Advocates prevent deportation, sound alarm on medical neglect

Greggy Sorio has been granted a temporary restraining order preventing deportation while he undergoes medical treatment for severe health issues

TACOMA, WA (December 11, 2025) — Sustained pressure from community advocates and healthcare workers stopped the deportation of Greggy Sorio, Kuya G, at the 11th hour on Saturday night. Sorio was already on board a plane bound for the Philippines when community advocates organizing with Tanggol Migrante Movement (TMM), Migrante USA, and BAYAN USA were able to convince Philippines Airlines (PAL) staff that he was too ill to fly and must be removed from the flight.

“PAL’s medical assessment is in line with the medical opinions of several health professionals in TMM, and directly counters ICE’s own medical assessment, which the Philippine government uncritically accepted as true,” said Tanggol Migrante Movement in a statement. “TMM and its allied medical professionals assert that this is a direct result of the medical neglect he has faced in ICE detention.”

On Monday, a judge granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) barring Sorio’s deportation for the moment. That order expires December 22. Sorio and advocates are pushing to get needed medical treatment during this time, as the medical neglect Sorio has been subjected to while detained at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) has been profound.

“Medical people [in ICE detention] cleared me when they are the ones doing medical neglect. The Consulate said they did their job but they never did, they can stop me from being deported if they really advocated,” said Sorio in a recorded message from Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA. “I wouldn’t be getting deported right now if the Consulate didn’t send the travel document to ICE. They want me out of here as soon as possible because they [expletive] up.”

Advocates pose for a photo after successfully preventing Sorio’s deportation at SEA Airport. Photo: Tanggol Migrante Movement

While detained, Sorio developed ulcerative colitis, a bone infection that led to amputation of his toe, difficulty breathing, and internal bleeding. Per TMM, he is now exhibiting symptoms of pulmonary embolism. Advocates are continuing to organize to ensure Sorio gets the treatment he needs before the TRO expires, and pushing to prevent his deportation altogether.

The callous disregard for Sorio’s life exhibited by ICE and GEO Group is horrifying. Even more disturbing, he is just one of thousands of immigrants who have been subjected to such abuse while in detention, especially as detention centers become increasingly overcrowded. An estimate in November put the number of people held in ICE detention at more than 65,000, a 2,000% surge since Trump took office in January.

“Amidst this surge in detention, conditions have gone from bad to worse with terrible overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, long waits to get medical help if received at all, and inedible food, described by some as ‘dripping with blood,'” said U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal in a shadow hearing on ICE detention conditions held last week. “Multiple pregnant women have been shackled and even suffered miscarriages due to their mistreatment in detention.”

Rep. Jayapal’s hearing covered conditions at detention centers around the country. Testimony on conditions in those facilities matches the conditions at NWDC detailed by those who have been freed from detention there, like Machinist brother Max Londonio.

Brother Max was held at NWDC for two months, imprisoned in solitary confinement for nearly half of that time. He went without food and access to basic hygiene for long stretches. Another union brother, Alfredo ‘Lelo’ Juarez Zeferino, recounted that even when meals were provided, food was often uncooked and unsafe to eat. But hunger drove people to eat the food anyway. When people got sick, they couldn’t get medical attention.

These testimonies of life inside NWDC and other detention facilities make clear that cruelty and suffering are hallmarks of the immigration detention system, not anomalies. Violations of basic human rights are standard practice in these facilities, which are often privately-run, mainly by two private prison companies, GEO Group–which operates NWDC–and CoreCivic. Combined, these two companies reported more than $1 billion in revenue during just the second quarter of 2025. H.R. 1, the so-called “big beautiful bill” earmarks $45 billion in taxpayer dollars for new immigration detention centers, a windfall for GEO Group and CoreCivic, who now stand to rake in record-setting profits off the mistreatment of human beings like Greggy Sorio.