They denounce ICE for "abusive and discriminatory practices" against immigrants.

Immigrant advocacy activists filed a lawsuit with various federal authorities for "abusive, inhuman and discriminatory practices" against non-citizens locked up in the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia.

The complaint was filed Monday with the Office of the Inspector General and the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The case is led by 11 immigrants who face serious health problems, according to the report by El Refugio, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) and the Georgia Human Rights Clinic (GHRC).

The organizations urged the authorities of the DHS, the Department of Justice and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) to investigate the “violations of civil and constitutional rights” to which foreigners have been victims during the pandemic of the COVID-19.

“The request is clear: we first seek that people be treated as humanely as possible, but we know that during this pandemic, ICE and CoreCivic (the corporation that operates the Stewart jail) have been unable to care for these people, therefore they must be released, ”said Amílcar Valencia, director of El Refugio.

He added that a pattern of discrimination has been identified against immigrants of color held in that undocumented detention center in southwest Georgia, one of the largest in the country.

The problem that we also see here, in this pandemic situation, is that people of color, especially immigrants from the Caribbean and / or Africans, do not have the same opportunities to leave and that has to do with a problem of racial discrimination," said the activist.

The detainees named in the complaint are mostly black and suffer from medical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and asthma.

“Stewart is at full capacity when ICE knows very well that this is a violation (in times of pandemic). They are putting our lives in danger. This cannot be the United States, ”lamented Franco Clement, one of the eleven detainees.

According to ICE figures, there are currently 20 detainees in Stewart under isolation or medical monitoring after testing positive for COVID-19.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, said detention center, 4 immigrants have died from covid-19 and 943 have tested positive for the coronavirus, for a total of 9 deaths and 26,084 cases throughout the ICE network of immigrant prisons .