Supporters of detained immigrants say: ‘No profit from injustice’

On Nov. 19 Emily Guzman, with her young son at her side, spoke to 100 or so protesters at the entrance to the Stewart Detention Center outside Lumpkin, Ga. Close to 2,000 immigrants are currently detained at the facility in this rural county awaiting deportation to Mexico, Jamaica, Bangladesh and the Philippines, among many other countries.

At times she fought back tears as she described her spouse, Pedro Guzman, who has been held for more than a year in the privately owned and operated prison. Pedro came with his mother from Mexico when he was 8 years old. He and Emily, a U.S. citizen, have a 4-year-old son, Logan. Although Pedro was granted bail in one legal proceeding, he remains incarcerated, separated from his family.

Last year this annual protest, scheduled to coincide with the School of the Americas activities in nearby Columbus, Ga., focused on the death of Roberto Martinez Medina, who died of a treatable heart infection while at Stewart. Martinez is just one of the 114 detainees who have died nationwide while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Many of them died at for-profit facilities operated by Corrections Corporation of America and other multimillion-dollar businesses.

The situations of these two individuals highlight the deplorable health care, lack of legal resources and due process, and multiple other issues that characterize the horrendous treatment given immigrants in detention.

Emily Guzman’s painful yet powerful story evoked a strong sense of outrage and commitment among members of the crowd to act against the inhumane, anti-immigrant policies carried out at Stewart.

When people approached the barricade, determined to take the protest onto the prison grounds, eight were arrested, including Emily Guzman’s mother.

The struggle will continue to “Shut Stewart down” and “Bring Pedro home.”