Rodney Taylor speaks to 285 South from inside Stewart Detention Center, as he awaits final verdict on his case: “It’s a hard place to be”

“I’s a hard place to be,” Rodney Taylor, a Gwinnett county resident and a double amputee detained at Stewart Detention Center said on Friday evening, speaking to 285 South from inside the facility. He described the conditions inside Stewart as “overcrowded” and said the “situation is so hard it just makes you want to give up and go home.” 

Rodney, who came to the U.S. as a toddler for medical treatment for his legs, was detained by immigration officials in January of this year at his home in Loganville. Although his legal status was “up in the air,” as Rodney described it over the phone, he said he was in the process of applying for a legal status, had a social security number, and his work permit was approved on January 17, three days after he was arrested by ICE. He had received a burglary conviction as a teenager, which the state pardoned.

At Rodney’s final immigration hearing on Tuesday, the judge informed him he would need additional time to make a decision on whether Rodney can remain in the U.S. or whether he’d be deported to Liberia – a country he hasn’t been to since he was two-years-old. Rodney’s attorney said that decision could come within 30 days, but there is no timeframe for the decision.

“I am pleading for his release so he can return home to the community that needs him,” said Rodney’s fiancee, Mildred Pierre, speaking to a group of about two dozen advocates who had gathered outside Stewart a few hours before his hearing on Tuesday. 

“This, of course, painful and frustrating,” said Amilcar Valencia, executive director of El Refugio, who had gathered with Mildred and several other advocates on Tuesday. “You’re hoping to get a final resolution on the case. And of course, this is very disappointing for Rodney and Mildred and his family and for all the people who are behind him.”  But, he said, “it’s typical that sometimes the judges just don’t make a decision right away.” 

Immigrant advocates have been bringing attention to Rodney’s case regularly since January: as a double amputee, he requires a level of medical care and attention that he said he initially wasn’t getting.  

When Rodney arrived at Stewart, he said he had trouble charging his prosthetics regularly, limiting his mobility. He had to charge them at the medical unit, which was a challenge for him to get to. But after about two months, he told 285 South, the case managers at his unit allowed him to charge his prosthetics at his own unit, and he can now charge them regularly, he said over the phone. 

In an email to 285 South, Brian Todd, a spokesperson from CoreCivic, the company that owns Stewart, wrote that Rodney is being regularly monitored by facility medical staff. “This individual has been offered the option to come to the medical unit daily to charge his prosthesis equipment, which he has been doing regularly,” he said Brian Todd, “On days he chooses not to come to the medical unit, he has access to charge his medical equipment in the multipurpose room in his housing unit.”

The spokesperson also wrote that “ICE’s Health Services Corps (IHSC) conducted a site audit of SDC’s health services on June 2 and found no deficiencies.”

Rodney is one of the hundreds of people detained at Stewart Detention Center, one of the largest immigration detention facilities in the country. The facility is reportedly overcrowded; although it has a contractual capacity to host 1,966 inmates, by April of this year, it had 2,312 according to a report from TRAC, a website with immigration data from Syracuse University. Conditions at the facility have reportedly deteriorated: one man took his life at Stewart a month after a mental health screening, and most recently, Sen. Jon Ossoff released a report detailing inadequate medical care at detention facilities nationwide. 

Speaking over the phone, Rodney said he feels he has a “good chance” of being released. “We’re still waiting for the verdict but I’m feeling optimistic about it.” 

*Mildred launched a GoFundMe campaign to help manage the costs of Rodney’s legal fees.