Adelanto, CA — Today, the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ) and Detention Watch Network released a new video on the Adelanto Detention Center in California, one of the largest and deadliest immigration detention centers in the country, and the ongoing efforts to shut it down.
Watch the video here: https://www.facebook.com/DetentionWatchNetwork/videos/161264158487617
“We have been working tirelessly to get people out of detention, expose the Adelanto Detention Center for the abuse that it perpetuates, and shut it down for good,” said Lizbeth Abeln, Detention Abolition Coordinator of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. “The Adelanto Detention Center underscores how immigration detention centers are grave and dangerous places where immigrant lives are treated as bargaining chips in a massive profiting scheme.”
Located in the desert community of Adelanto and operated by the Geo Group, a private prison corporation, the Adelanto Detention Center has a well-documented record of abuse and medical neglect. There have been numerous investigations detailing the horrors inside the facility including from the Department of Homeland Security’s own Office of Inspector General.
“The evidence is all there,” added Abeln of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. “The Adelanto Detention Center must be shut down now.”
Through the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice’s #ShutDownAdelanto campaign, the group has been building community opposition to the facility across the Inland Empire and support of an alternative vision for the community. The #ShutDownAdelanto campaign is part of Detention Watch Network’s national Communities Not Cages Campaign, which supports local groups across the country to halt the massive expansion of the immigration detention system and shut down detention centers.
“The need to shut down the Adelanto Detention Center, where medical neglect and abuse are commonplace and representative of the detention system as a whole, has become even clearer and more urgent with the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Bárbara Suarez Galeano, Organizing Director of Detention Watch Network. “The billions of taxpayer dollars used to fund ICE’s detention system should instead be used to fund critical healthcare, education, and housing programs that support our collective wellbeing. And for people navigating their immigration cases they should be able to do so with their families and in community rather than behind bars.”
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to expose and challenge the injustices of the United States’ immigration detention and deportation system and advocate for profound change that promotes the rights and dignity of all persons. Founded in 1997 by immigrant rights groups, DWN brings together advocates to unify strategy and build partnerships on a local and national level to end immigration detention. Visit www.detentionwatchnetwork.org
The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ) is the local coalition of the Inland Empire region dedicated to convening organizations to collectively advocate and work to improve the lives of immigrant communities while working toward a just solution to the immigration system. Founded in 2008 by immigrants rights groups, ICIJ continues to strive to build collective power and partnerships on a local and state level. www.ic4ij.org