US lawmakers seek release of double amputee from Georgia ICE detention

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/pramila-jayapal-ice-double-amputee-georgia

US lawmakers seek release of double amputee from Georgia ICE detention

Congress members write to Kristi Noem to express ‘grave concern’ over detention of Georgia barber Rodney Taylor

Timothy Pratt
Sat 21 Feb 2026 09.00 EST

Representative Pramila Jayapal and 20 members of Congress are seeking the release of Rodney Taylor from Stewart detention center in Georgia, several weeks after the one-year anniversary of when agents seized the double amputee outside his suburban home in Loganville, about 40 miles north-east of Atlanta.

The representatives sent a two-page letter on 17 February to Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Todd Lyons, the acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), drawing extensively from the Guardian’s reporting and quoting several stories in detail with “grave concern” due to Taylor’s “extreme hardship in detention and [because] his health is continuing to deteriorate”.

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Taylor’s health issues include not having properly calibrated prosthetic legs, needing new linings for the prosthetics, not being able to charge the prosthetics as needed, high blood pressure and, as of late last year, bone spurs in his back. The lack of silicone linings has caused boils. He has recently been given a wheel chair – something he has never used – but his right hand is missing three fingers, so using it has caused pain in his wrist.

The letter also mentions previously unreported details of Taylor’s conditions at the overcrowded detention center, such as having to crawl through “showers [that] were moldy, covered in feces, and bodily fluids”. Stewart is “no longer providing Mr. Taylor accommodation for meals”, requiring him “to get his meals three times a day by himself” – despite the issues with the prosthetics and the wheelchair.

Mildred Danis-Taylor, Rodney’s wife, told the Guardian that detainees without easy access to bathrooms defecate and urinate in the shower. There’s also mold, blood, food and semen on the floor, she said. For Taylor to shower, he has to take off his prosthetics. Then he has to crawl along the floor to a shower chair.

As for getting to meals, in a call from Stewart on Thursday, Taylor told the Guardian that Jason Streeval, warden of Stewart, said “this is not Uber Eats” when informing him of the recent change.

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