With a critical contract deadline looming, a coalition of advocacy organizations is calling on the Biden administration to permanently end the federal government’s use of a Florida detention center with a long and troubled history of negligence, abuse, and violence as a holding pen for undocumented immigrants.
On Wednesday, nearly 20 legal and human rights organizations sent a petition featuring nearly 1,600 signatures to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urging the Biden administration to abstain from renewing a contract for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Florida. Citing scores of official complaints going back years, a letter sent with the petition describes “pervasive medical neglect, unlawful use of toxic chemicals, racialized violence, inhumane treatment, physical abuse, sexual misconduct, and attacks on individual’s dignity and safety that occur regularly” at the facility.
