Federal immigration authorities announced that they'll stop housing detainees at an Alabama jail with a history of problems and will limit the use of three other detention centers.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says the decisions announced on Friday will reinforce a commitment by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to review detention facilities to determine whether they are humane, meet applicable standards and are responsibly using funding.
ICE says it will stop using the Etowah County Jail in Gadsden, Alabama. The agency said it will also limit its use of the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Florida; the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana; and the Alamance County Detention Facility in Graham, North Carolina.
Detention Watch Network advocacy director Setareh Ghandehari said in a statement, “The Etowah County Detention Center exemplifies everything that is wrong with immigration detention and why the detention system must be abolished.”
Ghandehari said, “The administration can and must do more to completely phase out the use of immigration detention by continuing to terminate contracts, shut down additional facilities and free people from detention.”
Etowah County Sheriff Jonathon Horton said that the decision to quit sending detainees to the jail “was just a bombshell.” Horton said that he was working with Alabama’s congressional delegation to learn more, The Gadsden Times reported.
