Statement on Medical Abuse at Irwin County Detention Center

 We are outraged and horrified to hear about the medical abuse at Irwin County Detention Center. We stand in solidarity with Dawn Wooten the nurse and whistle blower, Pauline Binam and the other immigrant women who have come forward to shed light on these horrible practices of forced sterilization. We commend their bravery and stand together with all groups who are working to ensure justice will be done, for them and for our country.

We recognize that the issue of medical abuse is not about, one doctor or one detention center but the entire detention system—largely for-profit—that is complicit in the abuses of rights and has long neglected the health, well being and human rights of immigrants.  We remember and pray for all immigrants who have died in detention centers especially Cipriano Chavez-Alvarez who was held at the Stewart detention center and died of COVID-19 related complications this week.

Unfortunately, our country has had a long history of social control and violence on all Black, Indigenous, immigrant, Latinx, Muslim, queer, trans, and people of color. We need to stand together to end all forms of violence and violations of human rights. We stand shoulder to shoulder with everyone who stands for justice. Together we will lift up our struggles to build and sustain a movement. 

Our faiths and our values demand that the United States remain a country of welcome, where all are treated equally. Immigrants come to the United States seeking a better life. The fact that our government then answers their prayers for safety with abuse, is unconscionable. We demand all immigrants be released from ICE detention centers, investigations and accountability for these medical malpractices and other human rights violations taking place in the detention centers, and an end to the collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement.

September 24^th 2020