#Irwin emc ocilla georgia professional

Where we discover they fall short, we will continue to take action as we are doing today.” DHS detention facilities and the treatment of individuals in those facilities will be held to our health and safety standards. “This marks an important first step to realizing that goal. (ICE, Paulk, and LaSalle did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the timing of Irwin’s closure nor the continued arrival of immigration detainees there.)Īfter publication of this story, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security pointed The Intercept to remarks made by Mayorkas in the May announcement of impending detention center closures. “We have an obligation to make lasting improvements to our civil immigration detention system,” Mayorkas said in the statement.

#Irwin emc ocilla georgia professional

Delivered to you.Īccording to a source familiar with day-to-day operations at Irwin, who requested anonymity for fear of professional reprisals, guards and other staff members are saying that the closure of Irwin was a “rumor” and that operations would continue as usual. He said that guards have been claiming that the warden told them that “the newspapers are lying” and that staff have no need to worry about Irwin closing. “Nothing has changed, nothing is changing,” Edetanlen said, describing the prevailing mood in Irwin.Įdetanlen also relayed an account given to him by two guards at the prison of an all-staff meeting called by David Paulk, the detention center’s warden. Benjamin Edetanlen, 43, who has been detained at the facility for almost 16 months and faces imminent deportation to England, confirmed that other people have been transferred into Irwin during the past week but could not specify the number. One detainee currently housed at Irwin told The Intercept that it’s been “business as usual” in the facility since Mayorkas’s announcement of the closure. Whistleblower Dawn Wooten, a former nurse at Irwin, detailed a host of medical abuses to The Intercept last fall, bringing international scrutiny and prompting congressional investigations into the facility. “It is beyond disappointing that nearly two weeks since the directive to close Irwin as soon as possible, ICE continues to confine immigrants at Irwin and other horrific facilities across the country.

“This facility, which has a long and well-documented history of inflicting horrific abuse and neglect on people held there, should be immediately closed once and for all,” said Diego Sánchez, a Georgia-based direct services attorney with Southern Poverty Law Center’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative. “This facility, which has a long and well-documented history of inflicting horrific abuse and neglect on people held there, should be immediately closed once and for all.” The facility in Ocilla, Georgia, had become the subject of controversy and questions about rights abuses after allegations surfaced that detained women underwent unnecessary gynecological procedures - allegations that the orders to shut the facility obliquely mentioned. Last week, at least 34 people were transferred into Irwin from other detention centers, according to advocates on the ground and people detained in the facility, adding to the logistical difficulty of closing it and possibly delaying its shuttering.ĭepartment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently announced that the agency would be severing its contract with the private prison company that runs Irwin, LaSalle Corrections.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Irwin County Detention Center could be closed, people continue to be transferred into the detention facility, according to multiple sources interviewed by The Intercept.