Congressional Pressure Mounts Over ICE Detention of Disabled Barber
In a significant bipartisan move, Representative Pramila Jayapal alongside twenty fellow members of Congress have formally demanded the immediate release of Rodney Taylor from the Stewart detention center in Georgia. This action comes more than a year after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents apprehended the double amputee outside his Loganville home, located approximately forty miles northeast of Atlanta.
Letter Details "Grave Concern" Over Deteriorating Health
The representatives dispatched a comprehensive two-page letter on February 17th to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. The correspondence extensively references Guardian reporting, quoting multiple articles with "grave concern" regarding Taylor's "extreme hardship in detention and [because] his health is continuing to deteriorate."
Medical experts consulted by the Guardian expressed astonishment at the congressional involvement, noting the rarity of such concentrated advocacy for an individual ICE detainee. Taylor's documented health complications include improperly calibrated prosthetic legs, missing silicone linings causing painful boils, inability to charge his prosthetics, uncontrolled high blood pressure, and recently diagnosed bone spurs in his back.
Inhumane Conditions Described in Congressional Correspondence
The congressional letter reveals previously unreported details about Taylor's detention experience at the overcrowded facility. According to the document, Taylor has been forced to crawl through showers described as "moldy, covered in feces, and bodily fluids." Despite his mobility challenges, Stewart detention center has ceased providing meal accommodations, requiring Taylor to retrieve his own food three times daily.
Mildred Danis-Taylor, Rodney's wife, provided additional disturbing details to the Guardian. She described detainees without bathroom access defecating and urinating in shower areas, with floors contaminated by mold, blood, food, and semen. For Taylor to shower, he must remove his prosthetics and crawl across this contaminated surface to reach a shower chair.
Detention Center Response and Congressional Signatories
Ryan Gustin, spokesperson for CoreCivic (the private company operating Stewart detention center), declined specific comment citing medical privacy laws but asserted the company's commitment to "safe, humane and respectful care." He vehemently denied allegations regarding shower conditions and a reported comment from Warden Jason Streeval who allegedly told Taylor "this is not Uber Eats" when informing him of meal policy changes.
ICE officials did not respond to requests for comment. The congressional letter was signed by Representative Jayapal, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee as ranking member of an immigration subcommittee, along with prominent progressives including California's Ro Khanna and Michigan's Rashida Tlaib.
Broader Implications for Immigration Detention System
This marks the second time Guardian reporting on Taylor's case has been cited in official correspondence, following an October 2025 letter from Senator Raphael Warnock that highlighted Taylor's "pressing health issues" without explicitly demanding release. Immigration experts note the unusual nature of such concentrated congressional attention on a medical release case.
Joseph Nwadiuko, a University of Pennsylvania medical professor specializing in immigration research, described the details as "repeated acts of dehumanization" that left him "speechless." He emphasized that Taylor's situation represents "missed opportunities" where continued detention "exposes him to risks that could endanger his life."
Taylor's Background and Legal Status
Rodney Taylor arrived in the United States from Liberia as a young child on a medical visa with his mother. Now forty-seven, he has undergone sixteen surgical procedures and lived nearly his entire life in America. His detention occurred just ten days after becoming engaged, apparently based on a teenage burglary conviction for which Georgia granted him a pardon in 2010.
Despite having a pending green card application and a habeas corpus petition before a federal judge since September, Taylor remains detained without bond. A community barber active in cancer prevention efforts, his case highlights systemic issues in immigration detention.
Systemic Problems and Political Context
Austin Kocher, a Syracuse University professor specializing in immigration enforcement, noted that ICE provides no detailed data on disabled detainees, making cases like Taylor's essential for understanding treatment patterns. "This treatment is only possible when you have a president who is using dehumanizing rhetoric and a system built on profit," Kocher observed.
He further highlighted the Trump administration's removal of oversight mechanisms, including the decimation of the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. "If ICE brushes off this letter," Kocher warned, "it's evidence for saying that ICE is, to put it crudely, out of control."
Meanwhile, Taylor's wife has spent approximately five hundred dollars monthly on phone calls to maintain contact. "It's a mental health thing," she explained. "He'll say, 'Is that a bird I just heard?'" From detention, Taylor expressed gratitude for congressional advocacy but acknowledged the psychological toll: "When you're sitting in here, it's hard to see the end of the tunnel." His final assessment was stark: "My body is deteriorating."
