James Chesire, a father of four who has been detained and awaiting deportation to Kenya for nearly two years, was beaten by federal immigration officers in a cell at a Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in downtown Chicago. The officers used racial slurs during the assault, held his neck so he struggled to breathe, and slammed his head into a wall, knocking him unconscious. James says the ICE officers attacked him when he refused to fingerprint or sign unidentified documents the officers refused to let him read. After he was beaten, James was taken to Rush University Medical Center, where records show he was treated for head and elbow injuries, as well as a sprained shoulder and ankle.

James' story is one of hundreds of thousands of people criminalized and imprisoned under a vicious immigration system. Under the Obama Administration's, Department of Homeland Security has increased and expanded its policies and programs that included deporting and detaining nearly 500,000 individuals every year. ICE officials are known for using excessive force and other shameful tactics that violate the civil rights of people placed in custody. Once in custody, detention centers are the premiere site for inhumane treatment -- to abuse by staff, limited or no access to health care, and poorly structured facilities. Black Immigrants in particular are disproportionately detained and deported at much higher rates and are more likely to come in violent and frequent contact with both local law enforcement and immigration customs and enforcement. 

With an incoming Trump Administration, the number individuals and families  that will be detained and deported will only rapidly increase. The current Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has the authority to halt James Chesire's pending deportation, release him, and initiate an investigation into ICE officers that brutally attacked him.