As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to deport up to 3 million people, an investigation of immigrant detention centers in the South has found that detainees are routinely denied their due process rights and frequently endure inhumane conditions in isolated facilities that have little oversight from the federal government.
The SPLC today filed claims for damages against the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on behalf of three families targeted in the aggressive and potentially unconstitutional ICE raids conducted in Atlanta last January.
When the U.S. Justice Department announced its plan to phase out the use of private prisons, it confirmed what critics have long known and many states are just beginning to comprehend: It doesn't pay to put this vital government function into the hands of profit-making ventures.
In response to a complaint by the SPLC, the for-profit company that operates the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia has installed a long-delayed videoconferencing system so that detained immigrants can speak to their attorneys.
Immigration judges at Stewart Detention Center in Georgia have discriminated against Central American immigrants representing themselves in legal proceedings by making disparaging comments and suggesting that they have no valid claims to asylum or other immigration relief before hearing their cases, according to a complaint filed by the SPLC today.
The SPLC, the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program and the law firm of Baker Donelson have asked a federal judge to certify its lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) as a class action, which would allow rulings in the case over the inadequate medical and mental health care of 43 prisoners named in the lawsuit to apply to the 25,000 people held in a prison system that has had one of the highest mortality rates in the country.
DHS and states should end private prison contracts.
The federal government has failed to release records under the Freedom of Information Act that would shed light on controversial – and potentially unconstitutional – immigration raids that took more than 100 women and children from their homes and placed them in a Texas detention center before deporting many of them, according to a lawsuit filed by the SPLC and Alston & Bird today to obtain the records.
A for-profit prison operator has denied immigrant detainees access to attorneys at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, one of the nation’s largest immigrant detention centers, the SPLC and a coalition of civil rights activists and legal experts told government officials today.
An agreement has been reached with the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) to ensure that prisoners with disabilities receive treatment and services required under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If approved by the judge, the settlement will resolve part of a federal lawsuit filed by the SPLC and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program (ADAP) over inadequate care of inmates.
