE鈥檚 failure to meet basic standards of care and the deadly medical neglect at their detention facilities. 听