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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 10, 2011 CONTACT: Anton Flores-Maisonet, Georgia Detention Watch, 706-302-9661, anton@alternacommunity.com Azadeh Shahshahani, ACLU of Georgia, 404-574-0851, ashahshahani@acluga.org
Georgia Detention Watch and human rights groups hold Stewart Detention Center Vigil V: “No More Profits Off Our Pain” November 18 at 10 am in Lumpkin, Georgia
Advocates call for the for-profit detention center to be shut down Atlanta, GA - On Friday, November 18 at 10 am, Georgia Detention Watch will hold its fifth annual vigil at Corrections Corporation of America’s Stewart Detention Center. “This year’s vigil will highlight the traumatic impact of detention on the families, especially children of those detained, while CCA continues to secure record-breaking profits off of human misery,” said Georgia Detention Watch Steering Committee member, Priscilla Padrón of Atlanta. Families that have been directly impacted by detention at Stewart will play a major role in this year’s vigil. In 2010, Emily Guzman spoke on behalf of her husband, Pedro, who was detained inside Stewart for 19 months. Emily’s mother, Pamela Alberda and seven others were also arrested for a nonviolent act of civil disobedience at last year’s vigil as they demanded the release of her son-in-law. Earlier this year, victory was declared by advocates as Pedro was granted relief and reunited with his family. He will now address those in attendance at the vigil himself as a legal permanent resident of the United States. “There’s so much money they make from us, but they’re not investing any money in detainees,” Pedro Guzman said in an interview upon his release from the for-profit detention center in the remote town of Lumpkin, population 1300. “The treatment you get is like you’re an animal. I have two dogs, and I treat my dogs much better than the detainees are treated in there.” Others directly affected by the for-profit detention of immigrants at Stewart will also attend this year’s vigil, including Lilian Quiroz. Quiroz’s husband, Paul, entered the United States in 1984 when he was only 11 years old and now has two children and a wife in a familial crisis as his detention at Stewart goes on for five months with no end in sight. “It is time to close this for-profit detention center and end the mandatory detention of immigrants,” said Anton Flores-Maisonet of Georgia Detention Watch. Additional individuals slated to speak at the vigil include Theresa El-Amin, a veteran of the civil rights movement and representative of the Southern Anti-Racist Network; Flores-Maisonet; Bryan Holcomb, a former employee-turned-whistleblower of Corrections Corporation of America’s Stewart Detention Center; and Azadeh Shahshahani of the ACLU of Georgia.
Case-by-case data also show that the highest proportion of deportation orders in the country (98.8 percent) were issued by the judges in the Lumpkin, Georgia Immigration Court.
§ Conditions at Stewart: Substandard and Inhumane
§About Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) Sources: CCA: 2010 Annual Letter to Shareholders; A Quarter Century of Service to America; About CCA; Morningstar, Corrections Corporation of America, Key Executive Compensation.
Lead Sponsor: Georgia Detention Watch
Collaborators and Endorsers:
School of the Americas Watch American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia Alterna Asian American Legal Advocacy Center Atlanta Friends Meeting Social Concerns Committee Coalicion de Lideres Latinos-CLILA Cobb Immigrant Alliance Cuentame Detention Watch Network DreamActivist.org Enlace Georgia Immigrants and Refugees Rights Coalition Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights Georgia Peace and Just Coalition Georgia Rural Urban Summit International Action Center International Center of Atlanta Southern Anti-Racism Network Southerners on New Ground ----- Georgia Detention Watch is a coalition of organizations and individuals that advocates alongside immigrants to end the inhumane and unjust detention and law enforcement policies and practices directed against immigrant communities in our state. Our coalition includes activists, community organizers, persons of faith, lawyers, and many more. Member organizations of Georgia Detention Watch include: the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, American Immigration Lawyers Association Atlanta Chapter, Amnesty International-Southern Region, Amnesty International -Atlanta local group 75, Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE), Coalición De Líderes Latinos (CLILA), Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, Immigrant Justice Project- Southern Poverty Law Center, International Action Center, Open Door Community, Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA), and others. |
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Eight Arrested While Protesting at Stewart Detention Center
100 march to close Stewart and free Pedro Guzmán
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Saturday, November 20, 2010
CONTACT: Anton Flores-Maisonet, Georgia Detention Watch, 706-302-9661, anton@alternacommunity.com América Gruner- Coalition of Latino Leaders-CLILA- 404-803-4546 clila@clila.org
Lumpkin, GA – Calling for the closing of Stewart Detention Center and bringing detainee Pedro
Guzman home to his wife and son, about 100 demonstrators marched from the Lumpkin town square to the gate of the detention center yesterday. They carried a paper chain
listing names and ages of the more than 110 detainees who have perished in immigration detention since 2003, including 39-year-old Roberto Martinez-Medina and 50-year-old Pedro
Gumayagay who were being detained at Stewart. The vigil highlighted the traumatic effects of detention on the spouses and children of those detained, particularly the case of Pedro Guzman. Guzman has been detained at the Stewart facility for over a year, while his U.S. citizen wife, Emily, has spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting for justice. Their case is currently on appeal as Guzman was inexplicably denied bond in this civil matter. #### § About the Stewart Detention Center Located in rural Southwest Georgia, the Stewart Detention Center detains approximately 2,000 men, primarily from Latin America. Stewart is run by the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, the country's largest private prison corporation.
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§ The organizations which endorsed or participated in the November 19 vigil included: American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia Atlanta Mennonite Fellowship Coalicion de Lideres Latinos-CLILA (Dalton, GA) Detention Watch Network (Washington, D.C.) Georgia Detention Watch Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights International Action Center (Atlanta, GA) Nipponzan Myohoji (Atlanta, GA) School of the Americas Watch (Washington, D.C.) School of the Americas Watch Los Angeles (California) Voces de la Frontera (Milwaukee, WI) Witness for Peace (Washington, D.C.)
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Georgia Detention Watch is a coalition of organizations and individuals that advocates alongside immigrants to end the inhumane and unjust detention and law enforcement policies and practices directed against immigrant communities in our state. Our coalition includes activists, community organizers, persons of faith, lawyers, and many more. Member organizations of Georgia Detention Watch include: the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, American Immigration Lawyers Association Atlanta Chapter, Amnesty International-Southern Region, Amnesty International -Atlanta local group 75, Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE), Coalición De Líderes Latinos (CLILA), Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, Immigrant Justice Project- Southern Poverty Law Center, International Action Center, Open Door Community, Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA), and others.
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Fourth Annual Vigil to Be Held at Corporate-Run Immigration Detention Center
SHUT DOWN STEWART! BRING PEDRO HOME!
Vigil to highlight case of Pedro Guzman and his family; shedding light on the traumatic effects of detention on spouses and children of those detained. Press conference and vigil set for Friday, November 19, 10:00 a.m., Lumpkin, GA town square
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For more on Georgia Detention Watch, visit our website: www.georgiadetentionwatch.com
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Letter to Secretary Napolitano
Calling for an End to ICE/Local Police Collaboration
and a Halt to Expansion of Immigration Detention System
Press Conference Will Be Thursday,
July 29th, 2 p.m.
in front of ICE Office,
180 Spring St. SW
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, July 29, 2010
CONTACT:
Azadeh Shahshahani, ACLU of Georgia, 404-574-0851, ashahshahani@acluga.org
PJ Edwards, Georgia Detention Watch, 770- 312-7718, pilgrimage@travelerstogether.org
Atlanta – On the occasion of the scheduled implementation of Arizona’s racial profiling law, SB 1070, veterans of the civil rights movement and representatives of social justice and faith-based community organizations in Georgia today issued a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, calling on her to put an end to 287(g) and other ICE-local police collaborations which lead to racial profiling and separation of families, and halt the expansion of the inhumane, profit-driven immigration detention system.
“As veterans of the civil rights movement and representatives of social-justice and faith-based organizations in Georgia, we urge you to take the bold steps necessary to end this unjust system that creates divided families and improbable prisoners,” says the letter. Signatories of the letter include: Constance Curry, a veteran of the civil rights movement and Atlanta-based writer and activist; Edward Dubose, President of the Georgia State Conference NAACP; Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director of the U.S. Human Rights Network; Jerome Scott, Founder and Board Chair of Project South; Reverend Gregory Williams, President of Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE); and many others.
A ruling by a federal court yesterday blocked key sections of the Arizona racial profiling law, pending a final court ruling on the law’s constitutionality. “The administration should be applauded for stepping forward to challenge this unconstitutional law,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director of the ACLU of Georgia. “But racial profiling as a result of ICE/local police collaboration and inhumane detention impacting communities in Georgia and across the country continues. It is time for the administration to step up and put an end to costly and ineffective enforcement mechanisms that run counter to fundamental American values of fairness and due process.”
The press conference will be Thursday, 2 pm, in front of the ICE office in downtown Atlanta, 180 Spring Street SW. The letter bearing the signatures will be hand-delivered to local ICE officials afterwards. In addition to Shahshahani, speakers will include: Teodoro Maus, President of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights; Pastor Michael B. Wright, Sr. of New Life Christian Church International and ABLE; PJ Edwards of Georgia Detention Watch; and Anton Flores of Alterna and Georgia Detention Watch.
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Georgia Detention Watch is a coalition of organizations and individuals that advocates alongside immigrants to end the inhumane and unjust detention and law enforcement policies and practices directed against immigrant communities in our state. Our coalition includes activists, community organizers, persons of faith, lawyers, and many more.
Member organizations of Georgia Detention Watch include: The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, American Immigration Lawyers Association Atlanta Chapter, Amnesty International-Southern Region, Amnesty International -Atlanta local group 75, Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE), Coalición De Líderes Latinos (CLILA), Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, Immigrant Justice Project- Southern Poverty Law Center, International Action Center, Open Door Community, Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA), and others.
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Georgia Detention Watch Encourages Strong Community Participation in the May 1st March for Immigrant Justice |
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Activists to march in Solidarity with immigrants and people of color in Arizona
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 29, 2010
CONTACT: Priscilla Padrón, Georgia Detention Watch, 404-371-8340, priscatran@gmail.com
Adelina Nicholls, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, 770-457-5232, anicholls@glahr.org
Atlanta, Georgia – Georgia Detention Watch is to join in the May 1st nationwide rally for immigrant justice to call for humane immigration reform, termination of 287(g), and an immediate end to racial profiling. In joining the march, Georgia Detention Watch also joins thousands of organizations across the country in strong condemnation of the recent passage and signing into law of Arizona’s racial profiling law, SB1070.
“Communities nationwide are mobilizing to show their support in this national mobilization for immigrant and workers’ rights,” said Adelina Nicholls, Executive Director of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), the organizer of the march in Georgia. “We march to show our solidarity with immigrant communities in the aftermath of Arizona's huge step backwards in the struggle for human rights,” continued Nicholls. Arizona’s racial profiling law, SB 1070, requires local law enforcement officers who have "reasonable suspicion" about someone's immigration status to demand to see documentation.
“What happens in Arizona, stops in Arizona,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director of the ACLU of Georgia. “Arizona’s law encourages racial profiling and is unconstitutional. This extreme law puts Arizona completely out of step with American values of fairness and equality,” continued Shahshahani.
“It is wrong to institutionalize racial profiling and prejudice, as we have so painfully learned from our history,” said Priscilla Padron of Georgia Detention Watch.
"Arizona’s bill makes the false promise of improving security, but what it actually does is to drive a wedge between the police and the communities they serve and protect,” continued PJ Edwards of Georgia Detention Watch. “We urge our own state to assume a higher moral ground by refusing to entertain such draconian legislative initiatives in the future. We have faith that Georgia will not fall in line behind Arizona,” continued Edwards. The march in Atlanta is co-sponsored by dozens of Georgia-based human rights groups and coalitions, including Georgia Detention Watch. The march will begin at the Capitol Building on Washington Street. Marchers are to pass several landmarks of significance to the civil rights movement in the downtown area. The event will conclude with speeches by community leaders
Georgia Detention Watch is a coalition of organizations and individuals that advocates alongside immigrants to end the inhumane and unjust detention and law enforcement policies and practices directed against immigrant communities in our state. Our coalition includes activists, community organizers, persons of faith, lawyers, and many more. Member organizations of Georgia Detention Watch include: The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, American Immigration Lawyers Association Atlanta Chapter, Amnesty International-Southern Region, Amnesty International -Atlanta local group 75, Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE), Coalición De Líderes Latinos (CLILA), Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, Immigrant Justice Project- Southern Poverty Law Center, International Action Center, Open Door Community, Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA), and others. |
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Primary Contact: Alan Shope, 678.617.7564, johnalanshope@yahoo.com |
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Alternative Contact: PJ Edwards, 770.312.7718, info@travelerstogether.org |
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GEORGIA ACTIVISTS AND FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS JOIN THE LAUNCH |
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OF A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO |
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PUT AN END TO EXPANSION OF |
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THE IMMIGRATION DETENTION SYSTEM |
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What: Press Conference, Public Testimony, & Prayer Service |
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Who: St. Michael Catholic Church, Georgia Detention Watch, and Detention Watch Network |
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When: 25 February 2010 at 12 P.M. |
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Where: In front of the for-profit North Georgia Detention Center located at 622 Main Street, Gainesville, GA 30501 |
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23 February 2010 – Over 50 people are expected to participate in a public ceremony in front of the North Georgia Detention Center to raise awareness and mobilize action against the inhumane treatment of people held in immigration detention centers in Georgia and to stand in solidarity with activists across the country in launch the national campaign “Dignity, Not Detention: Preserving Human Rights And Restoring Justice” which calls for an end to detention expansion nationally. The event, organized by St. Michael Catholic Church and Georgia Detention Watch, will include participation by clergy, local community members, and other Georgians advocating for the restoration of justice within the U.S. immigration systems and respect for basic human dignity. Activists are calling on President Obama to take immediate action to prevent human rights abuses in U.S. detention facilities and to put an end to the arbitrary detention of more than 300,000 immigrants each year. Likewise, the groups call on the Georgia municipalities to stop contributing to the growth of a broken immigration detention system and end the current contracts with the Corrections Corporation of America for operation of the detention centers. The event is open to the public.
“Most immigrants in detention have fled poverty or violence in their home countries. The U.S. demand for labor has brought them here where their participation has made positive contributions to our economy, churches, and communities,” said PJ Edwards of Georgia Detention Watch. “ICE acknowledges that the vast majority of those detained are not a threat to the public, yet we continue to use overly costly, restrictive, and often inhumane detention instead of effective alternatives. As the growing reliance on for-profit prison corporations shows, profit has clearly been put before people,” said Edwards.
The action follows two previous vigils, several humanitarian visitations, and the release of a Georgia Detention Watch report that documented violations of immigration detention standards at the Stewart Detention Center, a facility in Lumpkin, Georgia operated by the Corrections Corporation of America, the country's largest private prison corporation. Corrections Corporations of America also operates the recently-opened North Georgia Detention Center that has a capacity of 500. “In light of CCA’s deadly track record and the corporation’s failure to abide by ICE’s own standards in the treatment it affords to immigrants in detention, we are calling upon Georgia municipalities to end the contracts with CCA for operation of the Stewart Detention Center and the North Georgia Detention Center,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director for the ACLU of Georgia. “Instead, community-based and humane alternatives to detention should be utilized which are much less costly to American taxpayers,” said Shahshahani.
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Georgia Detention Watch Renews Demands for Answers from ICE Regarding Death of Roberto Martinez Medina
Based on Review of Georgia State Medical Examiner’s Official Autopsy Report and Mr. Medina’s Medical Records ____________ Announcement by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation about Immediate Cause of Death Raises More Questions than Provide Answers ____________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, June 17, 2009
CONTACT: Azadeh Shahshahani, ACLU of Georgia, 404-574-0851, ashahshahani@acluga.org PJ Edwards, (770) 312-7718, pilgrimage@travelerstogether.org
Atlanta – Georgia Detention Watch today renewed demands for answers regarding the death of Roberto Martinez Medina, a 39-year-old immigrant held at the Stewart Detention Center, an immigration detention facility operated by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), based on a review of the Georgia State Medical Examiner’s Official Autopsy Report and Mr. Medina’s medical records.
In June 2009, Georgia Detention Watch held an all-day vigil in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office to commemorate the death of Roberto Martinez Medina. As a result of the action, that same day, a GBI spokesperson announced that Mr. Medina had died of Myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle which is usually caused by a viral infection and normally treatable.
Based on the information provided to Georgia Detention Watch by Brian Spears, the attorney who represents Mr. Medina’s widow, the Assistant Field Office Director for ICE Detention and Removal Operations, Michael Webster, acknowledged to GBI investigators that Mr. Medina had experienced chest pain for three days prior to his death. Webster reported, however, that Medina “did not voice the complaint.”
According to the records of St. Francis Hospital, located in Columbus, Georgia, Mr. Medina reported to staff that he had developed a fever and a cough and suffered chest pain starting a week before his hospitalization, and that the symptoms worsened in the three days before he was rushed to the hospital on the afternoon of March 10, 2009. Although hospital doctors were able to quickly diagnose Mr. Medina as suffering from Myocarditis, his condition rapidly deteriorated. Mr. Medina died in the early hours of March 11, 2009.
According to Attorney Brian Spears, “We know HOW he died, but we do not know WHY he died. Why was he not diagnosed and treated sooner? For most patients, this heart condition is a treatable condition. We will not know whether his life could have been saved until ICE releases Medina’s medical records compiled while at the Stewart Detention Center.”
A Freedom of Information Act request to ICE for additional information pertaining to Mr. Medina’s medical record as well as any medical tests and examinations is currently pending.
“The revelation about the immediate cause of Mr. Medina’s death is troubling in light of our conversations with the detainees at Stewart where they spoke of infections and rashes that were left untreated and further stated that their requests for medical treatment and medication were not heeded,” said PJ Edwards, a Georgia Detention Watch member. Mr. Edwards was part of the Georgia Detention Watch delegation that paid a visit to the Stewart Detention Center in December 2008. He contributed to writing of the report on detention conditions at the Stewart Detention Center based on interviews with sixteen detainees. “In addition, most detainees complained about the lack of bilingual staff at the detention center; this makes it very difficult for the detainees to communicate with personnel about their health problems,” continued Mr. Edwards.
The Georgia Detention Watch report used the ICE Performance Based National Detention Standards as the standard by which to gauge conditions at Stewart and made specific recommendations in several areas in addition to medical care, including food services, the disciplinary system, personal hygiene, and staff training and development. Members of Georgia Detention Watch and partner organizations have requested on several occasions to meet with ICE to discuss the findings of the report, but have not received a response.
The death of Roberto Martinez Medina marks the latest in the tragically mounting number of immigrant deaths in the custody of ICE – at least 90 reported deaths since October 2003. Many of the deaths could have been prevented through timely and effective access to healthcare. Due to the absence of enforceable standards and an independent oversight mechanism, ICE and the corporations that contract with it, such as CCA, have for the most part escaped accountability. |
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