Statement from Project South’s Legal & Advocacy Director Azadeh Shahshahani on the recent death of Luis Sandoval at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in Georgia: Another tragedy at an ICE prison in Georgia.

48-year-old Luis Sandoval has died while detained at the Folkston ICE Processing Center. This was a preventable tragedy. We hold ICE and the private prison corporation fully responsible for any harm that migrants suffer at Folkston. We call for an immediate independent investigation into this tragic death and for accountability. Folkston must be shut down immediately. This is the same ICE prison where migrants launched a mass hunger strike this month to protest prolonged detention and abysmal conditions including moldy food and threats and intimidation by the guards. Instead of releasing migrants from this awful prison, ICE and the prison corporation retaliated against them through solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, medical neglect, and further abusive treatment. Hunger strikers are now reportedly being threatened with force-feeding. Folkston must be shut down once and for all.