Advocates entered a Georgia ICE detention center to visit a queer detainee and felt ‘darkness’

When two Georgia advocates reached Pauline Nadege Binam on the other side of a glass partition Thursday, the queer Cameroonian immigrant appeared exhausted.“I could tell that she’s very tired,” organizer Noël Heatherland told The Advocate after the visit. “She just seems very exhausted.”The conversation at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, south of Columbus, lasted about 40 minutes and took place through telephone receivers. A third member of the group, Georgia House candidate Bentley Hudgins, never reached Binam.Hudgins described the CoreCivic-operated facility as bleak from the moment they approached its gates. “As soon as you get there, there is just a feeling of darkness,” Hudgins said. “It is not good.”Related: Trump administration stops abuse protection for transgender detainees in ICE custodyAfter entering, staff discovered that Hudgins’ driver’s license had recently expired and ordered them to leave.“They actually made me leave the premises,” Hudgins said. “I was not able to wait for Noël and Timoria in the waiting room.”Heatherland and Timoria McQueen Saba, the Democratic nominee for Georgia House District 68 and a maternal health advocate, completed the visit. Heatherland spoke to The Advocate as an independent organizer.The restrictions largely match Stewart’s published rules. An August 2025 visitor guide from CoreCivic, the private company that operates Stewart for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, requires a valid photo ID. It also directs visitors to leave cellphones, purses, wallets, and money secured in their vehicles.Heatherland said staff would not let them pass through the facility’s outer gates until they returned their phones to the car. Meanwhile, staff placed Binam in the visiting room and started the clock before the visitors had finished security.“We essentially only ended up getting about a 40-minute visit instead of an hour,” Heatherland said.Stewart permits each detained person o