The Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, GA is a temporary detention center for individuals who are waiting for their immigration status to be determined and who in many cases are taken from their United States citizen children who will remain in the United States after they are deported.

The following video will give you a little taste of what the individuals who are being housed in Stewart have to endure prior to their deportation.  As has been pointed out in the video, the legal issue of deportation in most instances is a civil matter, which does not involve the imposition of jail time, and yet these people are housed like hardened criminals.

Detention facilities across the country have varying quality standards.  Although I have not been to the Stewart Detention facility, I regularly attend hearings in detention facilities and I am often shocked by the inhumane conditions that my clients are forced to endure while fighting to remain in the United States.

One such facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, simply put, is a vile and disgusting nightmare that I have trouble merely visiting.  Needless to say it is unconscionable that our government allows a place like this to exist to detain people who have escaped their native countries under fear of death. 

My client in the Elizabeth Detention Facility has established a credible fear that he will be persecuted if he is forcibly returned to his home country.  He is awaiting his asylum hearing that has been scheduled in December. 

He is also suffering from a medical condition that requires treatment.  The Deportation Officer assigned to my client's case has been made aware on multiple occasions that he requires a specific medication to treat his condition, and yet after repeated requests my client still has not been afforded proper medical care. 

I have requested that my client be released from custody in order to obtain the requisite care, but my request was denied in a standard form response, and no consideration was given to his health issue. 

When I visited my client he appeared listless, and is having difficulty assisting in his defense.  I am preparing a motion to terminate his case as a result.  His trial is in December, and it is my hope that the Immigration Judge assigned to preside over my Client’s matter will do justice.  Wish us luck.