FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@freedomforimmigrants.org

WHAT: Car rally staged outside of the Orange County Correction Facility, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, to demand ICE free community members amid growing risk of COVID-19 and ongoing medical neglect
WHERE: Orange County Correctional Facility, 110 Wells Farm Rd, Goshen, NY 10924
WHEN: Saturday, February 12, 2022, at 12 p.m. ET
WHO: The rally is organized by the groups behind the New York Dignity Not Detention Campaign: Showing Up for Racial Justice-NYC, Queer Detainee Empowerment Project, New York State Youth Leadership Council, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Freedom for Immigrants, Rochester Rapid Response Network, Center for Constitutional Rights, Envision Freedom Fund, New York City Democratic Socialists, the Bronx Defenders, Catholic Charities Communities Services, Legal Aid, the New York Immigration Coalition, and the Abolish ICE NY-NJ Coalition.

MEDIA QUOTES
“When you have conditions like people are experiencing at Orange right now, there’s no way to deny that this is complete indifference to the lives and humanity of immigrants. ICE needs to release people to their communities, where they can access the resources and support they need to stay healthy, live their lives, and resolve their immigration cases. And New York State must end its contracts with ICE across the board. Immigration detention doesn’t belong here. It doesn’t belong anywhere,” said Tania Mattos, director of advocacy & policy at Envision Freedom Fund.

“Even before the pandemic, New York was not immune to ICE’s abysmal record of medical neglect and health failures inside of its immigrant detention centers,” said Cynthia Galaz, senior policy associate with Freedom for Immigrants. “At Orange, people continue to be subjected to this agency’s reckless handling of COVID-19, a troubling pattern of intimidation, and denial of critical PPE resources. These abuses only underscore the urgent need to release everyone back to the safety of their families and communities—and the need for New York state to finally end its complicity in the dehumanizing federal immigration detention system.”

“From exploding COVID-19 cases to insufficient technology preventing proper legal counsel, the situation at the Orange County jail has reached a breaking point,” said Council Member Shahana Hanif. “Right now, we know of 50 people who are symptomatic with COVID-19 in a facility with limited testing, no access to vaccinations, and the inability to socially distance. Orange County Jail staff must take immediate action to improve these conditions to ensure the health and wellbeing of everyone detained here. But more importantly, we need to be clear—these people should not be detained in the first place. There is so much work on the state and federal level to right this horrific wrong, but I am looking forward to doing my part on February 28 when the City Council's Immigration Committee holds our first hearing to shine a light on the conditions in Orange County and jails like it across New York. I am the proud daughter of immigrants, and I will fight with everything I have to end the injustice of immigration detention.”

BACKGROUND
Advocates join community members currently detained in the Orange County Jail (OCJ) in Goshen, NY, in calling for immediate releases amid an outbreak of COVID-19 driven by unmet requests for vaccines and boosters, lack of medical care for people who are ill, an inability to safely quarantine and inadequate PPE supplies.

As coronavirus infections in immigration detention have spiked by more than 500 percent nationwide in recent weeks, people detained at OCJ report they fear a punitive response to reporting symptoms, endangering the health of everyone and exacerbating the psychologically devastating toll of immigration detention.

Advocates renew their demand for immigrants at Orange County Jail—and all detained immigrants—to be released immediately. Moreover, they call on New York legislators to end the state’s contracts with ICE through passage of the Dignity Not Detention Act and the New York For All Act in order to end state and local cooperation with ICE’s targeting of immigrants.

Learn more at https://nydignitynotdetention.org/.

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