At least 73 people held inside an immigration processing complex in southern Georgia refused food beginning October 6, demanding release from detentions that average 20 months — with the longest-confined participant approaching 32 months behind bars without criminal charges. The protest at the Folkston D. Ray James ICE Processing Center is unfolding at what federal officials and county leaders have described as the nation's largest immigrant detention complex, now approaching a capacity of nearly 3,000 beds following its DHS-funded consolidation in 2025 — and it arrives as the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operation reaches its most expansive scale in decades.
