Immigrant rights groups file complaints against Georgia ICE facility

FOLKSTON —— A group of immigrant rights organizations has filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Office of the Inspector General and Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman requesting an investigation into “excessive and retaliatory use of force, inhumane treatment, and rights violations” against individuals detained at the Folkston ICE Processing Center by guards employed by GEO Group, the for-profit prison company contracted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to run the facility.

The complaint, which was signed by Innovation Law Lab, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, Malaya Movement USA’s Georgia Chapter, Project South and the Southern Poverty Law Center, comes as investigations continue into the sexual assault of detained immigrant women by a government contracted nurse at Stewart Detention Center, another immigration detention center in the state.

“The people detained at this privately run, publicly funded immigration detention center are facing very serious abuses that put not only their legal cases, but also their lives and well-being at risk in so many ways,” Allison Crennen-Dunlap, a staff attorney with Innovation Law Lab, said. “We’re calling on the government to investigate these violations and to ensure that those directly impacted by them are truly part of that investigation. That means they must be released and they must not face any kind of threats or retaliation like they have at the hands of GEO Group staff inside this ICE facility.”

“We call on the government to do its job and investigate these credible allegations of abuse and dehumanization,” Adelina Nichols, executive director of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, said. “These are community members and loved ones who have been harmed, and our government owes them answers. We stand by these brave individuals and ask how many more must be denied their dignity before there is transparency and accountability?”

According to multiple reports by individuals detained at FIPC since April 16, GEO Group staff have committed abuses that include unprovoked violent assault resulting in a jaw injury, retaliatory use of solitary confinement in one case for 54 consecutive days, shouting derogatory remarks and deliberate denial of medical attention, all of which are violations of basic rights, including the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, and the Performance-Based National Detention Standards. Garsumo Dorley, who is currently detained at FIPC, has repeatedly denounced this retaliation and abuse, including by joining with rights groups to send a demand letter to ICE, yet he continues to face mistreatment and unjust detention.

The organizations that filed the complaint requested that the DHS oversight agencies conduct a transparent formal investigation, provide Dorley’s legal representative video footage of the dates of certain incidents, release all potential witnesses and survivors of undue use of force at FIPC and ensure they can freely participate in the investigation without fear of retaliation.

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