Four Immigrants Have Died at Stewart ICE Jail in Georgia. Advocates Want It Shut Down

A 44-year-old immigrant from Mexico died last week at Stewart Detention Center, one of the largest immigration jails in the United States and one that has been plagued by allegations of neglect and abuse for years. Pedro Arriago-Santoya was the fourth person to die at Stewart in just two years and the seventh person to die while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement since October. An immigration judge had ordered Arriago-Santoya be deported in June. Instead, he was transferred to Stewart on July 10 as his removal proceedings continued. Two weeks later he was pronounced dead at a Georgia hospital. He had complained of abdominal pain and later went into cardiac arrest. Between May 2017 and July 2018, three immigrants died while detained at Stewart-a private immigration jail owned by the megacorporation CoreCivic. We speak with Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director at Project South and the former president of the National Lawyers Guild.