Eight members of Congress join communities and advocates’ call to shut down immigration detention center in Florida with troubling pattern of abuse

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@freedomforimmigrants.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A group of eight members of Congress led by Representative Debbie Wasserman Shultz today delivered a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, calling for the Department to immediately terminate its detention contract with Glades County and close the Glades County Detention Center (GCDC) in Moore Haven, Florida.

The lawmakers’ request comes amid continued abuse by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and County officials including life-threatening medical negligence, retaliation in response to public reporting and the use of toxic chemical spray which is facilitating the spread of COVID-19 and potentially harming the health and fertility of immigrants inside the detention center.

In urging DHS to close the facility, the lawmakers joined the chorus of voices calling for closure, including immigrants detained at GCDC and the Shut Down Glades Coalition, which includes Freedom for Immigrants, Americans for Immigrant Justice, Immigrant Action Alliance, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Doctors for Camp Closure, Detention Watch Network, Southern Poverty Law Center, United We Dream, QLatinx and the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

Citing Civil Rights complaints and testimony from those inside the detention center, the members of Congress point to a disturbing pattern of abuse at GCDC, including medical neglect; blatant violations of COVID-19 safety protocols and lack of compliance with federal court-ordered release guidelines; use of force in retaliation for peaceful protest; and use of toxic chemical spray in enclosed spaces.

"Glades County Detention Center as a whole should be shut down for multiple reasons,” said Sean Taylor, an immigrant from Jamaica who’s been held at GCDC for eight months. “One of the main reasons is the medical treatment given here. The responses are not rapid in emergency situations, the doctors and nurses are always turning down patients for unreasonable reasons. There is a lack of care here by the medical staff, and it is very inhumane to the people that are here."

“We all deserve to live in safety, yet when immigrants inside Glades bravely speak out against ICE and the County’s mistreatment, they are silenced with pepper spray, off-camera beatings and solitary confinement. And taxpayers foot the bill for this abuse. Enough is enough!” said Sofia Casini, director of visitation advocacy strategies with Freedom for Immigrants. “The U.S. should welcome immigrants with dignity because all immigrants deserve to live free and in safety. We can find common ground with Secretary Mayorkas in recognizing the need to close immigration detention centers because they run counter to these values, and Glades stands as an obvious priority.”

“There is a Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) complaint against this Glades Detention Center and testimonials report medical negligence, solitary confinement, and inability to follow CDC guidelines that prevent spread of the now highly contagious Delta variant,” said Lorena Del Pilar Bonilla, M.D., co-founder of the Doctors for Camp Closure Florida Chapter. “We also know that COVID19 has been escalating more rapidly in ICE detention centers. We are asking the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to address these public health and human rights violations by closing Glades County Detention Center.”

"Eyewitness accounts of people detained at Glades all speak of horrific abuse and neglect at this facility,” said Rebecca Talbot, Glades lead for Immigrant Action Alliance. “Detained people who speak publicly face brutal retaliation. Yet they continue to speak out, saying that they don't want anyone else to have to go through what they've experienced at Glades. It is long past time to make that a reality and shut down Glades forever."

The Glades County Sheriff’s Office entered into contract with DHS to operate the detention facility in 2006, which is located hours away from residential communities and accessible legal resources in Florida. In addition to highlighting how the GCDC needlessly wastes taxpayer dollars, the lawmakers say the continued operation of GCDC directly contradicts the administration's stated effort to end immigrant rights abuses.

“Terminating the contract with Glades County and closing this facility would be a critical step towards the Department’s larger goal of creating a fairer, more just, and more efficient civil immigration system,” conclude the lawmakers.

ICE recently transferred six women into the facility and is considering converting GCDC to an all-female detention center, further raising concerns about violations and abuses of women’s reproductive health and safety, an ongoing problem in the immigration detention system.

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