The Youngest Senator's Oldest Fight
At 38, Jon Ossoff has built a reputation documenting corruption. Now he's documenting it in ICE detention centers—starting in his own backyard.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, is establishing himself as one of the Senate’s most relentless overseers of immigration detention, releasing a sweeping October report detailing 85 credible cases of medical neglect and 82 credible cases of detainees being denied adequate food or water across the federal detention system this year.
The findings paint a disturbing picture of systemic failure: untreated chest pain culminating in heart attacks, missed insulin doses for diabetics, contaminated water used for infant formula, and vermin-tainted meals, with the preponderance of reports originating in Florida, Texas, and Georgia—Ossoff’s home state.
The senator’s investigation has identified nine oversight letters sent to federal agencies since January, five of which remain unanswered, and documents significant impediments to congressional inspections of detention facilities. The document also notes that staff from a Department of Homeland Security facility reported that “ambulances have to come almost every day” at one location, with detainees “passing out.”
This October publication marks the second report in a series Ossoff’s office launched in 2025 on human rights abuses in immigration custody. The investigation encompasses 510 credible abuse reports compiled between January 20 and August 5, spanning Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Prisons, and Health and Human Services facilities; county jails and federal buildings; U.S. military bases including Guantánamo Bay and Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti; and chartered deportation flights.
Earlier findings included 41 credible reports of physical and sexual abuse, 14 credible reports of mistreatment of pregnant women, and 18 credible reports of mistreatment of children.
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Ossoff’s current investigative push extends from his 2022 work chairing the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which documented systemic medical failures at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia—a facility that became internationally known for egregious violations.
That bipartisan staff report found women subjected to excessive or unnecessary gynecological procedures by an off-site doctor, widespread informed-consent failures, and an ICE system that neither adequately vetted providers nor flagged outlier procedure rates.
The Irwin County investigation was sparked by a September 2020 whistleblower complaint from licensed nurse Dawn Wooten, who detailed non-consensual gynecological procedures, including hysterectomies performed on women detainees without proper informed consent, with medical information translated through Google Translate or other inmates rather than professional interpreters.
The case ultimately led to the termination of ICE’s contract with the facility in 2021, following a lawsuit filed by more than 40 migrant women in December 2020. However, in a troubling development in October, just months before Ossoff’s latest report, ICE renewed its contract with the Irwin County Detention Center, signaling the potential return of detention operations to the facility once known for these abuses.
Georgia’s Expanding Detention Infrastructure
The timing of Ossoff’s investigation aligns with significant growth in Georgia’s immigration detention capacity. As of mid-2024, Georgia housed approximately 2,408 detainees—a 54 percent increase from May 2023—making the state the fifth-largest holder of immigration detainees nationwide and second only to Louisiana among non-border states.
Much of Georgia’s detention infrastructure is concentrated at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, which absorbs the majority of the state’s immigration detainees and is the third-largest immigration facility in the country outside of Texas, with a maximum capacity exceeding 1,900 beds.
The facility, managed by private prison company CoreCivic, housed an average of 1,528 detainees per day as of May 2024. Immigration attorneys have raised concerns that migrants are strategically sent to Stewart because the immigration court located there has one of the lowest asylum grant rates in the nation—judges there deny approximately 85 percent of cases on average.
More significantly, South Georgia is being transformed into a major detention hub. Charlton County, located 10 miles from the Florida border and 274 miles south of Atlanta, approved a nearly $50 million agreement with ICE in June 2025 to expand the Folkston ICE Processing Center from 1,100 detainees to nearly 3,000—making it the nation’s largest ICE facility.
This expansion comes despite previous Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General findings that cited the Folkston facility for “unsanitary and dilapidated” conditions, including water leaks, mold, debris in ventilation systems, insect infestations, lack of access to hot showers, inoperable toilets, and absence of hot meals.
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A Strategic Investigator with Bipartisan Reach
Ossoff’s emergence as immigration detention’s leading congressional overseer reflects his broader investigative orientation and his strategic cultivation of bipartisan relationships. The 38-year-old Georgia senator—the youngest incumbent U.S. senator and the first millennial senator—brings a background in investigative journalism and documentary filmmaking to his oversight work.
Before his 2021 Senate election victory, he served as managing director of an investigative production company focused on documenting corruption in foreign countries, and previously worked as a national security staffer for Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson.
As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law—a position he currently holds alongside his broader immigration detention investigations—Ossoff has successfully paired his investigations with targeted policy asks.
In March 2024, he pressed the Department of Homeland Security to accelerate the deployment of licensed child-welfare professionals to Border Patrol stations and ports of entry, arguing the move would both safeguard vulnerable children and free agents to focus on frontline law-enforcement duties. His office requested specifics on hiring, locations, and coordination with Customs and Border Protection.
In 2024, Ossoff and fellow Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock jointly pressed the Biden administration regarding allegations of sexual assault against women at ICE’s Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin. His work has garnered recognition beyond the Senate: in December 2024, Ossoff received the Carl Levin Award for Effective Oversight, given by the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy to legislators exhibiting “leadership in conducting bipartisan, fact-based oversight.”
The award cited his work leading investigations into federal prison management lapses, which resulted in the Federal Prison Oversight Act, signed into law by President Biden in July 2024 and passed with near-unanimous support: 392-2 in the House and unanimously in the Senate.
Persistent Impediments and Unanswered Questions
Central to Ossoff’s current report is evidence of obstruction. Five of nine oversight letters sent to federal agencies since January remain unanswered. DHS has actively obstructed congressional access to detention facilities, creating what Ossoff characterizes as “impediments to congressional inspections.”
Detainees at one facility reported foul-smelling, foul-tasting water with visible discoloration; facility staff reportedly told a detainee to use this water for infant formula, after which the baby developed diarrhea, and bottled water was denied despite the request.
The medical specificity in Ossoff’s report underscores systemic vulnerabilities. Beyond the headline figures, case details reveal diabetic detainees who went without glucose monitoring or insulin for two days and became delirious before receiving care; detainees who waited weeks for prescriptions to be filled; and individuals waiting months for appropriate medication to address serious gastrointestinal issues despite repeated requests.
What Comes Next
Ossoff’s office states the investigation is active and ongoing. His stated next steps include seeking fuller compliance from DHS and ICE with document and inspection requests, faster responses to congressional letters, and concrete timelines for child-welfare staffing deployment at border facilities.
As new allegations surface and his subcommittee continues reviewing medical records, claims data, and conditions on the ground, Ossoff has signaled he intends to maintain investigative pressure. He has not ruled out holding federal contractors and private prison operators accountable, stating in August 2025 that “at some point, there will be a reckoning” for private prison employees over detention conditions.
The expansion of detention capacity in Georgia—particularly the resurrection of the Irwin County facility and the dramatic expansion of Folkston—suggests Ossoff’s investigations may intensify rather than conclude, positioning Georgia as central to any broader reckoning over immigration detention practices in the Senate.
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