Georgia lawmakers, advocates push to free Pauline Binam as scrutiny grows over Georgia ICE detention center

A campaign to free Pauline Nadege Binam, a Cameroonian mother whose previous detention at another Georgia immigration facility became part of a congressional investigation into unwanted medical procedures, is entering a new week with mounting pressure on federal immigration officials.

Advocates rallied this past Friday for Binam's release from the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, where she has been held since December 2025. 

The coalition includes immigrant rights, reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ and domestic violence advocacy organizations.

Their push comes after a week in which members of Congress visited Stewart and raised broader concerns about medical care and conditions inside one of the nation's largest immigration detention facilities.

During the rally, speakers repeatedly called for Binam to be reunited with her 17-year-old daughter and argued that her previous experience in immigration detention has made her fearful of seeking medical treatment while in custody.

"Pauline and her daughter need to be together in safety," Alison Glass, state campaign director for the Amplify Georgia Collaborative, told the crowd. "This nightmare for Pauline must end."

Glass said Binam's case has particular significance for reproductive justice advocates who were involved in the campaign surrounding the former Irwin County Detention Center, where Binam previously said she underwent a gynecological procedure that she had not consented to. Glass told rallygoers that Binam remains afraid to seek medical care because of that experience.

Binam's case meets broader scrutiny of Stewart

The renewed campaign around Binam comes as Stewart Detention Center faces increasing attention from members of Georgia's congressional delegation and other lawmakers.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock toured Stewart on Aug. 18 as part of congressional oversight and said he spoke with detainees about access to medical care, including a pregnant woman. Warnock also questioned immigration officials about reports of overcrowding and increased 911 calls from the facility. 

"Regardless of your politics, we should all be able to agree on this: everyone deserves to be treated with basic human dignity and respect," Warnock said after the visit.

That same day, Democratic U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Hank Johnson and Nikema Williams, along with North Carolina Reps. Valerie Foushee and Deborah Ross, conducted their own oversight visit.

As CBS News Atlanta previously reported, the lawmakers called for Stewart to be shut down after saying detainees described problems accessing proper food, clean water and medical care. ICE later accused the delegation of disrupting operations and remaining inside the facility past an agreed-upon tour time. The lawmakers disputed the agency's account.

A CBS News analysis in July found Stewart's most recent federal inspection was conducted in March 2025. Inspectors rated the privately operated facility "acceptable/adequate," while also identifying multiple deficiencies, including two primary components related to suicide prevention. Since that inspection, two detainees have died by suicide, according to the Stewart County coroner, and another detainee died in July after being transferred to a hospital.

At the rally for Binam, organizers pointed directly to the recent congressional visits as evidence that concerns raised by detainees and advocates were gaining attention beyond the facility.

Organizers said lawmakers who visited Stewart "were able to confirm the things that we have said all along" about conditions inside the facility and called the problem broader than a single detention center.

Who is Pauline Binam?

Binam, 36, was born in Cameroon and came to the United States when she was 2 years old. She has spent most of her life in the U.S. and has a teenage daughter who is a U.S. citizen.

This is not Binam's first time in immigration custody.

During an earlier detention at the Irwin County Detention Center in south Georgia, Binam said she expected to undergo a routine gynecological procedure but later learned that a doctor had removed one of her fallopian tubes.

Her account was among allegations of unwanted or medically unnecessary gynecological procedures that prompted national scrutiny of Irwin. The doctor involved denied performing procedures without patients' consent. The Department of Homeland Security later stopped using Irwin to house ICE detainees in 2021.

Binam's immigration case, however, predates the current campaign for her release.

A federal appeals court in 2020 denied her challenge to a Board of Immigration Appeals decision that found a previous North Carolina conviction for possession of stolen goods qualified as a crime involving moral turpitude under immigration law. The ruling left her ineligible for cancellation of removal on that basis.

One of Binam's attorneys, Jason Cade, has said she is pursuing other potential avenues for remaining in the United States, including a U visa application tied to her cooperation with authorities after surviving domestic violence and a possible effort to reopen her removal proceedings based on fears of persecution if she is returned to Cameroon. 

Advocates at the rally focused heavily on that history of domestic violence.

"Immigrant status should never prevent a woman from believing that she deserves protection from violence," Ashley Jordan, founder of a survivor-led domestic violence organization, said. Jordan called for domestic violence groups and immigrant advocates to work more closely together when supporting survivors whose immigration status may complicate their efforts to leave abusive situations.

What comes next

There was no indication over the weekend that federal immigration officials had agreed to release Binam.

Instead, organizers said the campaign is preparing to continue pressing ICE's Atlanta Field Office and officials at Stewart, while urging supporters to contact elected officials and circulate a petition calling for her release.

"We need more than words. We need action," one speaker told the crowd, calling on supporters to organize, mobilize and continue pressing for Binam to be reunited with her family.

Later, organizers made clear that Friday's gathering was not intended to mark the end.

"This is not the end," Mildred Dennis Pierre of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration told supporters. "We still need your support."

The coalition is also directing supporters toward additional community organizing in the coming days. 

During the rally, the Rev. Ian Hill announced an Aug. 29 gathering at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta with community partners to discuss continued organizing and advocacy work.