Advocates are calling for an end to pattern of abuses in Georgia's immigrant detention centers

Onwa’s voice reverberated through a loudspeaker, loud enough to be heard indoors. Halfway through the list, he read the name “Pedro Arriago-Santoya.”

He died four years ago this summer after complaining of abdominal pain while at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. The facility is run by the private, for-profit prison company CoreCivic.

His death came a year after a WABE and Reveal investigation found federal officials had flagged medical staff shortages and inhumane living conditions, among other things, as issues at the detention center.

“There are so many warning signs that we just pass by every single day with the thousands of individuals that we hold in detention centers,” said Anton Flores, a founder of the nonprofit Casa Alterna that helps newly arrived immigrants and refugees. He was one of many advocates who protested after Arriago-Santoya died.

“If an individual like Pedro is being detained by the U.S. government for possible deportation, we already deny them access to due process,” he said. “They do not get a public defender. We are already denying them so many basic essential rights.”

Arriago-Santoya was awaiting deportation to Mexico. According to ICE documents, he had one charge of disorderly conduct, a probation violation, and was arrested for being drunk in public. 

ICE documents also show his vitals were within normal parameters throughout numerous health assessments that started when he was detained in April.

But by July, he was dead.

After his death in 2019, ICE said in a statement it was committed to the health and well-being of all people in its custody. The following year, coronavirus swept through Stewart, and the facility had some of the highest rates of COVID infections in detention centers across the country.

And even though ICE was sending Arriago-Santoya to Mexico, the agency couldn’t find any family, so they buried him in an unmarked grave near Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.

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Kevin Caron stood on a grassy slope in Forest Hills Memorial Gardens south of Atlanta. The sun baked down on the unshaded corner near a loud road.

Caron works with Georgia Detention Watch, an advocacy organization that raises the alarm on human rights abuses in the state’s immigration detention centers.

When he and other advocates heard Arriago-Santoya was buried in an unmarked grave, they became determined to give the man a proper, dignified burial.

“Obviously, as you can see, there’s lots of plots. His was unmarked, so we didn’t know where he was,” Caron said. 

Advocates fundraised for a headstone. Arriago-Santoya’s marker now lists his name and birth and death dates. It also is engraved with the words, “No seras olivado,” which means, “You will not be forgotten.”

In the four years since Arriago-Santoya died, no one has been able to find his family. In a statement, CoreCivic said it adheres to and tries to exceed all federal standards of care for immigrants in detention and works with federal agencies to try and identify any family when someone dies.

ICE said in a press release it reached out to the Mexican Consulate, which was also unable to find next of kin. The Mexican Consulate did not respond to our request for an interview.

“In their press releases, they always say it’s a one-off event,” said Priyanka Bhatt, who works for advocacy nonprofit Project South. 

She worked to get Irwin Detention Center in Southwest Georgia shut down after a federal investigation found widespread medical abuse there. Bhatt says all deaths in detention are preventable. She says advocates will continue to call on the federal government to shut these facilities down. 

“It’s not a one-off event,” she said. “The 11th immigrant died at Stewart Detention Center this year. This is a pattern of abuse.”

Editor’s Note: A correction was made to clarify that widespread medical abuse was found at Irwin Detention Center, not “widespread sexual abuse.”