CoreCivic and ICE ERO Atlanta Produce Another at Stewart
CW: Suicide, State Violence
Greetings to readers and subscribers, new and old. I know how hard this subject matter is to take in. I appreciate you spending your valuable time and limited attention on it, and supporting the work by sharing, citing, and underwriting it. Thank you.
Detention at Stewart Kills Yet Again
This morning ICE announced the 12th in-custody death of Fiscal Year 2025. 45 year-old Jesus Molina-Veya allegedly died by suicide at CoreCivic’s Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia on June 7, 2025, the agency says.
ICE’s press release spends 3 lines of explanation of how Molina was able to end his life:
Earlier that day a staff member observed detainees gathered around the door of Molina-Veya’s cell. Upon checking the cell, Molina-Veya’s body was discovered with a ligature around his neck and unconscious. The health services staff attempted to revive him and provide CPR until the paramedics arrived to transport him to the hospital.
ICE then spends 8 lines of text on his immigration and criminal history.
The use of the man’s immigration and criminal history to blunt and neutralize obvious questions about his death, and the conditions that produced it, will not be questioned by media outlets parroting this press release. Nor will the materially false and misleading assurances that detained immigrants get 24/7 care from the moment they arrive in detention.
Because deaths in Stewart catalyzed the project that became this Substack, I will offer a Community Resource document providing context the ICE and CoreCivic refuse to disclose—context I’ve gathered over the past 8 years since the death of Jean Jimenez in May 2017 at Stewart.
As I am working on this, I wanted to share resources and some requests for anyone who’s had enough and wants to act.
We’ve seen and heard and a lot about “violence” and the “right way” to protest ICE over the last week.
I have nothing to add but this: ICE detention centers — particularly Stewart — are death-making enterprises. The longer we allow them the necessary impunity and obscurity to fester and proliferate, the close we get to death camps. If you believe that is hyperbole, I would simply encourage you to reflect on all the things you’ve seen and heard recently that you never thought would be possible.
If you feel moved to action after reading what I’ll share below, you are not powerless to act. Here are a few concrete steps you can take today to begin working with those who support an end to the death and suffering:
Support El Refugio, which serves folks impacted by Stewart. (Video here)
Support Casa Alterna, which provides hospitality and accompaniment to people targeted by the ICE Atlanta Field Office. (Video here)
Connect with Detention Watch Network to learn about anti-carceral organizing near you.
I persist in the process of archival and documentation around DHS deaths in custody because I have seen firsthand the power of information and awareness to interrupt harm and catalyze change. Supporting organized communities with facts, records, and living memory of what’s come before us helps campaigns and movements win.
Check back in soon for the Stewart Community Resource. And hang in there.