ICE Is Pretty Obviously Covering Up A Lynching

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now pretty clearly attempting to cover up what can only be described as a blatant lynching, and the deceased man’s family has now filed a lawsuit demanding to know the truth about what really happened to their loved one behind the closed and locked doors of the Moshannon Valley ICE Detention Center.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that 32-year-old Chaofeng Ge, a Chinese national, was discovered hanging from the ceiling of the shower room in his detention pod just before 5:30 a.m. on the 5th of August.

According to authorities, Ge had been taken into custody by police earlier this year, on charges of criminal use of a communication device. He was ultimately transferred to the Moshannon Valley ICE Detention Center, where he was discovered by agents with “a cloth ligature around his neck,” just four days later.

On Wednesday of this week, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit was filed against ICE by Ge’s brother, Yanfeng Ge, in which he accused the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency of maliciously withholding key details surrounding his brother’s death inside their facility.

The lawsuit was filed with the support of law firm Beldock Levine & Hoffman, LLP, and seeks the public release of any and all records and evidence related to Chaofaeng Ge’s death.

According to the family, ICE officials have provided absolutely zero information, details, explanations, or transparency since Chaofeng’s death.

In a statement released by the family, it was revealed that Chaofeng Ge was “hanging by his neck, with his hands and legs tied behind his back.” Ge’s brother stated that Chaofeng had been in a state of immense distress leading up to his horrifying death and had been cruelly isolated during his time inside the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, because no one within the facility could speak Mandarin.

“MVPC staff refused to even try to communicate with him,” the heartbreaking statement reads. “Yanfeng Ge still does not understand how the government could have allowed his brother to die.”

According to New York attorney David B. Rankin, a partner at Beldock Levine & Hoffman, who is assisting with the case, Ge’s family has filed the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit after ICE blatantly failed to cooperate with or respond to their initial Freedom of Information Act request regarding Ge’s death.

An autopsy report revealed that Ge was found with a bedsheet around his neck and linens tied around his wrists and ankles, described by the medical examiner in the report as a “hog-tied” position. The ME further noted that there have been other reported incidents of people hanging themselves in a similar manner and no defensive wounds were noted.

The Beldock Levine & Hoffman law firm has been involved in numerous other high-profile cases, representing the likes of the families of Eric Garner and Nicholas Feliciano, members of the Central Park Five, and co-counseled in the landmark Floyd v. City of New York stop-and-frisk case.

In the wake of Ge’s death, even prior to the official lawsuit, local activists and advocacy groups have gathered outside the Moshannon Valley ICE Detention Center in New York to demand that the cruel, torturous facility be permanently shut down.

However, the Clearfield County Commissioner has made it crystal clear that the county has absolutely no intention of terminating its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or with the GEO Group, the publicly traded, for-profit real estate investment trust company that operates the ICE detention center and countless others like it across the country.

Commissioner Dave Glass did publicly state last month that he no longer supports the use of the ICE Detention Center facility in the county. He further noted that the county plays no role in the federal investigation of Chaofeng Ge’s suspicious and untimely death behind the closed doors of the ICE facility.

According to Ge’s family, this legal fight boils down to no more and no less than demanding and ensuring accountability for those running the Moshannon Valley torture camp.

In a statement given to Newsweek, Yanfeng Ge said, “I am devastated by the loss of my brother and by the knowledge that he was suffering so greatly in that detention center. He did not deserve to be treated that way. I want justice for my brother, answers as to how this could have happened, and accountability for those responsible for his death.”

“They deserve to know what happened to their son and brother,” Rankin said of the Ge family. “ICE’s silence is unacceptable.”

At least 15 human beings have lost their lives either inside ICE Detention Facilities or under the agency’s care across the United States since Donald Trump took office, compared to only 12 deaths for the entire fiscal year of 2024. Advocacy groups, attorneys, and congresspeople have repeatedly warned that the conditions inside these torturous facilities are above and beyond harrowing, but the Trump-led Department of Homeland Security continues to assert otherwise.

Featured image via Ge Family handout