Detention Watch Network

05/29/2026

From Delaney Hall to Adelanto and everywhere in between: shut down detention centers! 

ICE’s immigrant detention system subjects people to medical neglect, overcrowding, abuse, and rampant transfers that disappear people into the detention system, sowing confusion and cutting people off from their loved ones and support networks. 

Immigrant detention is inherently inhumane and unjust. Immigrants are our family members, neighbors, friends, and coworkers – worthy of dignity and respect regardless of where they came from or how they arrived in the U.S. 

📣 Shut down all detention centers.

05/27/2026

From California to New Jersey, people in ICE detention have launched hunger and labor strikes, bravely putting their lives on the line to demand their freedom and protest the horrendous and inhumane conditions they are subjected to in detention.

At Delaney Hall in New Jersey, the labor and hunger strike began in response to people being denied fresh food, medical care, and functioning air conditioning. Reportedly, over 200 people remain on a labor and hunger strike inside the facility. At Adelanto in California, at least 20 people have gone on a hunger strike in response to mold, unsafe drinking water, and a lack of medical care.

Trump’s cruel mass detention expansion is exacerbating the inhumane conditions that are inherent to ICE’s detention system and have been well documented for decades.

📣Say it with us: Release people from detention immediately and shut down detention centers for good!

05/21/2026

Pastor Dianne with the Free Families: National Coalition to End Family and Child Detention delivered powerful remarks in front of the Capitol yesterday culminating in a call to “let our children go!”

More from Pastor Dianne:

“ICE has sent thousands of children, including babies and toddlers, to suffer for weeks, sometimes months at a time, in what amounts to a concentration camp that is only an hour from my house. Hundreds of children are there right now at Dilley. As a pastor, I have seen the impact of family detention on a 3-year-old who used to run across the altar at my church during services laughing and who now refuses to leave his mother’s side. He spent 65 days in detention. We must start building a better future today by calling on members of Congress to shut down Dilley and end family detention by prohibiting the use of federal funds to detain families and children.”

🎥

05/20/2026

‼️ACT NOW: Congress is planning to vote as early as today, 5/20 on yet another reconciliation bill that would hand the current administration an additional $70 billion to carry out its mass detention and deportation agenda.

Tell Congress - NO money for ICE and CBP!

Tell Congress: No Money for ICE and CBP We need you to take action NOW! For the last couple of months, Members of Congress have stood firm against funding for ICE and CBP thanks to constant pressure from people like you! Now, Republicans in Congress are using the reconciliation process to push up to...

05/20/2026

Republicans are choosing to spend $70 billion on ICE and Border Patrol instead of helping families afford health care, groceries, gas and utilities. ICE is a death machine — and this bill is yet another blank check for ICE to unleash terror in our communities. Since Trump took office, at least 48 ...

05/19/2026

📣Join us for our third webinar, Melt ICE: Disability Justice is Immigrant Justice!

This webinar, hosted by New Disabled South and Detention Watch Network, will explore how disability and immigration are connected and discuss ways to include disability justice in efforts to end detention. You'll hear from Rodney Taylor, a double amputee migrant, who was recently released after spending 15 months in Stewart Detention Center thanks to community organizing efforts.

Lately, there has been a rise in discussions and policies that promote eugenics and target disabled people across the country. However, the experiences and history of disabled immigrants are often overlooked when talking about immigrant rights, even though the U.S. immigration system has a history of discrimination against people with disabilities.

📆 Thursday, June 11th from 12pm-1:30pm PT/ 2pm-3:30pm CT/ 3pm-4:30pm ET.

*ASL interpretation and Spanish interpretation will be provided.*

🔗Register here: bit.ly/DWNdisabilityjustice

05/14/2026

ICYMI: Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib introduced the Ban Warehouse Detention Act drafted in partnership with , which would prohibit the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE, from establishing, operating, expanding, converting, or renovating any warehouse or similar building or structure for the purposes of detaining people. The bill would also prevent the administration from establishing any new immigrant detention models.

Hear from Laura, Core Leader of on the fight to permanently block the ICE detention warehouse in Williamsport, Maryland.

05/12/2026

**Desliza para español **

ICE has increasingly turned to current and former BOP facilities as one way to expand detention capacity. 📃In our analysis series, Layers of Detention: ICE Detention Expansion Under Trump 2.0, Detention Watch Network explores the Trump administration’s cruel expansion plan that has proliferated ICE operations into other government agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and growing ICE partnerships with local sheriffs and county jails.

Recycling BOP prisons for ICE detention exacerbates the well-documented abuse inherent to the detention system, and the secrecy and impunity with which ICE operates. Use this resource to support your advocacy to end immigrant detention in its entirety.

In this resource you will find:
✔️A compiled list of the latest developments
✔️List of active facilities
✔️The “players” executing the plan
✔️A brief history

🔗Download and share: https://bit.ly/BOPdetention
🔗Descarga el recurso en español: bit.ly/BOPdetencion

05/07/2026

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib recently introduced the Ban Warehouse Detention Act, which would prohibit DHS, including ICE, from establishing, operating, expanding, converting, or renovating any warehouse or similar building or structure for the purposes of detaining people. The bill would also prevent the administration from establishing any new immigrant detention models.

All immigration detention is inherently inhumane and rife with abuse, and yet the warehouse model currently being pursued by ICE is particularly horrifying. People are not commodities to be shipped, discarded, and profited off of. Local communities are making it clear from coast to coast – they don’t want detention centers or warehouse detention, and they will fight tooth and nail to block ICE. Communities want elected leaders to champion projects that bring investment to support all families like education, healthcare and housing for everyone to thrive, not immigration detention.

On camera: Marisol, sr. advocacy manager at .

05/06/2026

Join our team! Detention Watch Network is looking for a Senior Organizer or Organizing Manager that will help build the power of the Network and our members by providing key support to the development and implementation of campaign strategies and growing DWN’s capacity to support local, regional and national efforts challenging detention. The Senior Organizer or Organizing Manager will work with members and DWN staff to draft and implement statewide, regional, and national campaigns; engage in public education and training, outreach, and ally-building activities; and coordinate key membership calls and events.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with priority given to applications received by May 21, 2026.

Why work for DWN?
✨4-Day Work Week: DWN operates on a 32-hour, Monday-Thursday 4-day work week.
✨Paid Time Off: Staff are eligible for 3 weeks their first year of employment; 4 weeks days during years two through seven; and 5 weeks after eight years of employment; plus, we close for two weeks at the end of the year.
✨Commitment to our staff: DWN invests in staff growth and professional development opportunities and is committed to providing regular feedback and opportunities for advancement. Crystal clear focus: Our team gets to work with a dedicated and growing membership committed to the abolition of immigration detention.
✨Wellness Fund: We know that this work can be physically and emotionally taxing, so DWN offers a wellness fund to all staff: a stipend of $500 per year to go towards personal health and self-care (yoga classes, therapy co-pays, massages, workout gear—whatever works for you!)
✨Added perks: we offer generous benefits and salaries, a monthly cell phone stipend to all staff, plus eligibility for an eight-week sabbatical after three years on staff.

Learn more about this position at the link in bio, or at detentionwatchnetwork.org