SILENT VIGIL MARKS ANNIVERSARY
OF
ROBERTO MARTINEZ MEDINA’S DEATH

Newly obtained records show lack of transparency in ICE’s investigation and inconsistency in ICE’s account pertaining to Roberto Martinez Medina’s death

 Vigil marks second in the Dignity Not Detention Campaign

 Atlanta, Georgia - A silent vigil at 3:00 p.m. March 11 in front of the ICE office in Atlanta at 180 Spring Street S.W. marks the 1-year anniversary of the death of Roberto Martinez Medina who was detained in ICE custody at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.  Mr. Medina, aged 39, was diagnosed with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle which is usually caused by a viral infection and normally treatable, according to records of the St. Francis Hospital in Columbus. The records also noted that Mr. Medina had experienced symptoms three days before being rushed to the hospital on March 10, 2009, when his condition rapidly deteriorated.

“Roberto Martinez Medina and I would be the same age if he were still alive today,” reflected Anton Flores-Maisonet of Georgia Detention Watch on the passing of a 39-year-old immigrant from Mexico.

“One year has passed since the death of Roberto Martinez Medina and ICE has yet to set the record straight,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, the ACLU of Georgia National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director.  “The question still remains: Why did Roberto Martinez Medina die of a treatable heart infection?”

Newly Obtained Information Reveals ICE Investigation into Martinez’ Death not Transparent

 New records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union from ICE related to the death of Roberto Martinez Medina highlight the lack of transparency in the ICE investigation.  The investigation into Mr. Medina’s death was apparently referred to ICE’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; however, the results of that investigation are unclear. An on-site review of Medina’s death by ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility was apparently scheduled for April 6, 2009; yet there is no indication that this review actually took place.  

 Perplexing Inconsistencies 

 Records show many inconsistencies in the accounts by ICE’s representative, the hospital records, and a report by the Division of Immigration Health Services about when Mr. Martinez started complaining of chest pain and other ailments.  The most perplexing disconnect in these accounts is the acknowledgment by Assistant Field Office Director for ICE Detention and Removal Operations, Michael Webster, to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation last year that Mr. Medina had experienced chest pain for three days prior to his death, even though Webster reported that Medina “did not voice the complaint.”  Newly-obtained records point to a report by the Division of Immigration Health Services stating that Mr. Martinez Medina ran a fever for three days before March 10, 2009.  This is in contrast to the official ICE narrative obtained through the ACLU Freedom of Information Act request which states that Mr. Martinez Medina did not complain of chest pain or other ailments prior to March 10, 2009.

Records Reveal that Roberto Martinez Medina Complained of Health Problems Possibly Related to Lapses in Hygiene Standards

The newly-obtained documents also indicate that Medina made sick calls prior to March 10, 2009 for itchy eyes and foot fungus.  These complaints are consistent with the information Georgia Detention Watch members obtained through interviews with detainees at the Stewart Detention Center where many complained of infections and rashes.

In April 2009, Georgia Detention Watch released a report on detention conditions at the Stewart Detention Center that pointed out the poor medical treatment given to detainees as well as hygiene standards. The report was based on interviews with sixteen detainees during a humanitarian visitation in December 2008.  Using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Performance-Based National Detention Standards to gauge conditions at Stewart, the report made specific recommendations in several areas, including medical care standards, food services standards, disciplinary system standards, personal hygiene standards, and staff training.  

 In spite of several requests by members of Georgia Detention Watch and partner organizations to meet with ICE to discuss the findings of the report, ICE has yet to respond.

 Immigration Detention Centers in Georgia

Georgia has three immigration detention centers, including two which are run by the Corrections Corporations of America, the country’s largest private prison corporation. With a capacity of 1700+, the Stewart Detention Center based in rural southwest Georgia is the largest corporate-run immigration detention center in the country.

The recently opened North Georgia Detention Center also operated by CCA is located in Gainesville and has a capacity of 500.

Silent Vigil for Dignity Not Detention

The silent vigil sponsored by Georgia Detention Watch remembers the death of Roberto Martinez Medina, as well as the more than 100 other detainees who have perished in ICE custody since October 2003, and stresses the focus of another vigil held two weeks ago in Gainesville, Georgia where more than 50 people congregated to protest the recently opened North Georgia Detention Center and to join in the national launch the campaign: Dignity Not Detention: Preserving Human Rights and Restoring Justice.

Through taking part in the campaign, Georgia Detention Watch and partner organizations call for an end to contracts with the Corrections Corporation of America for the operation of the North Georgia Detention Center and the Stewart Detention Center due to CCA’s deadly track record and lack of adherence to ICE’s own standards.  Georgia Detention Watch also calls on the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to:

• Institute binding standards for treatment of immigrant detainees that correspond to international human rights norms.
• Utilize community-based and humane alternatives to detention.
•  End detainee transfers away from loved ones and communities of support.
•  End local enforcement programs that are contributing to the growth of the immigration detention system.

 ###

 Georgia Detention Watch is a coalition of organizations and individuals that advocates alongside immigrants to end the inhumane and unjust detention and law enforcement policies and practices directed against immigrant communities in our state. Our coalition includes activists, community organizers, persons of faith, lawyers, and many more. 

Member organizations of Georgia Detention Watch include: the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, American Immigration Lawyers Association Atlanta Chapter, Amnesty International-Southern Region, Amnesty International -Atlanta local group 75, Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE), Coalición De Líderes Latinos (CLILA), Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, Immigrant Justice Project- Southern Poverty Law Center, International Action Center, Open Door Community, Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA), and others.

STOP HB 1155 

The Truth about Sex and Race Selection Bans   

HB 1155 is a thinly veiled attempt to restrict women’s access to abortion care.

HB 1155 interferes with a woman’s ability to make the best decision for herself and her family regarding whether and when to have a child.

To read the action alert click here

 

TELL YOUR LEGISLATOR TO VOTE NO ON HB 1155

CALL OR WRITE YOUR LEGISLATOR TODAY

CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR ELECTED OFFICIAL

 

PBA online
Rose Scott (2010-02-25)

ATLANTA, GA (WABE) – Today supporters and advocates gathered at a North Georgia detention center in Gainesville to voice their concerns about what they feel is inhumane treatment.
WABE’s Rose Scott reports on today’s rally.

St. Michael Catholic Church, the ACLU of Georgia and Georgia Detention Watch want to end corporations operating detention centers including 3 in Georgia.
They say detainees are treated like prisoners.
Azadeh Shahshahani is with the ACLU of Georgia. She says detainees pose no threat to nearby communities and often are separated from their families.

Shahshahani says since 2003 more than a hundred people have died in detention centers across the nation.
In 2008, 39-year old Roberto Martinez died at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin County, Georgia.

Shahshahani says he was denied medical care for a heart infection.
She adds detainees should be housed in a different facility and operated by non-profit organizations that are assisting with deportation hearings.

The Stewart detention center is operated by Corrections Corporation of America.
Calls to CCA were not returned.

AccessNorthGa.com

By Jerry Gunn
Thursday, February 25th 2010

GAINESVILLE – Around 50 people, mostly from area Catholic Churches, assembled in front of the North Georgia Detention Center On Main Street at noon Thursday to call for fair treatment and human rights for inmates they say don’t belong inside the walls.

The chill of February did not discourage them from gathering with signs advocating dignity and fairness according to P.J. Edwards, with Georgia Detention Watch, who wishes the immigration detention facilities would go away.

“The vast majority of these detainees aren’t criminals, they aren’t a threat to society, and this level of detention isn’t really unnecessary,” Edwards said. “There are alternatives like parole and community based ‘checking in’ that are shown to be effective and much less expensive.”

According to the Detention Watch Network the prayer service and public testimony in front of Correction Corporation of America’s Gainesville facility was part of a national campaign emphasizing ‘Dignity, not Detention: Preserving Human Rights and Restoring Justice”.

During an August 2009 open house and tour of the new North Georgia Detention Center CCA warden Stacey Stone promised his facility would be a ‘good Midtown Gainesville neighbor’. Stone said CCA has spent $4.5-million to convert the former Hall County jail on Main Street into a holding center for illegal immigrants facing deportation, plus another $1-million for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices next door.

A year ago CCA announced a five-year Inter-Governmental Service Agreement between Hall County and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house up to 500 detainees at the former county jail.

Demonstrators decry immigration policies

Gainesville Times
By Stephen Gurr
POSTED  Feb. 25, 2010 11:13 p.m.

About 50 people gathered outside an immigration detention center in midtown Gainesville Thursday to protest immigration policies they said lead to broken families and undue hardships for working people.

Demonstrators from St. Michael Catholic Church, Detention Watch Network and others held a prayer vigil and gave testimony in an hourlong, peaceful demonstration outside the North Georgia Detention Center, former site of the Hall County jail. Protesters said current federal and local policies too often lead to the deportation of people who have committed no serious crimes, leaving behind children and families who struggle to survive.

“We see it every day, good people, the bread winners of their family, being picked up and deported,” said Alan Shope, St. Michael’s social justice committee chairman. “It’s leaving so much pain, and those are the people we are trying to be a voice for.”

Shope said the group was protesting immigration policies and had no specific problems with the staff of the North Georgia Detention Center, which is operated by the Corrections Corporation of America under a contract with Hall County.

The company leases the former Hall County jail location from the county for $2 million annually and holds as many as 500 detainees for the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency. Many of the detainees, who are awaiting deportation proceedings, come from other parts of the state and country, though some are from Hall County.

No officials from ICE or CCA were present for the permitted protest, held just a few feet from the detention center’s front doors.

CCA spokesman Steve Owen said in a statement that the employees at the North Georgia Detention Center “provide a safe and secure environment for the detainees entrusted to our care, and do so in a professional manner that respects the dignity of every individual.”

“CCA provides services for immigration detention but as a company does not take a position with respect to broader immigration policy,” Owen said.

ICE spokesman Ivan Ortiz-Delgado noted that the agency last fall announced a major overhaul of its immigration detention system to prioritize health and safety for detainees.

“ICE has taken important initial steps to change this system and is committed to finishing the job,” he said.

Ortiz-Delgado said in a statement that the federal agency “respects the fundamental right of individuals to advocate for reform of our nation’s immigration laws.”

Diana Mendoza, a secretary at Gainesville Exploration Academy who spoke at Thursday’s protest, said she has seen the fallout from current immigration policies in the schools.

“Our children have really suffered from families being divided,” she said. “They are innocent, and they have to go through this. We can make a difference, I know we can.”

The protest was part of a nationwide campaign organized by the Detention Watch Network and the American Civil Liberties Union called “Dignity, Not Detention.”

Bojana Jankova, 18, was one of 11 international students from Indiana’s Goshen College who attended the protest. The group spent the previous day at the Stewart Detention Center, an immigration holding facility in the city of Lumpkin.

“It’s a huge issue in the United States,” Jankova said. “I just want to support this movement, because I believe everyone deserves equal opportunity.”

Everitt Howe, a member of Detention Watch Georgia from Sandy Springs, said he and others from the group came to Gainesville on Thursday to show solidarity.

“We don’t need more jails, we need fewer jails,” Howe said. “These are real people, and a lot of them are not felons, but they’re thrown in jail like hardened criminals. It’s really sad.”

Azadeh Shahshahani, immigrants’ rights project director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, said the protest, one of several held Thursday at detention facilities across the country, only marked the beginning of the campaign.

“We expect several more targeted actions,” Shahshahani said. “We’re going to keep at this.”

Network calling for immigration reform.

Gainesville Times
By Stephen Gurr
POSTED  Feb. 24, 2010 11:24 p.m.

A group of protesters plans to hold a prayer vigil today in front of the North Georgia Detention Center on Main Street as part of a nationwide campaign calling attention to federal immigration detention policies.

The group, made up mostly of members of St. Michael’s Catholic Church, has obtained a permit from Gainesville police to demonstrate at about noon on the sidewalk outside the building, site of the old Hall County jail and now being leased by Hall County to the private Corrections Corporation of America.

The vigil is part of a national campaign launched today by the Detention Watch Network called, “Dignity, Not Detention: Preserving Human Rights and
Restoring Justice.”

“Nationally, the campaign is directed toward President Obama, asking that the expansion of immigration detention be stopped,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, immigrants’ rights project director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. “Locally, we are asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement to put in place binding standards for treatment of detainees, to rely on more humane and community-based alternatives to detention and to put a stop to the transfer of detainees from facility to facility, away from their families and communities.”

The North Georgia Detention Center can hold as many as 500 detainees, who are people identified as being in the country illegally and awaiting deportation by ICE. Most of the detainees at the center are not from the Hall County area. A large number are brought to the center from the Charlotte, N.C., area.

Most detainees spend between 30 and 90 days at the facility before moving on. Hall County entered into an agreement with ICE to hold the detainees, with CCA acting as a subcontractor. The company leases the facility from Hall County for $2 million a year.

The Gainesville protest is one of several planned today across the country and may be the smallest. The other protests will be staged in Phoenix, San Antonio, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Alan Shope, the chairman of St. Michael Catholic Church’s social justice committee and a local organizer of what he said will be a prayer vigil, said the purpose is to call for immigration reform.

“We do think a nation has to secure its borders, but at the same time we think it should be done in a way that doesn’t hurt families,” Shope said.

Shope said the church was trying to “walk the line” of protesting the system while respecting the employees of Corrections Corporation of America. Shope said the church has a good relationship with the North Georgia Detention Center’s warden, Stacey Stone. The church’s priest is allowed in to celebrate Mass with the detainees, Shope said.

“We have not seen any of the abuse or neglect here that you hear about at some other detention centers,” Shope said. “Our problem is not with any specific instances in this facility; it’s with the overall system it’s a part of.”

Corrections Corporation of America spokesman Steve Owen said in a statement that CCA “provides services for immigration detention, but, as a company, does not take a position with respect to the broader immigration policy.

“However, CCA strives to humanely operate a safe, secure facility that upholds the dignity of all detainees entrusted in our care,” Owen said.

Owen said ICE has staff on-site at the detention center and that CCA is contractually required to meet the federal agency’s detention standards.

Ivan Ortiz-Delgado, a spokesman for ICE, said in a statement that the agency “respects the fundamental right of individuals to advocate for reform of our nation’s immigration laws.

“Moreover, last fall, ICE announced a major overhaul of the immigration detention system to prioritize health, safety and uniformity among our facilities while ensuring security, efficiency and fiscal responsibility,” Ortiz-Delgado said. “These reforms include aggressive steps to increase oversight and fundamentally change the immigration detention system. ICE has taken important initial steps to change this system and is committed to finishing the job.

Please join us for the Atlanta Lawyers’ Chapter March Luncheon

What Next? 
Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act after Northwest Austin Municipal Utility Dist. No. 1

Featuring:

Hans von Spakovsky
Senior Legal Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
Former Federal Election Commissioner

Laughlin McDonald
Director, Southern Regional ACLU

Bob Driscoll
Partner, Alston & Bird LLP
Former Deputy Asst. Atty. Genl., Civil Rights Divison, Us Dep’t of Justice

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at Noon

Alston & Bird LLP
One Atlantic Center, 42nd Floor
1201 W. Peachtree Street, NW
Atlanta, Georgia  30309

If you plan to attend, please contact Monica Skidmore (monica.skidmore@alston.com) on or before Wednesday, March 15, 2010

$10 for Members/$15 for Non-Members/$5 for Students

March Fed Soc Event

23 February 2010 

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

11:45 a.m.-1 p.m.

Alston & Bird LLP

One Atlantic Center building

1201 West Peachtree Street

42nd Floor, Gaines Room

Presenter:  Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Researcher, ACLU Human Rights Program

Lunch will be provided

There will be no charge for attendance

 CLE credits have been applied for

For more information, please contact: Azadeh Shahshahani, ashahshahani@acluga.org

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

11:45 a.m.-1 p.m.

Kilpatrick Stockton

1100 Peachtree Street, Suite 2800

Room 28 N

Presenters:   Natsu Saito, Professor, Georgia State University

                  Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Researcher, ACLU Human Rights Program

Lunch will be provided

There will be no charge for attendance

 CLE credits have been applied for

For further information, please contact: Azadeh Shahshahani, ashahshahani@acluga.org