Autopsy: Dead Detainee Had Heart Problem

An autopsy shows a detainee at a federal immigration detention center in south Georgia died of natural causes. Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said Thursday 39-year-old Roberto Martinez Medina died of myocarditis, an inflammatory heart disease. Martinez, a Mexican national, was being held at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin. He died March 11 at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus. A coalition of immigrant rights and civil rights groups planned to hold a vigil Thursday in front of the Atlanta headquarters of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The groups are demanding accountability and transparency from the agency. Martinez's death was one of the issues they wanted information about.

(Associated Press)

Group Blasts Immigrant Detention Center

Immigrant rights groups plan to release a report blasting the conditions at a federal immigration detention center in southwest Georgia. Georgia Detention Watch is a coalition of immigrant rights groups. The report is based on interviews conducted in December with 16 detainees at the Stewart Detention Facility in Lumpkin. The groups say conditions at the detention center are "grossly inadequate." The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center is operated by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, the country's largest private prison firm.

(Associated Press)