Biden-Harris Administration Making Strides; Yet Much More Needed on Immigration Reform

April 29, 2021

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following President Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project and Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative released the following statements. On...

Following Government’s Forced ‘Death Flight’ Deportations and Torture of Black Immigrants, Advocates Seek Answers

April 26, 2021

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Civil rights attorneys today submitted a pair of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the federal government seeking information on the government’s use of force, including the use of pepper spray, to...

SPLC: Increase in Visas Must Come with Worker Protections

April 21, 2021

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this week announced an additional 22,000 H-2B visas will be made available to employers this fiscal year. The following statement is from Meredith Stewart, a senior...

Features and Stories

‘Not Safe’: Medical advocate urges release of all people held by ICE, especially amid COVID-19

March 26, 2021

Immigrant Justice

Medical Mistreatment: Woman seeks justice after gynecological abuse in ICE detention

March 26, 2021

Content warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of gynecological abuse.

It was a routine duty for staff at a remote immigrant prison in rural Georgia: taking the women held there into town for gynecological appointments.

The vans would leave the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Ocilla bound for a nearby doctor’s office or hospital where detention center guards would wait as women underwent procedures, including surgeries, which were approved by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

SPLC: Immigration Coverage Largely Ignoring Rights and Humanity of People Seeking Asylum

March 24, 2021

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The following statement is from Efrén Olivares, deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) Immigrant Justice Project. “Recent national discourse around immigration has largely ignored the...

Advocates Win Federal Court Appointment of Special Master to Oversee ICE Custody Releases

March 12, 2021

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A federal court last night granted civil rights organizations’ motion to appoint a special master, or independent third party, that will ensure the federal government’s compliance with an injunction in the...

87 Doctors Join Organizers and Advocates’ Call to Free People from ICE Custody and Close Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia

February 26, 2021

ATLANTA – A national group of medical experts is calling on top immigration officials to immediately release the hundreds of people who remain detained in a South Georgia detention facility amid reports of new COVID-19 outbreaks...

SPLC: Reopening of Migrant Child Prisons Morally Indefensible and Unnecessary

February 23, 2021

MIAMI – The Biden-Harris administration is reportedly planning to reopen the Homestead detention center to detain unaccompanied migrant children. The detention center was last used in August of 2019 before closing, following...

Federal Court Again Blocks Trump-Era Asylum Transit Ban

February 16, 2021

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal court has again blocked a Trump administration ban that categorically denied asylum to anyone at the southern border who had transited through a third country en route to the United States, with very...

Resources